HOUSTON – It's a morning ritual for many families. A bowl of cereal for breakfast and with so many cereal choices, knowing which ones are good for you and your kids can be a challenge.
Local 2 met with dietician Catherine Kruppa from Advice for Eating, LLC. We presented her with 5 different kinds of cereal trying to decide which was the best out of: Kashi, Cheerios, Life, Raisin Bran, and Frosted Flakes.
"We've got our kid cereal, Frosted Flakes. Very little nutritional value in Frosted Flakes. The one thing I would say, if you're having a sugary cereal... it needs to be a special occasion, not a Monday morning cereal, that's not a great way to start the school day," Kruppa said.
Kruppa says cereals with more than 10 grams of sugar will only lead to a crash early in the day.
"So you're basically eating a bowl of sugar for breakfast and those kids will feel good for about 30 mins," she said then "They're lethargic, they dont think as well, they get hungry."
She said the better choice is Raisin Bran.
"This has 18 grams of sugar so typically you look at it and go 'ah!' but you have to remember the fruit is already added into this cereal."
Keeping simple cereals like Life and Cheerios in the pantry are good as long as you don't eat them dry, the milk is where you get the majority of the protein with these and add a banana, frozen fruit or fresh berries to get a serving of fruit.
"These are very low in protein, protein makes us feel full. Now when we have a bowl of cereal we will get protein from milk but when we have a boost from the cereal that will help."
The Kashi cereal has a slight boost, 4g of protein.
An even better, well balanced breakfast would be with eggs, breakfast meat or peanut butter on toast.
"So if you have one or two eggs, whole wheat toast and a piece of fruit, that's a really solid, filling breakfast that will last a lot longer than a bowl of cereal, Kruppa said. "Now some people may not have time to do the scrambling of the eggs so another option is to take whole wheat toast with a tablespoon of peanut butter. You can slice a banana or a lot of my clients like to make this a portable breakfast so they wrap peanut butter toast around the banana and have a 'banana dog.'"
If you are even more "on the go" and grab coffee on the way to work, Kruppa says to add an egg white sandwich or oatmeal to make it a balanced breakfast and skip the baked goods.