Ask a Dietitian

When looking for a good hot cereal on the shelves at the grocery store you don’t have to go far. Most of the cereals you will find are whole grain with the exception of cream of wheat and infant rice cereals. Many are also chock full of fibre. However, when it comes to added sugar, some will bust the bank.

Whole grains:
Look on the label at the first ingredients in your cereal. It can be whole oats, wheat bran, oat bran, kamut, or brown rice, among others.

Fibre:
Next, check out the grams of dietary fibre. It is pretty easy to beat out many of the cold cereal options with your hot cereal. Aim for 4-5g or more. Some excellent high fibre cereals you will find include (per 40g serving or 1/3 cup dry):
Bob’s Red Mill Organic High Fibre with 10g
Bob’s Red Mill 8 grain with 6g
Red River 6g
Quaker Quick Oats 4g
Lundberg Purely Organic Rice Cereal with 3g

For the Instant Oatmeal the highest in fibre include:
Nature’s Path Organic with 6g
Quaker weight control with 6g
Nature’s Path Organic Flax Plus or Hemp Plus with 5g
Quaker Regular with 3g (for a 31g portion) or 4g if you ate 40g

The oatmeal based cereals have the added bonus of lowering your cholesterol. Cereals with added bran also give a boost of fibre to your daily requirement of 25g for women and 38g for men and loads of nutrients. Some instant cereals will add inulin, a pre-biotic good for fueling the good bacteria in your gut but won’t actually lower cholesterol

Sugar:
Watch the added sugar, especially in the instant oatmeal. Quaker’s flavoured instant oatmeal contains 12g of sugar or 3 tsp. You should only have 10 tsp of added sugar in your day so this is more than you want in a cereal. However, be aware of how much brown sugar you add to your regular oatmeal. If you add a level Tbsp of brown sugar to your cooked cereal you are getting the same thing. Some cereals will have more sugar due to the fruit or raisins added and a small amount from the grains themselves. Choose a hot cereal with no added sugar in the ingredient list and the grams of sugar on the food label should be 0-2g per serving. Some cereals have added sucralose for sweetness without the empty calories such as Quaker Weight Control. There are also some instant oatmeal with 33% less sugar 6g/package.

Sodium:
Most cooked hot cereals don’t have added sodium but the instant ones do. In fact some have up to 300mg per package. Look for cereals with less than 100mg/serving.

Added Flavour: If you want to add some spice to your cereal, do it yourself. Applesauce, raisins and cinnamon are a delicious combination. Almonds and a touch of honey or dates and pecans or cashews and brown sugar are all delicious. You can even cook the cereal in milk instead of water or try ½ orange juice,½ water and some dried cranberries for a twist.

The Bottom Line:
When it comes to cooked cereals, look for whole grains, more than 3g fibre per 30g serving and no added sugar or salt.