Which ‘healthy’ cereal has more fat than fried egg on toast, and more sugar than a Coca-Cola?
Supermarket aisles heave with boxes of breakfast cereals promising they are ‘high in fibre’, ‘organic’, ‘ cholesterol-lowering’ – and, enticed, we spend a collective £1billion a year. So we should be getting our mornings off to the healthiest of starts.
Not so, according to a new report by consumer group Which?. It found that 31 of the bestselling cereals had more than four teaspoons of sugar per serving – that’s more than a bowl of chocolate ice cream.
And to complicate matters, it’s not always easy to spot the worst offenders. Apparently, some brands promote products as healthy on the basis of one or two added vitamins or minerals.
Surprise: A can of Coca-Cola and a fried egg on buttered toast are less sugary and fatty, respectively, than some leading ‘healthy’ breakfast cereals
Such is the concern, new EU legislation is to be drafted to stop cereal manufacturers ‘dressing up’ products high in sugar, fat and salt with health claims.
Sugar is the key culprit according to dietician Catherine Collins.
‘Cereals are almost always packed with the stuff, no matter what they say on the box,’ she explains.
‘Even if it’s not listed as such on the ingredients, honey is pure sugar and dried fruit is naturally high in sugar. Other brands are remarkably high in salt. So, as delicious as they may be, in some cases you’d be better off eating a bar of chocolate or a bag of crisps.’
We asked Collins to analyse the nutritional content and ingredients of a number of seemingly ‘healthy’ cereal brands. The results were surprising, to say the least …
Jordans Country Crisp Chunky Nuts
Ingredients: Wholegrain cereals, raw cane sugar, nuts, vegetable oil, rice flour, desiccated coconut, hazelnut paste.
Nutrition (per 100g): Energy, 486kcal; protein, 8.5g; carbohydrate (of which sugars), 58.5g (21.5g); fat (of which saturates), 24g (5.6g); fibre, 6g; salt, trace.
THEY SAY: Wholesome golden clusters. Grown by nature. Crafted by Jordans.
CATHERINE COLLINS SAYS: Less than 20 per cent of the calories in this cereal are from sugar, which is good. But a whopping 44 per cent of calories come from fat. There is less fat and fewer calories in a fried egg on a slice of buttered toast. Also, with all those wholegrains and nuts, this recipe sounds as if it should be high in fibre, but don’t be fooled. In reality, it provides no more than a standard bowl of cereal.
Dorset Cereals Berries And Cherries
Ingredients: Raisins, sultanas, Chilean flame raisins, blackcurrant-flavour barley flakes, oat flakes, wheat flakes, toasted and malted wheat flakes, barley flakes, sweetened dried cranberries and blueberries, freeze-dried cherries, blackcurrants and raspberries.
Nutrition (per 100g): Energy, 321kcal; protein, 6.5g; carbohydrate (of which sugars), 68.8g (41.0g); fat (of which saturates), 2.2g (0.9g); fibre, 6.3g; salt, trace.
THEY SAY: Honest pleasures are often the most rewarding. We take delicious things and add some more delicious things, then we mix them up a bit.
COLLINS SAYS: This is really dried fruit with a few grains thrown in, which is why more than half the calories of this cereal come from sugar. With about six teaspoons of sugar per portion, this cereal contains the same amount of sugar as a can of Coca-Cola, or half a bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate. Sugar in dried fruit is sticky, so clean your teeth properly after eating.
Special K Sustain
Ingredients: Brown rice, whole-wheat, cereal and honeyflavour soy clusters, sugar, soy nuts, cereal crispies (rice flour, wheatflour, sugar, calcium carbonate, barley flour, soy lecithin), maltodextrin, glucose syrup, maize flour, caramelised cane syrup, sugar, wheat fibre, glucose fructose syrup, honey, salt, barley malt flavouring.
Nutrition (per 100g): Energy, 338kcal; protein, 14g; carbohydrate (of which sugars), 66g (21g); fat (of which saturates), 2g; fibre, 12g; sodium, 1.15g.
THEY SAY: For two weeks eat a bowl of Special K for breakfast and again for lunch or dinner with a nutritionally well-balanced third meal – see if you can get slimmer for summer.
COLLINS SAYS: This is a surprisingly high-fibre cereal, providing the same amount as two slices of wholemeal bread. It is also low in fat and higher in protein – providing a similar amount to a small boiled egg. But with a third of its carb content as sugar, each bowl gives you the equivalent of two teaspoons of sugar, so unless you really are eating only cereal for two meals of the day – which is not a healthy balanced diet – then you’re not going to lose much weight.
Bran Flakes Sultana Bran
Ingredients: Whole-wheat, sultanas, wheatbran, sugar, salt, honey, barley malt flavouring.
Nutrition (per 100g): Energy, 318kcal; protein, 8g; carbohydrate (of which sugars), 67g (33g); fat (of which saturates), 2g; (0.5g); fibre, 13g; salt, 1.3g.
THEY SAY: Recommended by cyclist Chris Hoy, triple Gold medal winner, Beijing 2008: ‘Packed full of fibre – good, hearty stuff, I love it. And if it works for me, it could certainly work for you.’
COLLINS SAYS: This is a high-sugar cereal – great for those requiring instant energy, such as elite athletes, but not healthy for the rest of us. Two-fifths of the weight of cereal is sugar from the dried fruit and honey. A serving of Coco Pops or Frosties (30g) would provide less sugar and fewer calories. Most people think the term ‘bran’ implies an optimum fibre choice but a bowl of this cereal contains only a little more fibre than Special K.
Optivita Berry Oat Crisp
Ingredients: Wholegrain cereal, oat bran, sugar, sweetened freeze dried fruits, barley malt extract, honey.
Nutrition (per 100g): Energy, 357kcal; protein, 10g; carbohydrate (of which sugars), 68g (20g); fat (of which saturates), 5g (0.9g); fibre, 9g: salt, trace.
THEY SAY: Approved by Heart UK, the cholesterol charity. Specifically developed with the active parts of oats to help lower cholesterol.
COLLINS SAYS: The active ingredient, oatbran, helps bind cholesterol in the digestive system and can help to lower cholesterol – but only as part of a healthy diet and lifestyle. This is one of the lowest-calorie and lowest-fat cereals per serving with a decent amount of fibre, but it does contain a teaspoon of sugar per portion, so adding any more is not a good idea.
Gillian McKeith Organic Buckwheat Cereal Flakes
Ingredients: Maize flour, buckwheat flour, corn grits, honey, sea salt.
Nutrition (per 100g): Energy, 370kcal; protein, 9g; carbohydrate (of which sugars), 80g (8.5g); fat (of which saturates), 1.5g (0.5g); fibre, 4.5g; salt: 2.3g.
THEY SAY: Gillian’s star ingredient, buckwheat, is a wheat-free source of antioxidants and can be eaten at breakfast or as a snack anytime.
COLLINS SAYS: Sorry, Gillian, but buckwheat has no greater benefits than other grains. And despite the apparent high-fibre ingredients this cereal provides a paltry 1.4g per serving – about the same as in a slice of white bread. A single serving provides twice as much salt as a packet of Walkers Crisps, and 30 per cent more than a serving of Kellogg’s Cornflakes.
Eat Natural For Breakfast
Ingredients: Oats, sunflower seeds, honey, pecans, sultanas, almond oil, puffed rice (rice, sugar), dried cape gooseberries, sugar, cinnamon.
Nutrition (per 100g): energy, 431kcal; protein, 10.8g; carbohydrate (of which sugars), 64.8g (26.3g); fat (of which saturates), 17.3g (2.4g); fibre, 6.7g; salt, trace.
THEY SAY: We will never add any dodgy stuff. That means no artificial flavours or colours and no preservatives – the less processed it is, the better it tastes.
COLLINS SAYS: The honey and dried fruit content means sugar provides a quarter of the calories per bowl and an amount of fat equivalent to two teaspoons of margarine, so anyone hoping to slim would be better off sticking to a low-sugar, low-fat, low-salt option such as Weetabix. But, if you’re not, the fat is derived from seeds and nuts so is mostly healthy types of fat, rather than unhealthy saturated fat.
Southern Alps No 21 Molesworth Organic Granola
Ingredients: Jumbo oats, puffed amaranth, sultanas, honey, currants, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, slow-dried pears, shelled hemp seeds.
Nutrition (per 100g): Energy, 371kcal; protein, 10.6g; carbohydrate (of which sugars), 57.4g (17.1g); fat (of which saturates), 12g (1.6g); fibre, 6.8g; salt, trace.
THEY SAY: We start with the very best fresh fruit, only when ripe, only when nature is truly ready, and dry it slowly with slightly warm air, a little patience and absolutely nothing else – just as nature intended.
COLLINS SAYS: This cereal provides the highest-fibre content per serving – higher than even the bran cereals recognised as being good for bowel health. Nuts and seeds help push the protein to a high 6g per serving, which along with the fibre should help you to feel fuller for longer. Although a third of the calories come from fat, a teaspoon per serving, most of it is the healthier mono and polyunsaturated fats from the seeds and nuts.
• Nutritional analysis is based on cereal alone. For the average 125ml of milk used on a bowl of cereal, semi-skimmed provides another 57kcal and 2g of fat, skimmed milk will give you 41kcal and 0.1g of fat.