Breakfast Cereal: Should You Be Eating It?
Anyone who has perused the breakfast cereal aisle over the last few years will have noticed a change: breakfast cereals are increasingly being marketed as a health food.
For example, Kellogg's bought Kashi in 2000, and a few years ago General Mills decided to switch all of their breakfast cereals to whole-grain products. Green tea and grape seed extract has take the place of cinnamon as the new and improved addition.
Eat More Special K?
So, it's not a surprise that Kellogg's is interested in learning whether regular cereal eaters have a lower BMI than those don't.
To find out, they funded a study, which led to the following article:
Are people who regularly eat breakfast cereals slimmer than those
who don't? A systematic review of the evidence by A. de la Hunty and M. Ashwell. This article appeared in the British Nutrition Foundation Nutrition Bulletin 32:118-128. The abstract of the paper concludes:
There is consistent evidence of an association between breakfast cereal consumption and a healthy weight, but limited evidence for any proposed mechanism that would point to it being a causal relationship.
What Does the Research Say?
This article describes a meta-analysis: they went looking for earlier studies and used them to ask a narrow question. They found nine studies worth considering.
On the plus side, none of the studies correlated regular cereal eaters with being heavier. So, starting your day with a bowl of cereal is probably fine if you're looking not to gain weight.
Inconsistent
On the minus side, the results were not consistent across the studies.
- One study, of over 5,000 French adults, found that men who regularly ate breakfast cereals had a lower BMI than those who rarely ate breakfast cereals, but the same wasn't true for women. Women who most frequently ate breakfast cereals had a significantly higher daily energy intake than those who didn't, but men's daily energy intake didn't depend on whether or not they ate breakfast cereals.
- On the other hand, a survey of 4,200 Americans found that women who ate breakfast cereals - at least on the day the survey was done - were significantly less likely to be overweight than those who didn't. There was no difference with men who ate cereal or not, and no difference in energy intake for either men or women.
- Yet another study, of over 16,000 American adults, those who had breakfast were found to have, on average, a lower BMI than those who skipped breakfast (20% fell in this category) except for those who regularly had "meat and eggs" for breakfast (11%) or just milk and
milk products (5%) or fats and candy (4%?? Who are these people?).The other categories of breakfast eaters, all of which had comparable average and lower BMI, were those who ate fruit and vegetables (4%), ready-to-eat cereal (17%), cooked cereal (5%), breads (16%), quick breads and pastries (12%), and just beverages (6%). It seems that those who ate Special K were indistinguishable from those who had donuts for breakfast. Breakfast skippers and fruit and vegetables groups had the lowest daily energy intake, and the meat and eggs group was the highest (but close to dairy, quick
bread, and cooked cereal eaters). No breakdown on gender. - How about this study? 52 moderately obese women were put into identical weight loss programs: a 1,200 calorie a day regimen for 12 weeks. Half had a breakfast of breakfast cereal, and of course lunch and dinner; the other half just had lunch and dinner. Now, some of
these people habitually skipped breakfast and some didn't.Of the ones who normally skipped breakfast, those who ate breakfast during the 12-week regimen lost more weight than those who didn't - 7.7 kg vs. 6.0 kg. But, of those who normally ate breakfast, those who skipped breakfast during the trial lost more weight - 8.9 kg - than
those who ate breakfast - 6.2 kg.So, only start the Special K plan if you normally don't eat breakfast; otherwise do a no-breakfast plan?
There's five more studies that they looked at. The three on children gave more consistent results: less-cereal eaters and breakfast skippers were more likely to be overweight, but they also ate less throughout the day. So, the breakfast eaters burned more calories. (This makes me think of Calvin and his "Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs").
Flimsy Conclusions?
Again, none of the studies showed eating breakfast cereals was associated with a higher BMI, and in some studies for some groups - not always the same - it was associated with a lower BMI. So they concluded that eating breakfast cereals could indeed make you more slender.
As to why any of this holds, the authors didn't know. They thought that, maybe, breakfast skippers burned fewer calories, or maybe those who ate breakfast cereals had smaller breakfasts. Maybe.
What do you think?
Do you think that this is something upon which to build an advertising campaign?
19 Comments
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Interesting. I've eaten breakfast much more often since starting to lose weight. It's usually cereal, though I try to wait until mid-morning to have breakfast otherwise I'm ravenously hungry by 11:30am.
Replyi have coffee for breakfast. i've never been a breakfast first thing type person. if i have breakfast food items they are usually for dinner. i think it depends on what type of breakfast it is. special k only has what, 110 cals? but lucky charms has almost 200- i'm sure that has something to do with it
ReplyI would have expected those who eat cereal for breakfast to weigh less than those who don't. Why? Cereal strikes me as something that people buy and eat at home, whereas if you're eating breakfast on the go or at a restaurant/cafe/starbucks, you're more likely to eat either a big prepared meal filled with who knows what or an easy to grab pastry type meal.
"Breakfast cereal" covers a huge range, though, from high-fiber low-sugar cereals to sugar-coated snacks. Breaking it out that way would probably yield a much stronger correlation. But as far as breakfast in vs. breakfast out, it doesn't surprise me that cereal eaters tend to have healthier habits.
Personally, I can't even imagine skipping breakfast. My system just would not abide by it. Maybe it's a habit thing, though...
ReplyI hate to break it to you, but they both have 110 calories.
ReplyI'm not a big breakfast person - sometimes fruit or eggs or a protein shake, usually coffee. Cereals are overpriced, empty calorie, glycemic events in my opinion. :) While whole grains are better than Lucky Charms, I think a piece of fruit or a little protein is a far better choice. Entangled makes a good point about eating at home vs. on the go. I would have thought the same thing.
ReplyMost cereals are full of sugar which is bad. Luckily, we can find now some of them with less sugar but still not enough.
ReplyI think it is time we stop using BMI to guage the results of tests. We are all aware of the inadequacies in this measurement. Perhaps many of these inconsistencies would dissapear if we only measured a useful quantity.
ReplyPersonally, I think these discrepancies arose because there are uncontrolled and unknown variables that are determining the outcomes.
ReplyI like Quaker Oat Bran, Yummy! I buy boxed cereal and vitamin D milk 2-3X per year and consider it a treat not a standard. Tastes like ice cream and cookies.
ReplySounds great. Maybe I'll consider cereal as my breakfast. The benefits are continuously increasing and I wouldn't be surprised if cereal companies would start developing new cereals for added benefits.
ReplyAs long as those are 'real' cereals, and not like the stuff for kids with tons of added sugar and other crappy things inside, that demand you to eat two bowls of it if you want to hope to be filled for more than one hour...
(And why do we feed kids with that anyway, heh.)
ReplyI think it's true that if you walk down the aisle, *most* cereals are full of sugar and other junk. But if you watch the nutrition information, cereal really can be very healthy (if you're one of those people who does well with whole grain carbs, at least). I try to watch for under 5 grams of sugar, at least 2-3 grams fiber, a couple grams of protein and 150 calories or less per cup (cup, not listed serving, since that's what I tend to eat). I'll stretch one macronutrient if the others are great (ie kashi go lean has 6 or so grams of sugar, but enough protein and fiber to make up for it). My current obsession is Wheaties and other barely-sweetened whole grain flakes. With some chopped apple or strawberries or a few raspberries thrown in, and a couple hard-boiled eggs.
But, yeah, some of the stuff in the "boxed cereal" category is practically cookies and candy. It's *usually* pretty easy to tell what's what, though, even without being as anal as I am.
ReplyI eat either kashi golean crunch (generally with yogurt and fruit with just a little cereal on top) or plain old bite-size shredded wheat (no frosted). The shredded wheat I eat out of a baggie on the way to work... ;-)
ReplyFor many years, I did not eat breakfast and was always slim. After I became a mother, I started eating breakfast with the kids. My weight during these years went up for many reasons. Recently, I've been losing weight. I've had luck with whole grain cereal with flavored light soy milk (with the cereal, it tastes okay - honest!). I think cereal with my diet helps due to the fact that a bowl with milk (or soy) is less than 300 calories rather than the fact that it is cereal.
ReplyI like morning breakfast Kellogg's every morning and fruit salad
www.lose-beter-with-hoodia.blogspot.com
Replyi eat breakfast now that i'm losing weight because i feel like it's neccessery to start up my metabolism. if i'm doing aerobics then i usually have breakfast after. if i'm running then i eat before that.
i try to limit cereal now because it's one of those foods that i like to snack on a lot. cereal is quite addictive because it's a really quick food (no preparation or cooking time) so i can have it more than once a day when i do not want to cook and i like to snack on it (without milk).
some are low in calories but contain little fibre so it doesn't keep you full up for long. i find that boiled eggs, toast with soft cheese or toast with eggs leaves me fuller for longer. for a 250 cal cereal, i could have some toast and scrambled eggs and feel more full than if i ate a bowl of cereal.
cereal isn't the best breakfast to eat, imo.
ReplyIt would be great to start the day with a healthy breakfast, considering that cereal eaters will be more slender with regular intake.
ReplyMaybe cereal companies will try different and new ideas in the future.
i always have organic bircher museli and a tub of natural greek yogurt sweetened with a little honey. its so tasty and really really satisfying.
ReplyI think breakfast cereals are a fantastic way to start the day - with 3 caveats. 1 - about 95% of cereals are considered not to be healthy so selecting a good type is key 2 - you have to keep up with cardio/strength training exercise and 3 - eat reasonably healthfully the remainder of the day.
I use the 3-rule method for cereal selection:
Reply1) Low in sugar (less than 8g sugar per cup)
2) Higher in fiber (more than 3.5g/cup)
3) Short ingredients list - nothing I can't pronounce!