Is kids cereal healthy?
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Is kids cereal healthy?
A healthy, nutritious breakfast is the fuel kids need to start a day full of learning and playing. And while it may be a struggle to get them to eat it at times, studies have shown kids who eat breakfast are more likely to make healthy choices throughout the day and have an easier time learning, especially with Maths.So let’s talk about one of the most popular breakfast choices, cereal!
Breakfast cereal has been a way of life for many Australians for generations - and for good reason! Breakfast cereal is a main contributor of dietary fibre in the Australian diet, and studies have shown that morning cereal eaters have higher daily intakes of whole grains. Eating cereal also means you have it with milk, which contains valuable calcium for strong, healthy bones.
While a healthy breakfast cereal is a great start to the day, it can be difficult to find one that ticks all the boxes. Many of the cereals marketed to kids are full of added sugars, with some popular Australian breakfast cereals contain more than 3 teaspoons of sugar per serve!
Secondly, while many brands do advertise being high in dietary fibre, they often contain less fibre than a serve of wholemeal toast. Because of this, it’s important to read the nutritional panel when choosing breakfast cereal for your children.
Now, more than ever, there seems to be endless options available to us to choose from. So how do we pick a healthy breakfast cereal for our kids that they’ll actually want to eat?
To help with this, The Australian’s Healthy Food Guide has put together the following cereal checklist to help you when deciding which cereal is best for your child:
- Wholegrains: at least 50% or listed as one of the first ingredients.
- Fibre: aim for at least 3g fibre per serve.
- Sodium: less than 400mg/100g.
- Sugar: less than 25g sugar per 100g if sweetened with dried fruit, or less than 15g per 100g if sweetened with sugar or honey.