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What's the best breakfast cereal?

by Dr Sarah Brewer

question
There always seems to be something in the news lately about how bad certain breakfast cereals are and how much sugar is in them. Which in particular are the best nutritionally and will keep me filled up until lunch?

answer
Great question. In general, cereals with the highest percentage of fibre will keep you feeling full longer. You should look for cereals that contain at least 20 per cent of the daily fibre requirement. Cereals with high fibre contain less sugar than other cereals. Including fibre is more important than excluding sugar. So if you find a cereal you like with lots of fibre and it has also got sugar - eat up. The fibre will keep you full and help prevent lots of other diseases as well. There are cereals that provide up to 50 per cent of the recommended daily dose of fibre.

One word of caution: if you eat a diet that is relatively low in fibre - and that is pretty common, especially among those of us who don't eat a lot of fruit and vegetables - increase the amount of fibre in your diet slowly. If you get gassy after eating a high-fibre cereal, this usually means that you've increased your fibre too fast. Cut the high-fibre cereal with a lower fibre cereal for the first couple of weeks and then slowly increase the percentage of the high-fibre cereal until you can eat a whole bowl of the stuff without any complaints. It may take a week or two, but it's worth it!

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