Sridhar is one who takes the proverb ‘breakfast like a king’ rather seriously. A regular at gym, his days start with two egg-whites, a bowl of cereal and fruits with skimmed milk and protein powder and a couple of slices of brown bread. The cereal consists of personally concocted mixture of corn-flakes, wheat bran flakes, Muesli and oats. Quite a royal breakfast, isn’t it? Not a wise one though, say dietitians.

According to the dietitians and doctors in the City, no packaged food can replace the traditional breakfast – especially steamed ones like idlis. Supplemented with a curry like sambar, it provides all the nutrients required to start the day. Same holds true for daliyas and parathas.

When breakfast cereals came into the market over a decade ago, they demanded more space on Indian dining table quoting lack of iron content in the Indian breakfast as the reason. But what is cornflakes if not just carbohydrates? Unless enriched with vitamins and iron, it doesn’t provide any extra nutrition as the advertisements claim.  

Nutritionist Parul Dube says no matter how much they try, these factory products can never replace home-cooked food. “Breakfast cereals have now become a rage among middle class families. Even though they promise high iron, protein, mind-sharpening and what not, they will not be able to replace the daliya and oats that one prepares at home. They (factory produce) will never be able to match the home front no matter how hard they try. It’s impossible, as those that have undergone a factory process will always be diminished in authentic taste and true nutrients,” she says. 

Hidden additives

Nutritional factors apart, cereals are said to have hidden additives that could be harmful for the body. For laymen, ‘added sugar’ or simply ‘sugar’ in the label may not make much sense, but the truth is, such cereals are basically drowned in sugar – or a minimum of 30 per cent sugar can be expected. These sugar, if not mentioned directly, may appear in varied avatars like dextrose, fructose, corn syrup, maple syrup and many more. At the same time, if the label indicates no added sugar, the dietitians say, they can be trusted to a small extent.

“Some sugar in a healthy and balanced diet offers many benefits including added energy, taste appeal and satiety and does not play a significant role in the development of diseases such as heart disease, diabetes or obesity,” says Anupam Dutta, MD, Kellogg’s India.

Another bad news is hydrogenated oils found plenty in packaged food. Hydrogenated oils are linked directly to coronary heart disease, diabetes and other chronic health conditions. All saturated and trans fats will raise the cholesterol in your blood. “Cereals have hidden additives which are not mentioned in the nutrition labels. Most of the cooking is done in hydrogenated fat, which is harmful to the body.,” Parul adds.

But according to dietitian Srimathy Venkataraman of Manipal Hospital, something is better than nothing. Even though she feels nothing can truly replace traditional breakfast, cereals can be substituted if you are strapped for time. “Or  take cereals twice a week and traditional breakfast the other days. That way they can balance the nutritional needs,” she says.

In the fibre zone

Packaged cereals do not fair well in the fibre zone as well. The labels are thoroughly misleading. A common trap is a label that says ‘made with whole grain’. The loophole here is that the product is often made with refined flour, in the case of wheat-based cereals, with a little bit of whole wheat thrown in for effect, since they are not required to say how much whole grain is actually used. Same is the case with corn-based or oat-based cereals.
There are other type of cereals that claim to be fat-free...they are free of fat of course, sometimes even 98 per cent, but what is ‘sugar’ doing in it?. If a ‘fat-free’ cereal or muesli has sugar, it is more fattening than a ‘fat-laden’ diet.

Then, what is an ideal breakfast? Dietitians say, it should begin with a fruit, some whole grain bread with a light spread of butter and eggs. Finish this with some herbal tea, without milk. Or have daliya with milk and chopped fruits followed by herbal tea or two idlis/ one plain dosa with mint chutney and sambar.