Breakfast is often described as the most important meal of the day, but the options presented to us aren’t always the best for our health. On his Instagram, Dr. Jean-Michel Cohen, a nutritionist, highlighted how certain foods, particularly breakfast cereals, can be misleading. These attractive and colorful products often carry health claims touting their vitamins and minerals, but hide worrying sugar levels.
How to identify hidden sugars?
“For years and years we have been bombarded with breakfast, the best meal of the day, with boxes that are super colorful.“, explains Dr. Cohen. Indeed, under attractive packaging and marketing messages claiming less of this, more of that, there is often a significant quantity of sugar hidden. To spot these hidden sugars, it is crucial to learn to read the labels.
Consumers should check the ingredient list for the presence of added sugars under different names such as glucose syrup, fructose or invert sugar.
Tips for choosing your daily foods better
Faced with these practices, how can we make more informed choices?
- Favoring cereals with a short list of natural ingredients can be a good start;
- Choose products with a high percentage of fiber and a low content of added sugars. “Presented as balanced… but often full of sugar” ;
- Carrying out a personal analysis of the nutritional composition of products can help to better understand what we actually consume;
- Do not be influenced solely by the claims on the front of the packaging and instead focus on proven nutritional facts;
- Using apps or websites to analyze the nutritional value of foods can also help make better food choices.
In summary, as we continue to navigate a market saturated with so-called “healthy” breakfast options, it becomes increasingly important to know how to decipher the real from the healthy fakes. By heeding Dr. Cohen’s advice, everyone can learn to make more informed food choices, contributing to better overall health.