Crunchy flakes and pops taste good to children and adults alike. But cereals are nowhere near as healthy as the advertising promises. A recent quiz asked the question: which breakfast is healthiest? Eggs with bacon, wholemeal bread with cheese and sausage, muesli or coffee and a cigarette? Of the four candidates, two had the right answer: muesli. However, one question remains unanswered. What do the candidates mean by muesli? And: Do so-called cereals such as flakes, pops or loops also belong to the healthy breakfast options?
What’s crunching?
Especially for children, but also those who were in the 70-ies or 80-ies, the puffed and roasted cereal products are among the most popular breakfast forms. That’s because they are quick to prepare and crisp up deliciously. And they are also considered healthy: after all, they contain cereals, they are eaten with calcium-rich milk and they also provide plenty of vitamins – that’s what the products advertise. But that is all that speaks for the cereals.
The list of negative properties, on the other hand, is much longer. First of all, flakes and co. are among the most processed foods of all. This means that the product has little in common with the raw materials from which it is made. This becomes clear when you realize that most of the crunchy treats consist of only 40 to 70 percent grain.
The taste is provided by flavorings, and in some cases by brightly colored dyes. And the vitamins they contain do not come from corn, rice or oats – they are added in powder form. This does not necessarily make them worse than other vitamins, but their addition is not natural. On the contrary, they are often added in such high doses that a child is already supplied with three quarters of the various vitamins in one bowl of flakes in the morning. This is certainly not necessary if a varied diet is eaten throughout the day.
High sugar content is problematic
The main problem with cereals, however, is the high sugar content, which is often hidden behind the name glucose syrup on the ingredients list. Up to 45 percent pure sugar can be found in the crunchy pops. In a small serving – and small is the normally stated serving size of 30 grams – this is equivalent to about five sugar cubes. A hungry eater is quickly at double the amount.
Normal cornflakes contain quite little sugar, with about one sugar cube per serving; the content in all other cereals is somewhere in between. The proportion of real honey, by the way, is usually very low, even if it is mentioned in the name or shown on the package. More than one to two percent is not contained in conventional products. The balance is somewhat better for pops from health food stores.
