How do I choose a healthy cereal?

To choose a healthy breakfast cereal, start by reading the label—but don't stop there. Find out what else you should consider while perusing the cereal aisle by watching this video featuring sports medicine and nutrition specialist Heidi Skolnik.

Transcript

00:00

Other tricks you can do if you really love, love, love, sweets, [INAUDIBLE] sweet cereals, then really get one that doesn't have added sugar so you can

00:08

control the amount that you add. 1 teaspoon of sugar is really only 16 calories. [UPBEAT MUSIC]

00:20

Choosing healthy cereal starts with looking at the ingredients. You certainly want it to be whole grain. And it should be the first ingredient on the list.

00:29

And then you want to be looking at the fiber. Hopefully it's going to have over 2 to 4 grams of fiber per serving.

00:36

And look at the sugar-- you don't want to have a lot of added sugars. So try to keep it under 4 grams of sugar if you can.

00:44

So one thing that happens with cereal is that pour. You know, if you use a big bowl, you're going to pour two to three portions into it.

00:52

And that would be like eating four or five or six pieces of bread without even realizing it. And then you'd still be hungry in about an hour and a half.

01:01

So it's much better to have a smaller bowl that you can fill up so you feel like you're getting a lot. But then there's ways to round it out.

01:09

Put some fruit on it. Have it with some milk. Put some healthy nuts on top. It's much more substantial, and it will help you last longer.

01:17

Other tricks you can do if you really love, love, love sweets [INAUDIBLE] sweet cereals, then really get one that doesn't have

01:24

added sugar so you can control the amount that you add. 1 teaspoon of sugar is really only 16 calories.

01:31

It's 4 grams of sugar versus having some cereal that already has 12 grams of sugar

01:38

already included in it. And some people even add more on top of that. So you control the amount of sugar and the amount of sweet you want.

01:44

And you might find that adding sugar to an unsweetened cereal goes a lot further in terms of satisfying your sweet taste

01:51

but not sabotaging your caloric load. [AUDIO LOGO]