From Your Health Journal…..”An excellent article from Ireland in a publication called the Ulster Herald written by Gary Wallace entitled Are you eating a healthy breakfast? This is the first time I have found this web site online, so I hope my readers can support their publication by reading the complete article (link provided below). The article starts off by discussing how many people think they are eating healthy, but in many cases, they are not. They feel because a food box or carton states healthy, it is actually healthy. Food labeling has been a major issue for many experts, as they do want changes to help consumers make wiser choices. Breakfast, an important meal, is sometimes just a bowl of cereal, but most of the cereal’s we consume are extremely high in sugars. Children’s cereals in many cases are very unhealthy, as they do contain 85-per-cent more sugar, 60-per-cent more sodium and 65-per-cent less fiber on average than cereals for adults, according to Cereal Facts, a project of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity Research at Yale University. So, the bottom line becomes healthy choices and making time for these healthy choices. If we are always in a hurry, sometimes out of convenience, we reach for the quick unhealthy choice. Try to make the time for healthy choices, and you may make a big difference in your health. We do not necessarily have to end eating some foods completely, but moderation is the key. Please visit the Ulster Herald site to read the complete article. It was well written and very informative.”

From the article…..

One of the first questions that I ask any of my new clients is about their diet, most of them will respond by saying that they have a healthy diet. Without sounding too rude I ask them, so why come to me!!

The problem is that most of us may think we are eating healthily because it says so on the box or carton from which we eat, but if we look closely you may be surprised about what you are putting into your body.

A few weeks back the Public Health Agency launched a major new public information campaign to tackle the societal issue of obesity. The agency states that 61-per-cent of adults in the north of Ireland are overweight or obese. This number is huge and if you are one of the 61-per-cent then you may have to consider what food you are putting into your body from the moment you wake up in the morning.

For a long time now I have been told and I keep hearing that your breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

I agree with this but I would also hold a strong case that what you eat straight after training is equally important but I will write about that another day!

So back to breakfast, many of you may be eating yours as you read this article or tucking into a bowl of cereal before you go to bed, but do you know what you are eating?

The clever people of the cereal industry try to manipulate and target people, especially young people into buying their products. They will spend upwards of £100 million per year marketing to children, and health is not their primary concern.

Children’s cereals aren’t the only unhealthy ones, but they do contain 85-per-cent more sugar, 60-per-cent more sodium and 65-per-cent less fibre on average than cereals for adults, according to Cereal Facts, a project of the Rudd Centre for Food Policy and Obesity Research at Yale University.

I recently read a blog by elite fitness and performance (www.elitefitnessandperformance.com) about healthy breakfasts. They took a box a Cheerios and highlighted all their ingredients. They found that at the front of this and many other cereal boxes you could clearly see the following; high in fibre, low in fat, high in protein, no sugar added, high in calcium and folate. However, they then went on to list the ingredients of Cheerios, highlighting in bold the five types of sugar it contains.

Ingredients: Whole grain oats, sugar, modified corn starch, honey, brown sugar syrup, corn bran, salt, corn syrup, oat fibre, corn syrup solids, tripotassium phosphate, canola and/or rice bran oil, guar gum, natural almond flavour, mixed tocopherols.

To read the complete article…..Click here