Choosing the Right Cereal

Ready-to-eat Cereal should provide a good source of complex carbohydrates to jump start the day. What you don’t want is a bowl full of sugar, food coloring and sodium. Unfortunately, that is what is most often offered to children as the most fun way to approach breakfast. So how do you know if your cereal choice is good one?

Commonly agreed on characteristics include:

1.       Contributes a serving of whole grains (16g) and/or lists whole grains as the             first ingredient

• Be low in sugar (no more than 8 gms)

• Offers a good source of fiber (at least 3g but preferably 5 gms per serving)

•   Free of artificial food colorings and dyes

So Cheerios is good, and Frosted Mini Shredded Wheat is better. Adding fruit is an excellent way to sweeten the cereal naturally, while adding some more fiber, not to mention colors as nature intended. But don’t forget that the milk you choose is very important, too. Using skim (fat free) milk is best to limit the addition of unwelcome saturated fat.  These crunchy cereals make great snacks. too.

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