Healthy but "fun" cereal for kids?

eviltimeban

My kids always want to eat the "fun" cereals, as you can imagine, but they are so chocked full of sugar its unbelievable. Is there such a thing as a low-sugar / low-salt cereal that would also be appealing to kids? i.e. in fun shapes, that sort of thing?

Was looking at the Rice Crispie shapes - 19g grams of sugar over 100g! Crazy.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

surely it's the sugar itself that makes them fun

eviltimeban

Well maybe but its the animal shapes and so on that appeal to the kids. I would rather not rot my kids' teeth and make them insanely crazy followed by a sugar comedown if I can help it.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

sugar doesn't actually make children hyperactive. not saying it's good for them to have loads of it but that is an old wives tale that's been pretty well debunked at this stage

anyway, on topic and being less of a dick I think cheerios are relatively low in sugar as well as being mind numbingly delicious although possibly not terribly fun

eviltimeban

They do like the Cheerios, they however are still pretty high in sugar.

Old wive's tale or not, I can tell when the kids have had sugar. Fo' shizzle.

Faith

I'd say you're out of luck. The only low-sugar cereal I've ever been able to find is Cornflakes. Even some "healthy" ones like muesli or granola can have up to 30g sugar per 100g!

CyrilFiggis

Not quite what you're asking I know, but perhaps instead of a 'fun' cereal, you could make some granola or something with the kids? When they're involved in making their own food, kids are usually so much more enthusiastic about eating it. There's plenty of recipes online for this and you can make one big batch at the weekend - as well as feeling like they're getting something a little healthier!

eviltimeban

CyrilFiggis wrote: »

Not quite what you're asking I know, but perhaps instead of a 'fun' cereal, you could make some granola or something with the kids? When they're involved in making their own food, kids are usually so much more enthusiastic about eating it. There's plenty of recipes online for this and you can make one big batch at the weekend - as well as feeling like they're getting something a little healthier!

I like the idea but the mornings are such a mad rush, we'd have to make it at the weekend and then by Tuesday they wouldn't want it anymore.

At the moment they have Bran Flakes / Weetabix / Rice Crispies. Just thought that some smart food company would make a healthy version of a kids' cereal. Gap in the market there!

Mr. CooL ICE

Not cereal, but...

eviltimeban

They're both veggie.

How Strange

The oat Cheerios are noticeably lower in sugar than the regular ones.

eviltimeban

How Strange wrote: »

The oat Cheerios are noticeably lower in sugar than the regular ones.

Cool, I might give them a look and see how I get on!

Thanks for the advice peeps.

Plek Trum

Why not just jazz up the healthier cereals?

Have little bowls of fruit on table, let them add in their own bits - chopped banana, blueberries, maybe raspberries or something? Its a way of making the cereals more interesting to them and a great way to sneak in a few pieces of fruit early in the day!

eviltimeban

Good idea. I might get those healthy puff cereals, say they are "sugar cereals" and have blueberries etc. They love raisins so they could put some of those in too.

I've been using honey as a sugar substitute, which they like to put on their cereal - good idea? I figure its better than sugar, though probably still not great.

Faith

eviltimeban wrote: »

I've been using honey as a sugar substitute, which they like to put on their cereal - good idea? I figure its better than sugar, though probably still not great.

Nutritionally, it's the exact same. Sugar is sugar. It's arguably slightly better for them if it's local honey. It's also sweeter than sugar, so they might use less. But basically, there's no difference between the two.

Mellor

eviltimeban wrote: »

I've been using honey as a sugar substitute, which they like to put on their cereal - good idea? I figure its better than sugar, though probably still not great.

Honey is still sugar. 80-90% sugar

eviltimeban

Cheerios were a hit - and the oat ones were only 9g instead of 20 for the regular ones! Corn Flakes are indeed the lowest in sugar, only 2g.

daveohdave

Faith wrote: »

It's arguably slightly better for them if it's local honey.

Better for the planet maybe, but better for them? I don't think so.

Faith

daveohdave wrote: »

Better for the planet maybe, but better for them? I don't think so.

You're right. I'd heard that eating local honey can help with allergies, but I've just actually researched it and it's only an old wives' tale.

El_Dangeroso

Faith wrote: »

Nutritionally, it's the exact same. Sugar is sugar. It's arguably slightly better for them if it's local honey. It's also sweeter than sugar, so they might use less. But basically, there's no difference between the two.

Actually weirdly, it's not, and we haven't really figured out exactly why.

Sugar will increase triglycerides, honey will not.

Honey can actually help diabetics bring down fasting blood sugar, but sugar will not.

I suspect it's down to the fact that honey is chock full of Fructo-oligosaccherides, which act like a prebiotic, or food for your good bacteria.

rubadub

Rather than cereal you could make pancakes with porridge oats, just liquidise oats milk & egg, you can make them thick and make a large batch to toast each morning. I would not add any sugar or honey to the actual pancake mix just sprinkle something on top, as it sort of gets lost in the pancake mixture.

Mellor wrote: »

Honey is still sugar. 80-90% sugar

As said honey is sweeter than sucrose (regular sugar) so they could use less to attain the same sweetness. Glucose is less sweet than sucrose, this is why lucozade is not as sweet as you would expect for the high carb content.

ScottSF

One idea is to use chocolate milk by adding unsweetened cocoa powder to milk. Cinnamon is another fun option.

The other ideas involves a bit of travel. Visit a typical supermarket in the US and you'll be overwhelmed by the breakfast cereal isle (yes an entire aisle). Yes probably half are sugary but there are many healthy, organic, multi-grain, and "all natural" varieties to suit every taste and consumer.

eviltimeban

ScottSF wrote: »

One idea is to use chocolate milk by adding unsweetened cocoa powder to milk. Cinnamon is another fun option.

The other ideas involves a bit of travel. Visit a typical supermarket in the US and you'll be overwhelmed by the breakfast cereal isle (yes an entire aisle). Yes probably half are sugary but there are many healthy, organic, multi-grain, and "all natural" varieties to suit every taste and consumer.

Yeah that's what we're lacking here in Ireland. I must stop in to Nourish or one of the other stores and see what they have. Problem is, you probably have to pay a fiver for a tiny box.

I was pleased with the Cheerios - ok 9g of sugar is still reasonably high in the grand scheme of things (the bench mark I use for such things is 5g or over) but still nowhere near 20g that the normal Cheerios are, or 19g that the Rice Crispy shapes were.

I like the idea of pancakes - could be a weekend morning plan! With berries etc. Good call.

ScottSF

eviltimeban wrote: »

I was pleased with the Cheerios - ok 9g of sugar is still reasonably high in the grand scheme of things (the bench mark I use for such things is 5g or over) but still nowhere near 20g that the normal Cheerios are..l.

It is amusing that "normal Cheerios" in Ireland is nothing at all like normal or "Original" Cheerios in the USA. I grew up eating Cheerios and there was only one kind - the toasted oats kind. That is the original and even today it has only 1g of sugar:
https://www.cheerios.com/en/Products/Cheerios.aspx

Unfortunately when Cheerios were exported to Europe, the marketing people felt that Europeans would not eat a cereal made from only oats. So that is why the sugary multi-grain option is "regular" in Ireland and it is impossible to buy real Cheerios. What is called "Oat Cheerios" in Ireland is still not the same recipe as the original in the states. You have to go to a store like Fallon & Byrne in Dublin to get the imported (US) variety which costs a fortune as you would guess

MissFlitworth

Do they like coconut? If so shredded coconut is pretty easy to dye some very bright colours and could be used like rainbow sprinkles on porridge or plainer looking cereal.

Generally cookie monster cupcakes are made by rolling the cupcake in a plate of brightly coloured shredded coconut (or blue sprinkes or blue sugar) so you can see where you'd get a really bright colour going on



This is assuming that you don't mind loading your kids up with food dye in the morning! Maybe that's worse than sugar

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

ScottSF wrote: »

It is amusing that "normal Cheerios" in Ireland is nothing at all like normal or "Original" Cheerios in the USA. I grew up eating Cheerios and there was only one kind - the toasted oats kind. That is the original and even today it has only 1g of sugar:
https://www.cheerios.com/en/Products/Cheerios.aspx

Unfortunately when Cheerios were exported to Europe, the marketing people felt that Europeans would not eat a cereal made from only oats. So that is why the sugary multi-grain option is "regular" in Ireland and it is impossible to buy real Cheerios. What is called "Oat Cheerios" in Ireland is still not the same recipe as the original in the states. You have to go to a store like Fallon & Byrne in Dublin to get the imported (US) variety which costs a fortune as you would guess

omg, i remember having them. they're bloody delicious