Unfortunately that of breakfast cereals is not a healthy food choice nine times out of ten: “puffed” cereals have a high glycemic index , so when we eat them we immediately decree our death sentence and the same thing goes for cereal bars . They are foods that provide us with too many sugars all together, so we end up with high blood sugar and an excessive insulin response to remedy the problem. With two consequences, as I always explain: on the one hand we tend to get fat, because insulin crams the sugars into reserve fats; on the other hand we are hungry within an hour and a half, and for lunch we become wolves. This is because breakfast cereals are easily digestible because they are high glycemic index sugars. Do you want to tell you to have breakfast with oat flakes , in yogurt (even left the night before: in half a cup of low-fat yogurt pour two full tablespoons of oat flakes and a teaspoon of Nutella or half a banana: mix and in the morning after you have a kind of pudding) or as a porridge. The temptation to have a nice cup of hot milk and cereal leads many people to start the day on the wrong foot. Furthermore, breakfast cereals are often “enriched” with sugar, wheat flour, fats.
Don’t believe it? Let’s see what the “Fitness” cereals (a name for a program) contain in the list of ingredients: whole wheat 53.6%, rice 34.6% (high glycemic index), sugar, partially inverted cane sugar syrup (it is always sugar ), barley malt extract (for those who don’t know it is sugar), salt (salt, yes), glucose syrup (this is also sugar), more vitamins, flavor correctors, mineral salts. How often is the sugar item present in the product?
Let’s look at Kellogs’ normal cereals instead, i.e. the basic ones, the classic Special Ks: rice (58%: high glycemic index), wheat [whole wheat (18%), wheat flour: note that whole wheat is only 18 per cent, everything else is white, therefore with a high glycemic index], sugar, wheat gluten (again?), skimmed milk powder, de-oiled wheat germ, salt (!), barley malt aroma (in practice the aroma of a sugar, often not natural, chemical qunidi) and oil