Design your diet.
19. Breakfast-cereal portions
(Read Diet 18. Flavour boosting)
Portion size starts to get important when we look at Breakfast cereals,
The manufacturers and dieticians choose about 40grams as a portion size, but when you see this quantity in a dish, you know that it is a lot less than you usually eat. Weetabix can choose two biscuits as a ‘serving’ (37.5gms), but then they once ran an advertising campaign encouraging the eating of three Weetabix per meal. Why did they do this?
Food energy numbers are given for 100grams.
So, energy number for 40grams will be a bit under half the 100 number.
You can do the maths if you want to 100gms ÷ 10 - then x 4.
Eg. 380calories ÷ 10 = 38
38 x 4 = 152calories in 40grams
When we look at the energy numbers for 100grams of the usual cereals they are all rather similar,
Weetabix 358calories,
Kelloggs Corn Flakes 381
Fruit & Fibre 380
Nestlé Shredded Wheat 340
Alphen original 357
In most cases, the sugar content (carb) levels
in cereals are similar, from about 67 to 69.
Energy bars
The alternative ‘energy’ bars are a bit different,
OR are they?
Stand by for a some more mathematics.
Also, some different words
A Pack. The complete product that you buy.
A Bar. The four individually wrapped bars inside the packet.
A Portion. The amount that you should eat. (Manufacturers recommend 45gms)
An Oat, Raisin and Almond bar has 412cals (per 100gms)
This is high in fat, resulting in a carb number of 61.6cals, sugar being 24.4cals.
If you have followed everything so far, (Design 10. Detective work) you will see that they are probably selling cooking oils (Vegetable, Rape seed and Palm) in addition to sugar to reach that carb level, as well as the raisins and almonds that feature in the description on the packet/bar.
But also note, these bars are sold in packets of 4 with 750 grams per pack.
Warning: Here comes the maths.
This means that each bar weighs about 187grams.
The energy in one bar = 770cals
Compare this with cereals above.
However
All the recommended-quantity information relates to
One portion of 45grams
which is just under a quarter of a bar.
(Bar = 187grams)
How many people will take their ‘bar’ and cut it into 4 pieces?
Then eat one quarter of a bar for breakfast?
It is my guess that once the wrapper is off, most people will eat the full bar of 4 portions. An ‘energy’ bar may not be a ‘healthy’ bar (in the sense of reducing weight) IF you misuse it.
Are you being misled?
No.
The manufacturers will claim:
The information is there for you to see.
Have you been too lazy to read it and to do the sums?
Yes.
They are supplying you with 16 portions per pack, but in 4 portions per wrapper. If you want to know these things, you have to make the effort. I can eat all of these cereals, but I have to know HOW MUCH of each I can eat.
'Let them eat cake'
There’s another similar situation you need to understand.
It concerns ‘cake bars’
Cake used to be sold predominantly in single, large 'slabs’.
The ‘bespectacled-bakers’ (Plump, cuddly little chaps with flour on their aprons - who live in 'advertising-land' - not international industrial conglomerates) have found a way to accelerate the way that cake is eaten. If you have a ‘slab’ you can cut it into 4 or 6 or 8 or 10 separate portions to eat it. You have control of portion size. If the cake is already cut into 6 pieces, displaying each slice separately in vacuum-packaged trays with additional wrapping, it looks bigger and when opened, each piece will be eaten whole. Nobody will cut a slice in half, but they may eat two slices. The quantity is pre-determined for you and you never calculate the cost (in cash or in calories) per slice.
Back to Breakfasts
Alternative Sweetener
I was using Honeynut flakes instead of sugar as a sweetener on my breakfast cereal, wasn’t I?
Well time to change that now.
Use something else, to make the change.
Change is good.
I noticed that when I was eating muesli-type breakfasts, the bits I was looking forward to the most were the sultanas in the mix. They are the little sweet rewards you get from eating quite a lot of oat or wheat flakes (which are good, but tedious). I also noticed that you can buy normal corn flakes or flakes with strawberry flakes or ‘red berry’ flakes mixed in. You pay half as much again for these ‘upmarket’ flakes that seem to imply that they are a 'more-healthy' option. When you look at how many 'flakes' or ‘berries’ you get, it is very small. The fruit has been freeze-dried and sliced wafer thin. Do you get 4? or 5? berries per packet? OR - Do you get less than 1 berry? That is a very expensive strawberry. AND - Check out the size of the box compared with the normal cereals without the added fruit flakes.
The point of this is for you to recognise that you will probably see the addition of fruit to flakes as being a good thing. Added fruit is better and it's not only sultanas, strawberries and freeze-dried banana, I have seen apricots added too. They come in little parcels called Apricot Wheats or others called Blueberry Wheats. They are good, they are tasty and they always cost MORE. A lot more.
I hope that you can see where this is going.
All these fruits are sweet.
Fruit is good.
But - you don’t have to buy it already added to the cereal by the manufacturers.
They add it because they know that they make a bigger profit-per-pack using 2 (max) strawberries.
Fresh fruit is better.
And if you buy fresh you can have MORE of the treat in the cereal
In the muesli you might get about 4 freeze-dried slices of banana per dish
that you have to crunch up in your mouth.
Why not have half a REAL banana in 12 slices?
It is cheaper
It tastes much better.
On-Ration
Sliced bananas. There’s a lot of food energy in a whole banana.
WATCH TENNIS PLAYERS
Cut it, then only unpeel half of it. Keep it in the fridge for the next time.
You can get packs of sultanas, (Homebaking aisle),
but you MUST put them On-Ration.
Sultanas = 302cal, so make a Rule:
No more than one, level, desert spoonful of scattered sultanas per bowl.
You can 'dome' the spoon a bit if you are on skimmed milk – otherwise – No.
If you are on Fruit & Fibre, well done; go for the fresh fruit.
The milk on all of these cereals adds to the energy intake.
Phew! That’s enough numbers.
You probably lost track somewhere anyway.
Suggesting that you use these sweet fruits is dangerous for dieters
They have calories.
You cannot use the HoneyNuts that replaced sugar, in addition to fruits.
Stop HoneyNuts
If you have followed this from the beginning, you will know the dangers.
It is your understanding that provides the sensible approach
It boils down to this:
Eat more energy than you use in the day, and you get fat.
Eat less energy than you use, and you don’t get fat.
Find your sensible, energy level and stay with it.
I am trusting you.
Walking
I hope that you have an umbrella. You should still be able to walk if it is raining, providing it’s not too bad. If the wind is strong when it is raining, you might let yourself off. The danger is that you get lazy and find excuses. You need decent shoes as well. I try to avoid muddyI paths in the rain and stick to the streets. Walking on muddy paths just makes them worse. You must keep up the exercise. Move more.