Cereal is one of those things where it can be healthy, or it can be harmful and the line is very blurred. You may think you’re enjoying a healthy bowl of cereal thanks to the marketing of the cereal company only to discover it’s loaded with sugar, you can easily eat 600 calories in one sitting, and you’re still hungry an hour later. So, I’m sharing 8 ways to make cereal healthy so you can enjoy a bowl of milky goodness any day if the week!
Make Homemade Cereal
If you’re going to eat cereal for breakfast the absolute best cereal you can eat is homemade cereal with organic ingredients. When you make your own cereal, you know exactly what’s inside, there’s no preservatives, and you can control the quality of the ingredients.
I have so many granola recipes on my site as I make them all the time! Some of my favorites include Honey Almond Coconut Granola, Cinnamon Sugar Quinoa Granola (this tastes just like Cinnamon Toast Crunch), or my Coconut Chocolate Chip Granola.
Buy Organic
If you’re not making your own homemade cereal, the next best option is buying organic cereal. Luckily, there’s so many amazing options out there! You can easily find organic versions of all your favorite cereal these days!
Some of my favorite store bought cereals include Nature’s Path Cocoa Chimps (taste like cocoa puffs!), Cascadian Farms Honey Nut O's (honey nut cherrios), and Nature’s Path Cinnamon Bun Cereal.
Choose Quality Milk
You can’t have cereal without milk! So, choosing the best organic milk is key to eating cereal for maximum health benefits. If you drink cow’s milk, be sure you’re buying grassfed organic milk. My favorite milks are Organic Valley Grassmilk and Alexandre Family Farm A2/A2 Grassfed Milk.
Grassfed milk has more omega-3s than regular milk, so choosing grassfed is your healthiest option! If you’re sensitive to dairy try the Alexandre Family Farm A2/A2 Grassfed Milk and enjoy the benefits of A2/A2 milk!
If you’re not doing dairy at all, other healthy milk choices include coconut, almond, pistachio, and oat milk. Some of my personal favorites include Real Coco Organic Coconut Milk, Three Trees Organic Pistachio Milk, and Three Trees Organic Oat Milk.
Add in Fresh Fruit
Adding fresh fruit to cereal adds health benefits! Bananas, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, or peaches are all great options for cereal. If you don’t like eating fresh fruit inside your cereal, then eat it on the side in addition. If you’re not putting it in your cereal, then any fruit is a benefit!
Add in Nuts
Nuts add protein and healthy fats, which is something a lot of cereal is missing. So even if you want to indulge in a nostalgic cereal, you can add in some almonds, walnuts, or pecans for added health benefits.
Enjoy with Protein
Eating protein with meals will help keep you full longer and will prevent blood sugar spikes. If you are enjoying cereal in the morning, try eating an egg or a couple breakfast sausages with it. Eat your protein first and your cereal afterwards to prevent blood sugar spikes. Try my Everything Bagel Turkey Sausages or my Homemade Pork Breakfast Sausages.
Mix Cereals
If you’re craving a sugary nostalgic cereal, mix it with half of a healthier cereal. This will allow you to get your nostalgic cereal fix, but you’ll still be getting more nutrients than if you ate a whole bowl of the sweeter cereal.
I do this all the time! I love to mix half cereal with half granola. This way, I get the health benefits of the oats and the protein of the nuts, but I get a sweet cereal fix at the time. One of my favorite combos is half my Honey Almond Coconut Granola and half Nature’s Path Organic Cinnamon Bun Cereal.
Be Mindful of Portion
Cereal is one of those foods where you can easily eat 2 to 3 servings and not even realize it! You could probably eat more than that before you felt super full, at least I know that’s true for me! Take a look at the photo below.
Whenever I have cereal, I literally have to measure it out to make sure I’m being mindful of my portions. Some cereal is low in calories per serving, so sometimes I do have 2 servings of cereal. But knowing what I am eating really helps me make better choices all day long.
If you have trouble with portion control, measure your cereal, put it away before you even pour your milk. Don’t go back and keep refilling your cereal bowl just because there is milk in there! I know it’s temping but, this is how portions can get out of control when eating cereal. Many bowls are so much larger than a serving of cereal, so just filling your bowl can even be harmful.
The bowl with one serving of cereal is actually a dip bowl, it's not a traditional cereal bowl, but more like what you'd serve salsa or hummus in if it were on a snack board. The second bowl is is a standard cereal bowl and the third bowl is a pasta bowl. I measured one, two, and three servings of organic honey cherrios, which is about 1 cup.
If you're eating granola as cereal, the typical granola serving is 1/3 of a cup. So that means, the bowl with one serving of cherrios below would actually hold three servings of granola! And the standard cereal bowl would hold 6 servings of granola. Three servings of granola is about 420 calories (not including your milk or yogurt!). And six servings of granola is double that at 840, which is almost a third of your total calories per day! So, be mindful of the portions and choose what works best for your calorie intake.
Why Organic
Why use organic ingredients in this recipe? You all know I’m a huge organic advocate, and I bet you may be thinking sometimes, Why would I even bother to use organic ingredients in something that is so sweet and indulgent? But, that is the exact reason why you should use organic ingredients! Sweet things need to have flavor in order to be good, otherwise they are just sweet and they don’t taste like much else. Organic ingredients are more pure than conventional ones, therefore they actually have more flavor than the non organic options. Say it with me, organic means more flavor! And not just more flavor but a more true and pure flavor. And organic ingredients are much healthier for you to eat in general as they do not contain GMOs or anything artificial. Plus, you are being environmentally friendly when you choose organic ingredients!
So, I highly recommend that you buy the best organic ingredients for this recipe! You can also shop my Amazon Storefront for all my favorite organic ingredients here. Tip – hover over each ingredient to see the name. And if you want to learn more about organic foods and the difference, read my post here on Food Labels and What They Mean.
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