10 Healthy Food Breakfast Tips for You and Your Kids

Posted October 2, 2008 in Diet, Healthy Lifestyle 17 Comments »
Healthy Foods For Breakfast
Healthy Foods for Breakfast

Check this out: in recent Consumer Reports news, we find out that some cereals have more sugar than a glazed Dunkin donut. The worst offenders are the sticky sweet cereals like Golden Crisp and Honey Smacks, and I tend to think that my beloved Cocoa Pebbles really aren’t that great either. I’ve mentioned time and again to stay away from food in boxes, especially sugary breakfast cereal.

So what are we to do? You know your kids are going to want something sweet and tasty for breakfast, and in all likelihood you probably don’t want to eat eggs, egg whites, or eggbeaters every day either. Here are some tips to make breakfast both tasty and healthy. I’m happy that I can promote another of my favorite cereals, Frosted Mini-Wheats… good stuff!

10 Healthy Food Breakfast Tips for You and Your Kids

  1. Always choose protein.
    More than one study through the ages has proven to us that eating breakfast each and every day improves brain function, and increases weight loss and/or decreases weight gain. Protein is a major factor in that equation. You can double your protein intake by adding peanut butter and by choosing whole grain breads. Your kid might not be into it, but you can also add a scoop of Optimum Nutrition protein powder to your glass of milk.

    Highest Protein (cereal only, no milk):

    • Go Lean Crunch wins with 9 grams of protein
    • Mini-Wheats comes in second with 6 grams
    • Oatmeal does well with 5 grams

    Lowest Protein (cereal only, no milk):

    • Cheerios and Honey Bunch of Oats score 3 grams
    • Frosted Flakes stumbles in with only 1 gram
  2. Go for fiber.
    The Consumer Reports article listed fiber as one of its main deciding factors in ranking the top breakfast cereals. Most kids should aim to eat their age plus 5, grams of fiber each day. That means a 6 year old would need 11 grams a day, while a 10 year old would need about 15 grams. Adults should normally shoot for 25-35 grams a day.

    For high fiber kids cereals, choose:

    • Cheerios (3g)
    • Kix (3g)
    • Life (2g)
    • Honey Nut Cheerios (2g)

    For high fiber cereals that are not exclusively marketed to kids, choose:

    • Kashi Go Lean Crunch (9g)
    • Grape-Nuts (7g)
    • Frosted Mini-Wheats (6g)
    • Raisin Bran (5g)
  3. A spoonful of sugar helps the fiber go down.
    That’s not to say that you should be sprinkling extra sugar on your kids cereal. What I am really getting at, is that a slightly sweeter cereal like Frosted Mini-Wheats provides that sugary coating that makes kids happy.

    By feeding them the Wheats you are also insuring that they get that big hit of fiber first thing in the morning. The basic message is that you shouldn’t dismiss a cereal just because it has a little sugar, if the nutritional benefits outweigh the negative connotations of sugary goodness.

    Highest sugar content:

    • Raisin Bran has 19 grams
    • Kashi Go Lean Crunch has 13 grams
    • Frosted Flakes and Frosted Mini-Wheats contain 12 grams
    • Cinnamon Toast Crunch has 10 grams

    Lowest sugar content:

    • Cheerios has only 1 gram
    • Oatmeal also only contains 1 gram
    • Wheat Chex has a modest 5 grams
  4. Keep an eye out for whole grains.
    Whole grain cereals often have more fiber than the rest, but they also have additional vitamins and minerals that can’t be found in processed white flour based cereals. The best choice for whole grains, is to pick up some uncooked, unprocessed oatmeal.

    Look for Quaker Oats in the cylindrical container, and always choose this kind of oatmeal over the highly processed, sugar-added oatmeal in packets.

    If you must add flavor to your oats try drizzling honey, adding fruit, and crumbling a bit of brown sugar over this high fiber meal. Personally, I used to add a scoop of Biotest Grow chocolate protein to my oatmeal.

  5. Eat leftovers.
    That’s right, I went there. Leftovers from dinner are almost always healthier than high sugar pastries and kids cereals. Pizza, pasta, and leftover meat (especially ham) are quite valuable when throwing together a quick breakfast of champions.
  6. Watch the sodium content.
    Consumer reports flagged Froot Loops with 12 grams of sodium and Rice Krispies for having more sodium than is necessary. Rice Krispies are, after all, just puffed rice. They have no fiber, no protein, and they should really have very little sodium.

    Since sodium is directly linked to high blood pressure, we should focus on keeping sodium intake low for children. Children in the US have recently experienced a rise in the number of diagnoses of high blood. This is a problem that we should attempt to address. Since most kids cereals have around 300 mg of sodium, we should just remain vigilant.

    Highest salt content:

    • Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast Crunch have 210 mg. of salt
    • Raisin Bran contains a nasty 300 mg. of salt
    • Wheat Chex has an abominable 420 mg. of salt per serving

    Lowest salt content:

    • Meanwhile Frosted Mini-Wheats has only 5 mg. of salt
    • Wholesome plain cooked Oatmeal contains no sodium
  7. Layer cereals.
    By putting a layer of sweetened cereal over a foundation of healthy cereal, our kids will get the most bang for their buck (OK, so it’s your buck, but you get the idea). Try putting a serving of your favorite chocolate or fruit flavored kids cereal, over a serving of high fiber shredded wheat.

    I actually really enjoy this idea; I’ve been doing it for years, way before I put together this list.

  8. Avoid sugar substitutes.
    The biggest problem with sugar substitutes, aside from their alleged links to cancer in laboratory mice, is that kids will get used the sweet taste, which makes them less likely to choose unsweetened healthy foods in the future. Many kids cereals will claim “25% Less Sugar” or “Sweetened with Splenda”. These cereals should be avoided just as often as their high-sugar counterparts.

    Watch out for Splenda, Equal, and Nutrasweet. Also watch out for ingredients such as malitol, sorbitol, or any other -itols.

  9. Watch, but don’t count calories.
    To gain or lose weight, you have to adjust your calories in versus calories out. This is important to adults as we are often striving to do one or the other. For kids, this might not be as important. If your child is gaining fat mass quickly then you will have to consider this, otherwise just try to keep the kid healthy.

    Instead of watching total calories, try to focus on limiting calories from fat. Those of us in the know are aware that not all calories are made equal. Eating healthy calories from protein and fibrous carbohydrate sources, will help your child grow up big and strong rather than fat, soft, and diabetic.

    Most calories from fat:

    • Cinnamon Toast Crunch has 30 calories of fat in each 130-calorie serving
    • Go Lean Crunch has 25 calories of fat in a 190-calorie serving

    Least calories from fat:

    • Frosted Flakes, the lowest of all, has 0 calories from fat
    • Mini-Wheats have 10 calories of fat per serving
    • Oatmeal is also pretty low in fat.
  10. Never skip breakfast.
    This is the most important rule of all. A healthy bowl of cereal is probably one of the best meals for a kid. Choosing a high fiber cereal with milk, provides an adequate amount of nutrition to start the day. The milk gives you protein, calcium, and vitamin D, while the cereal gives you complex carbohydrates for energy, and fiber.

    If you are an avid weight lifter you could probably toss a protein shake or lower calories protein bar into the meal.

Total

The one cereal that I didn’t mention up above is Total. No matter which flavor you choose, you will get 100% of 12 essential vitamins and minerals. Total is always low in fat, contains no cholesterol or saturated fat, is antioxidant-rich, and is made with whole grains.

Similar but far less nutrition choices include Special K and Smart Start.

There are 5 flavors of Total cereal that you can enjoy nowadays:

  1. Total Whole Grain
  2. Total Raisin Bran
  3. Total Cranberry Crunch
  4. Total Cinnamon Crunch
  5. Total Honey Clusters

I quite enjoy all the flavors of Total, even the plain whole grain version. Add fruit to make it even tastier and healthier. You can probably even get your kids to indulge in the Honey Cluster version, and possibly even the fruit fortified and cinnamon flavored kinds.

Other healthy breakfast foods:

  • Low fat cottage cheese.
  • Low fat yogurt, choose Activia for its plentiful supply of active cultures.
  • Eggs, egg whites, Eggbeaters
  • Fruit, but not necessarily fruit juice.
  • A glass of milk.

Paying attention to these tips for both you and your kids, will help help everyone live a healthier lifestyle. Make sure you eat a high protein, high fiber, high nutrition breakfast each and every day.

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17 Responses to “10 Healthy Food Breakfast Tips for You and Your Kids”

  1. Hi Steve,

    You didnt mention much about LIFE cereal, I love eating it every morning. Should I switch to Total or Oatmeal? I also like to enjoy whole wheat toast with peanut butter and bananas every second day, is that okay? Please let me know, Im really trying to watch my diet!

    Thanks!!

    • Life cereal is tasty, it is not the healthiest cereal for you, but it is better than Fruity Pebbles or Lucky Charms. Total, oatmeal, whole grain toast, natural peanut butter, and fruit are all pretty good breakfast choices.

  2. When buying cereals I always focus on 3 things: low in sugar, high in fiber, wholegrain. Then I know these cereals provide my kids with the much-needed vitamins, protein and energy to start their day.

  3. So what are we getting at, here? None of the cereals match up! This one is great for low sugar, but it’s too high in sodium. That one is perfect for its high fiber, but it’s too high in sugar. So there’s no perfect cereal that reaches all of the health criteria. Ahhhhh!

    Why not just make life easy and cook up a bowl of oatmeal?

  4. […] came across some good (and amusing) posts that I wanted to share with you today: 10 Healthy Food Breakfast Tips for You and Your Kids Overtraining: LESS Can be MORE Coffee Addiction: An Owner’s […]

  5. Hi Steve!!
    Wow, this site truly is inspiring, I’ve lost 8 pounds and made your site my homepage 🙂 🙂
    What are your honest thoughts about using honey? I love it drizzled over peanut butter on a whole wheat english muffin, or over unflavored greek yogurt. Is it too much sugar to have daily?
    Thanks!!

    • Thanks for coming! Peanut butter and honey are both great foods. I don’t think it’s too much sugar to eat daily. However, I like to base my food intake on the don’t-mix-sugar-with-fat theory. Basically, try to eat meals high in protein and fat, or meals high in protein and carbs, but NOT meals high in sugary carbs and fat. The high sugar spikes insulin, which drives fat into the adipose tissue. That being said, if you are not on a super-strict diet for a bodybuilding show or something, I really think you can enjoy your PB&H sandwich for breakfast every day. 🙂

  6. Another great article Steve. I do like some of the Kashi cereals, but they do use soy as their protein base, so I have stopped eating them after reading another one of your articles on how soy depletes a mans testosterone. Thanks and keep writing!

  7. Thanks for the ideas. I really think the fat mentioned in cereals isn’t really important, as Kashi gets less han 1/8 of its calories from fat.

    But I love the idea of layering cereals…I’ll have to try that!

  8. Sudha:
    That’s great! I’ve seen some really inspiring articles that I’ve clipped and hung around my house. I’m so happy someone can benefit from some of my ideas. =)

    Thanks to all the rest of you for all the kind words. I just believe breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

  9. Steve,

    Excellent stuff. It is going to take sometime before we can start implementing this at home. I took a printout of this to post it my kitchen wall:)
    -Sudha.

  10. Hi There.

    I wanted to say that I really enjoyed reading your article. I strongly believe that there is not enough information available at the moment on the importance of a healthy breakfast, so its great to see an article such as this surfacing on the internet. I think you might like this site as it looks at nutrition as well.

    Many Thanks

  11. Excellent advice Steve. Often we choose cereal in the morning because it’s convenient. As you’ve deftly shown, not all cereals are created equal!

  12. […] If you want to avoid prepackaged cereals altogether, Derek at Eco Child’s Play has some suggestions for real food for high fiber, low sugar breakfasts. TheVoiceofMom has a review of EnviroKidz Organic cereal and Project Swole has a great list of healthy breakfast tips. […]

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