July 16, 2009
Cereal: Pumping up Your Breakfast and Fueling Your Workout Recovery!
By Jenna Stranzl
Cereal: pumping up
your breakfast and fueling your workout recovery!
Cereal is one food that can fall under many categories.
While it's typically associated with breakfast, this quick-and-easy meal can
easily substitute for lunch or dinner on the go if you eat a big enough bowl to
satisfy you. It's also great way to fuel up after a workout! A study published
in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition recommends
cereal with non-fat milk for muscle recovery; suggesting this is more effective
than most Sports drinks for muscle recovery.
For an easy and healthy start-of-the-day meal, cereal is
hard to beat. Think of breakfast as another opportunity to fit nutrients into
your daily intake. In research, breakfast has been associated with healthier
body weights, and greater academic and cognitive performances. The recently
released IFIC Review found that people who ate breakfast were more likely to
consume more fat-free or low-fat milk, fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
They were also more likely to meet nutrition recommendations.
A recent article posted by the Runner's World Sports
Dietitian, Lesli Bonci, titled "What's in your bowl?" provided a list
of cereals to add to your grocery list:
- All-Bran, or
All-Bran Wheat Flakes
- Nature's Path
Organic flax
- Post Bran Flakes
- Weetabix Organic
Crispy Flakes
- Shredded Wheat
- Raisin Bran
- Wheaties
- Total
- Multigrain
Cheerios
- Wheat Chex
- Frosted
Mini-Wheats
- Health Valley
Granola (and other varieties)
- Quaker Oat Bran
I'd add the following to this list:
- Traditional
Cherrios (who cares what the FDA says about cheerios and cholesterol) it's made
with oats - a whole grain, low in sugar and tastes delicious. Interested in
saving money - buy the generic brand. Same cereal, lower price.
- Kashi --go lean and go lean crunch - I love
these cereals. Go lean crunch has a little more sugar than the go lean. I
actually blend them together and I use them for a base in trail mix.
- Homemade Trail Mix
- 1/2 cup of cereal
- 1/4 cup dry roasted almonds
- 1/4 cup of your favorite dried fruit (I love cranberries)
- small handful of semi sweet chocolate morsels or carob
chips.
Look for the following things to make sure you're getting
the most out of your cereal (and the $3-5 you spent on it!):
- "Whole
grains" listed first or second on the Ingredient List
- Sugar: 5 grams
or less per serving (this is hard…)
- Fiber: ~3 grams
per 100 calories
- Low in saturated
fat
- Low in
cholesterol
Cereal certainly isn't restricted to meal-times. If you're
in a rush or in need of quick snack, throw some in a bag and take it with you.
Buying generic store brands keeps it budget-friendly, and you can count on this
staple item to stay fresh in the pantry for at least 2-3 weeks.
My favorite way to eat cereal is on top of yogurt, to add
extra crunch and more nutrients! Sometimes it's part of my breakfast, and
sometimes it's my dessert. One box of any cereal certainly fills you up and
stretches your dollar!