Breakfast Cereals

The old saying is breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and even now with our busy lives getting a balanced breakfast fast and easy isn’t so easy, but is still extremely important.  Many adults I know result to processed sugar/carb breakfasts such as kid’s cereals that give a short burst of energy but later burns them out.  Whole grain has become the new norm for most breakfast cereals, but many of the whole grain cereals are still processed. 
What does processed mean? The grains in cereals are not prepared properly through soaking or fermenting so the phytates (phosphorous bonding agent) that prevent digestion are not destroyed, yet the heat and pressure of the extruding process does destroy most of the nutrition, and in particular the proteins which seem to be rendered quite toxic. These very difficult to digest cereals are often fed to very young children as one of their first solid foods, and one might ask if this is part of the reason for the explosion in gluten/wheat sensitivity. These cereals tend to increase blood sugar very rapidly, which is another major problem that is exacerbated when consumed with skim milk, as there is no fat to slow the sugar into the bloodstream.  Now for the less scientific breakdown is that they have already been cooked and it doesn’t take the body as much work to break it down.  The body will raise it temperature to cook a true whole grain and in order to do that has to use more fuel to burn it off.  If food is processed it has already gone through this cooking phase so the body doesn’t have to do it.  An old diet adage is that if it takes longer to cook it, it is probably better for you. 
Let’s look at different types of cereals that are processed and not processed. Multi-grain cheerios are not the only cereal in this bunch there are a ton of cereals that will say whole grain or multi-grain on them but they are technically not, then you throw in the milk which can add fat and sugar on top of that blows the calories way up.  The fake oats or small oats is what I like to call this group, that would be your cream of wheat/rice, granola, quick oats (1 minute packs) offer fast preparation and a meal in a minute, but offer usually a lot of sugar and other processed fruits mixed in.  Old Fashioned oats (oatmeal) are usually your plain, bland big leaf oat, but offer more nutrients, vitamins, and fiber.  These are definitely the best for you; it comes down to how you dress it up. One last important breakfast staple I didn’t want to leave out for comparison is the EGG.  The egg is a great quality protein, but must be cooked, eating raw is not recommended anymore due to bacteria, also have to get rid of some of the yolks due to cholesterol and fat concerns. Eggs are very inexpensive, or for a little more money egg substitutes can come in handy for training and preparation. 

…For more information and tips, check my website, www.chadamartin.com and thanks to Advocare for providing supplements.