breakfast cereal | Health Topics | NutritionFacts.org

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Topic summary contributed by volunteer(s): Linda

Breakfast Cereals and Sugar

While breakfast cereals are convenient, it’s important to read their labels. Many of them contain added sugar, even the ones we think are healthier options. This is one reason that oatmeal is a better choice. (Oatmeal also may help with weight loss, cholesterol reduction, and an improvement in liver function.)

Breakfast Cereals and Fiber

Many breakfast cereals contain fiber, but most of them violate the “five-to-one fiber rule”: divide the number of carbohydrate grams by the number of dietary fiber grams (a result of 5 or less indicates a healthy balance of ingredients).

Breakfast Cereals and Antioxidants

Breakfast cereals are very low in antioxidants, especially when compared to breakfast alternatives like fruit smoothies. Adding fruit to cereals is a good idea: a half-cup of blueberries eaten with breakfast cereal may help blunt the cereal’s glycemic effects.

Breakfast Cereals and Vitamin B12

Fortified breakfast cereal can provide vitamin B12, a nutrient that is not naturally available in plant foods.

The information on this page has been compiled from the research presented in the videos listed. Sources for each video can be found by going to the video’s page and clicking on the Sources Cited tab.

Image Credit: Zoli / Pixabay. This image has been modified.

All Videos for Breakfast Cereal

scientific illustration of inflammation

Saturated Fat Causes Artery and Lung Inflammation

What happens within hours of eating a high-fat meal?

Corkscrew and bottle of wine from above.

Ochratoxin in Certain Herbs, Spices, and Wine

Most food crops are contaminated with fungal mycotoxins, but some foods are worse than others.

Multigrain cereals with fresh berry

Ochratoxin in Breakfast Cereals

One of the few food contaminants found at higher levels in those eating plant-based diets are mycotoxins, fungal toxins in moldy food ingredients, such as oats.

Is Sorghum a Healthy Grain?

Is Sorghum a Healthy Grain?

How does sorghum compare with other grains in terms of protein, antioxidants, and micronutrients? And the benefits of red sorghum compared to black and white varieties.

Do Vitamin B12 Supplements Cause Acne?

Do Vitamin B12 Supplements Cause Acne?

Acne can be triggered in one in ten people who get vitamin B12 injections.

The Role of the Toxic Food Environment in the Obesity Epidemic

The Role of the Toxic Food Environment in the Obesity Epidemic

Implausible explanations for the obesity epidemic, such as sedentary lifestyles or lack of self-discipline, serve the needs of the manufacturers and marketers more than the public’s health and the interest in truth.

Kids’ Breakfast Cereals as Nutritional Facade

Kids’ Breakfast Cereals as Nutritional Façade

Plastering front-of-package nutrient claims on cereal boxes is an attempt to distract from the incongruity of feeding our children multicolored marshmallows for breakfast.

The Recommended Daily Added Sugar Intake

The Recommended Daily Added Sugar Intake

Public health authorities continue to drop the upper tolerable limit of daily added sugar intake.

Are Fortified Kids’ Breakfast Cereals Healthy or Just Candy?

Are Fortified Kids’ Breakfast Cereals Healthy or Just Candy?

The industry’s response to the charge that breakfast cereals are too sugary.

How to Stop Tooth Decay

How to Stop Tooth Decay

If sugar consumption is considered the one and only cause of cavities, how much is too much?

A Political Lesson on the Power of the Food Industry

A Political Lesson on the Power of the Food Industry

The amazing story about what lobbying millions can do to shut down efforts to protect children.

Which Is a Better Breakfast, Cereal or Oatmeal?

Which Is a Better Breakfast: Cereal or Oatmeal?

The remarkable impact of the structure of food beyond nutritional content or composition.

The Worst Food for Tooth Decay

The Worst Food for Tooth Decay

One of the worst breakfast cereals will surprise you.

Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen Checklist

In my book How Not to Die, I center my recommendations around a Daily Dozen checklist of everything I try to fit into my daily routine.

Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen Checklist

Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen Checklist

In my book How Not to Die, I center my recommendations around a Daily Dozen checklist of all the things I try to fit into my daily routine.

Is Nutritional Yeast Healthy for Everyone?

Is Nutritional Yeast Healthy for Everyone?

Those with certain autoimmune diseases such as Crohn’s disease should probably not eat nutritional yeast.

How Much Arsenic in Rice is Too Much?

How Much Arsenic in Rice Is Too Much?

What are some strategies to reduce arsenic exposure from rice?

Arsenic in Rice Milk, Rice Krispies, and Brown Rice Syrup

Arsenic in Rice Milk, Rice Krispies, & Brown Rice Syrup

I recommend people switch away from using rice milk.

Arsenic in Infant Rice Cereal

Arsenic in Infant Rice Cereal

When it comes to rice and rice-based products, pediatric nutrition authorities have recommended that arsenic intake should be as low as possible.

Reductionism and the Deficiency Mentality

Reductionism and the Deficiency Mentality

How the food, drug, and supplement industries have taken advantage of the field of nutrition’s reductionist mindset

Do Raisins Cause Cavities?

Do Raisins Cause Cavities?

Dried fruit has long been thought to contribute to tooth decay, but what does the science say?

sliced bread and fruit

The Five-to-One Fiber Rule

A guideline is suggested for how to read food labels for grain products such as bread and breakfast cereals.

Big Food Using the Tobacco Industry Playbook

Big Food Using the Tobacco Industry Playbook

The processed food industries now use tactics similar to those used by cigarette companies to undermine public health interventions.

Treating Dry Eye Disease with Diet: Just Add Water?

Treating Dry Eye Disease with Diet: Just Add Water?

Causes of dry eye disease include LASIK laser eye surgery, but there are dietary approaches to prevention and treatment.

Food as Medicine

Food as Medicine: Preventing and Treating the Most Dreaded Diseases with Diet

Dr. Greger has scoured the world’s scholarly literature on clinical nutrition and developed this new presentation based on the latest in cutting edge research exploring the role diet may play in preventing, arresting, and even reversing some of our most feared causes of death and disability.

How Much Fruit is Too Much?

How Much Fruit Is Too Much?

Does the threshold for toxicity of fructose apply to fruit or just to added industrial sugars such as sucrose and high fructose corn syrup?

Can Oatmeal Help Fatty Liver Disease?

Can Oatmeal Help Fatty Liver Disease?

Is whole grain consumption just a marker for healthier behaviors, or do whole grains have direct health benefits?

Reducing Radiation Damage with Ginger & Lemon Balm

A component of cooked ginger root protects human white blood cells in vitro against radiation-induced genetic damage, and lemon balm tea appears to protect radiology staff against radiation-induced oxidative stress.

How Diet Soda Could Make Us Gain Weight

People consuming low-calorie sweeteners may overcompensate by eating more than they otherwise would.

Safest source of B12

Safest Source of B12

Since foods are effectively a package deal, what’s the best way to get vitamin B12 (cobalamin)?

A Better Breakfast

A Better Breakfast

The antioxidant power of American breakfast fare is compared to a smoothie that contains berries, white tea leaves, and Indian gooseberry (amla) powder.

Egg industry blind spot

Egg Industry Blind Spot

To help deflect criticism from the cholesterol content of their product, the egg industry touts the benefits of two phytonutrients, lutein and zeaxanthin, that have indeed been shown to be beneficial in protecting one’s eyesight against vision-threatening conditions, such as cataracts and macular degeneration. But how do eggs stack up against plant-based sources?

Avoiding cholesterol is a no brainer

Avoiding Cholesterol is a No-Brainer

Eggs and brains are the two most concentrated sources of cholesterol in the diet.

Antioxidant content of 3,139 foods

Antioxidant Content of 3,139 Foods

In the most extensive study of its kind ever published, the amount of anti-aging anticancer antioxidants is measured across thousands of different foods.

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