On this page:

• Which muesli bar tasted best?
• Which were the cheapest muesli bars in our comparison?
• How healthy are muesli bars?
• Tips for buying the best muesli bar

Muesli bars are a convenient option for everyday snacking or popping in the kids’ lunchboxes. While they’re often sold as a healthy option – many boast about being a source of fibre or whole grains – their health food claims should be taken with a grain of salt. Many can contain high amounts of saturated fat, added sugars and preservatives.

Nevertheless, there’s no arguing their popularity, and there are plenty of varieties on offer. As many schools have a nut-free policy, one of the most popular flavours is strawberry and yoghurt, and there are options on offer from many brands, including Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and Uncle Tobys.

We asked a panel of experts (a group of ÌÇÐÄVlog kids and teens) to tell us which version tastes best, and had a look at the health star ratings to help you decide which one to add to your shopping basket.

Which muesli bar tasted best?

Finding snacks that your children will actually eat is a continuous struggle for parents, so to find out which muesli bar tasted best, we went straight to the source. We enlisted the help of 28 kids to blind-taste each of these muesli bars and tell us which one they liked the best.Ìý 

Uncle Toby’s was the clear winner, with Aldi and Coles earning joint second place. The Woolworths version received the fewest votes.

Which were the cheapest muesli bars in our comparison?

Packaged snacks for lunchboxes are just one of the items adding to the increasing cost of our groceries, and if you’re adding a muesli bar to your kids’ snack packs every other day, the cost can really add up.

If you have two kids who eat one muesli bar at school every day and you buy the most expensive bar in our test, you’re looking at $6.70 per week or $26.80 per month, just for muesli bars! Alternatively, if you buy the cheapest bar, your kids’ muesli bar habit will only cost you $15.20 per month, which is a little easier to stomach.Ìý 

As with any groceries you’re shopping for, it’s important to not only pay attention to the price of the box and how many bars you’re getting, but also unit pricing, which will tell you how much you’re paying for each 100g of muesli bar.

While the Hillcrest Yoghurt and Strawberry bars from Aldi are the cheapest per box at just $2.49 they’re actually the second most expensive when you look at how much each bar costs: $0.42. The Coles and Woolworths bars are the cheapest: $3 for a box of eight, equating to $0.38 for each bar.

The Uncle Tobys bars were the most expensive in our test: $4 per pack and $0.67 per bar.

How healthy are muesli bars?

While all of the muesli bars in our test make claims about the health qualities of their ingredients – three mention “wholegrains” on the front of the packaging – it’s important to consider that this doesn’t necessarily mean they’re good for you, or the kids.Ìý

While you might not see sugar mentioned more than once in an ingredient list, it doesn’t mean there aren’t other similar sweeteners present. In Australia, there are more than 60 different names used for added sugars and nine of them can be found in the muesli bars in our test: Sugar, raw sugar, invert sugar, glucose, glucose syrup, fruit concentrates, juice concentrates, syrup and polydextrose were all found across the four products.

While all of these bars should probably be considered an occasional treat rather than an everyday snack, if you are looking for the healthiest option, be mindful of the health star rating, which you can find on the front of every packet.

While the Uncle Tobys, Hillcrest and Woolworths bars all earned four stars, the Coles product has a 2.5 health star rating. With these results, it’s not surprising that the Coles bars have the highest amount of saturated fat (more than 2g per bar), the highest sugar content (7.8g per bar) and the highest sodium content. In fact, the Coles bars have 23mg of sodium per serving – almost four times as much as the Uncle Tobys and Woolworths bars, which both have only 6mg of sodium in each bar.Ìý

Tips for buying the best muesli bar

Of course, it’s no use buying the healthiest muesli bar in the world if your kid refuses to eat it. As well as taste, here are some things you might like to take into account when shopping: 

• Energy per serve: A healthy snack should fill a hole without giving you too many unnecessary kilojoules. Nutritionists recommend that we limit our energy intake from snacks to 600kJ.
• Size: All the muesli bars in our test weighed around 31g (the Uncle Tobys and Hillcrest varieties were slightly less, just 30.83g. The Coles and Woolworths versions were exactly 31g each).Ìý 
• Nut-free: Many schools have a nut-free policy, so you need to avoid bars with nuts in the ingredients. None of the ones we tested contained nuts but all came with the standard “may contain traces” warning.Ìý
• Ingredients list: These are listed by descending weight, meaning the ingredients listed first make up the largest amount of the product. Therefore, look for muesli bars that have more whole ingredients up front, such as rolled oats and whole-grain wheats and cereals, and less sugar.Ìý
• Cost: As we’ve already mentioned above, look for unit pricing to ensure you’re getting the best value possible. If you have time, making your own muesli bars at home, using ingredients like bulk-bought muesli, seeds, oats and honey, could also be a more cost-effective alternative.

The post Muesli bars from Uncle Tobys, Woolworths, Coles and Aldi compared appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog.

On this page:

• Kellogg's Corn Flakes
• Uncle Toby's Traditional Rolled Oats
• Kellogg's Coco Pops
• Kellogg's Nutri-Grain
• Kellogg's Froot Loops
• Sanitarium Weet-Bix

But while we tend to be on autopilot at breakfast time, perhaps we should be a little more mindful of what we’re putting in our trolley – some of the best-loved cereals can be expensive and not as healthy as you’d expect.Ìý

So, how does your favourite cereal compare to other products in terms of price and nutrition? We compared six of the best-known Australian cereals with their peers to help you decide what to put on the breakfast table each morning.Ìý

A note on Health Star Ratings

If you’re trying to find a healthy breakfast cereal, checking the Health Star Rating (HSR) on the pack is a quick and easy way to get an indication of how nutritious the product is.Ìý

The HSR takes into account ‘good’ things like protein, fibre, and the amount of fruit, vegetables, nuts or legumes it contains. This is balanced against kilojoules and the three ‘negative’ nutrients: saturated fat, sodium and sugar.

The system has its limitations, but it’s a good starting point for comparing products. There are a few things to keep in mind when using it.

1. You can’t compare apples with oranges

HSRs should only be used for comparing like with like.ÌýThey’re are a great way to see how one cereal compares with another similar product so you can see which is the better option.ÌýBut you can’t compare cereal with bread, for instance, to determine which is healthier.Ìý

2. Even highly-processed foods can score well

An HSR won’t tell you anything about how natural or unrefined the ingredients used in the cereal are, whether things such as artificial preservatives, colours and flavours and other additives are included, or how processed the product is.

Nutri-Grain, for instance, has a higher HSR than Corn Flakes, even though Corn Flakes are basically just squashed corn while Nutri-Grain is a mash-up of refined flours, flavouring, colouring, vegetable gum, raising agent and more.Ìý

(Corn Flakes aren’t an especially nutritious choice either – they’re quite high in sodium and low in fibre – but we’re just using this as an example.)

3. A dietitian’s view on cereal HSRs

“Highly processed breakfast cereals often have fibre and protein added to increase the HSR,” says ÌÇÐÄVlog food expert Shadia Djakovic, who is an accredited practising dietitian and nutritionist.Ìý

“Rolled oats also have a high HSR due to their naturally-occurring fibre content. But they have only one ingredient – oats – which means they have a higher HSR without the need for any added nutrients to make them healthier.” 

Here’s a nutrition tip from Shadia to help next time you’re shopping:

“Look at the shape and colour: does it look like a natural product? If it’s far from natural-looking, chances are it’s highly processed and needs things like salt and sugar to make it taste good.”

Kellogg’s Corn Flakes

• Health Star Rating: 3.5
• Added sugar: 8.9g per 100g
• Sodium: 485mg per 100g
• Fibre: 4.2g per 100g
• Price: $1.59 per 100g

Nutrition

They’ve been around for more than 95 years and began life as a health food, but are Kellogg’s Corn Flakes a nutritious option? 

Dr William Kellogg (the inventor of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes) might be shocked to hear this, but they’re actually not great in terms of nutrition. Here’s why:

• They’re high in sodium. Corn Flakes have a sodium content of 485mg per 100g. For context, a Big Mac has 438mg per 100g! (Keep in mind that the serving sizes are quite different though.)
• They’re low in fibre, with just 4.2g per 100g.
• For a plain cereal, they actually have a lot more sugar than you’d expect. In fact they’re almost 10% sugar (8.9g per 100g, to be precise).
• They have a Health Star Rating of just 3.5.Ìý

If you’re looking for a healthier corn-based flake cereal, you’re better off going with Woolworths Macro Wholefoods Market Certified Organic Corn Flakes, which have 220mg of sodium per 100g and 4.5g of added sugar per 100g. They have an HSR of only 3.5 too, so they’re still not exactly the healthiest option on the block.Ìý

To find a flake cereal that’s better for your body, think outside the (corn flake) box and consider wheat-based flakes instead. Here are our dietitian’s recommendations for flake cereals:

Kellogg’s All-Bran Wheat Flakes

• Health Star Rating: 5
• Added sugar: 10.8g per 100g
• Sodium: 360mg per 100g
• Fibre: 18.8g per 100g

Kellogg’s Guardian

• Health Star Rating: 5
• Added sugar: 12.6g per 100g
• Sodium: 200mg per 100g
• Fibre: 18.4g per 100g

Uncle Toby’s Weeties

• Health Star Rating: 4.5
• Added sugar: 0g per 100g
• Sodium: 375mg per 100g
• Fibre: 12.7g per 100g

Price

They’re described as “golden flakes”, but for the price you might wonder if Kellogg’s Corn Flakes actually are gold-plated! 

Of all the plain corn flakes we analysed, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes are the most expensive at $1.59 per 100g.Ìý

If you’re trying to reduce your grocery spend, these are the cheapest corn flake options:

• Coles Corn Flakes: 40c per 100g
• Aldi Goldenvale Corn Flakes: 40c per 100g

Uncle Toby’s Traditional Rolled Oats

• Health Star Rating: 5
• Added sugar: 0g per 100g
• Sodium: 6mg per 100g
• Fibre: 9.2g per 100g
• Price: 90c per 100g

Nutrition

If you’re looking for a healthy breakfast, oats are a great way to go. They’re packed with fibre, vitamins, protein and minerals, and they have a lower GI, meaning they tick a lot of nutrition boxes.Ìý

Since rolled oat products all contain the same thing – 100% rolled oats – there’s not really much difference between the various brands in terms of their nutritional value, so there’s no point in comparing the Uncle Toby’s version with others.Ìý

All the 100% rolled oats products we analysed have a Health Star Rating of 5, so you can’t really go wrong with any of them.Ìý

“Rolled oats are a fabulous breakfast option, particularly in winter. Don’t negate their goodness with lashings of cream and sugar though – try adding some frozen berries and a sprinkle of cinnamon to spice it up,” says Shadia.

Price

While they’re all essentially the same, the cost of different rolled oats products can vary dramatically.ÌýUncle Toby’s Traditional Rolled Oats is one of the more expensive products on the market (excluding rolled oat products with specific health claims like “cholesterol lowering”, “protein rich”, “Omega 3” or blends).Ìý

Since you’ll be getting pretty much the same product once you take away the packaging, buying generic or supermarket-branded rolled oats is a good idea if you want to save money.Ìý

Here are some cheaper alternatives:

• Aldi Goldenvale Australian Rolled Oats: 17c per 100g
• Coles Rolled Oats: 18c per 100g
• Woolworths Australian Rolled Oats: 19c per 100g

Kellogg’s Coco Pops

• Health Star Rating: 2
• Added sugar: 32.3g per 100g
• Sodium: 330mg per 100g
• Fibre: 1.7g per 100g
• Price: $1.87 per 100g

Nutrition

There’s no sugar-coating this: Coco Pops are in no way healthy. Loaded with sugar and low in fibre, they’re probably better described as a dessert than a breakfast food.Ìý

But we know that some kids love them and families will continue to buy them. So, how do they compare to other cereals and what alternatives could you buy to make your chocolate breakfast cereal a bit healthier?

Not surprisingly, Kellogg’s Coco Pops had one of the highest added sugar levels of all the chocolate puff cereals we analysed with 32.3g of added sugar per 100g.Ìý

That means you’re consuming around 9.7g of sugar per 30g bowl. Considering that the World Health Organisation recommends that adults eat no more than 54g of sugar each day, you’re burning through almost a fifth of your sugar allowance by the time you’ve finished breakfast!  (And that’s assuming you actually stick to the recommended serving size – how many of us do?)

We’re probably not telling you anything you didn’t already know, or at least suspect about Coco Pops. If you want to switch to a slightly more nutritious crunchy chocolate breakfast cereal, here are some better options:

Freedom Classic XO Cocoa Crunch Cereal

• Health Star Rating: 4.5
• Total sugars: 18g per 100g
• Sodium: 39mg per 100g
• Fibre: 11.5g per 100g

Farmer Jo Kids Chocolate Breakfast Puffs

• Health Star Rating: 4
• Added sugar: 7.2g per 100g
• Sodium: 156mg per 100g
• Fibre: 8.4g per 100g

Price

Coco Pops aren’t cheap: $1.87 per 100g. (And that’s before you’ve paid for all the dentist bills from the sugar!)

If you still want a choc hit for breakfast, there are a few cheaper options:

• Aldi Goldenvale Choco Rice: 61c per 100g
• Woolworths Crackling Cocoa Puffs: 63c per 100g
• Coles Cocoa Puffs: 71c per 100g

Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain

• Health Star Rating: 4
• Added sugar: 24g per 100g
• Sodium: 350mg per 100g
• Fibre: 5.3g per 100g
• Price: $2.31 per 100g

Nutrition

It’s hard to define exactly what Nutri-Grain is – is it a kids’ cereal, a health cereal, or something else entirely? Its marketing seems to cover all bases.

Regardless, it’s been around for so long that it’s sparked a range of Nutri-Grain spin-offs, including muesli bar-ish products, to-go packs and even flavoured milks.Ìý

But is it something that ironmen and women would actually eat? Probably not. While it’s relatively high in protein and has added vitamins and iron, it’s actually a highly processed food with a high added sugar and sodium content and not a great deal of fibre.Ìý

If your kids have their hearts set on a Nutri-Grain-type cereal but you want something less sugary, you could try Aldi’s Goldenvale Power Grain which has 18.1g of added sugar per 100g.ÌýIt’s also lower in sodium with 238mg per 100g. (This is still around double what the Heart Foundation recommends, but it’s a lower-sodium product than the Kellogg’s version.)

Price

At $2.31 per 100g, Nutri-Grain is one of the most expensive kids’ cereals in our review.Ìý

Instead of giving your wallet an Ironman-worthy workout, you could try switching to a supermarket own-brand version. The copycat products from Coles, Woolworths and Aldi cost around 80c per 100g, which is a significant saving.Ìý

But you’re probably better skipping the Coles and Woolworths versions if you’re watching your health. They both have Health Star Ratings of 2.5 and 26.7g of added sugar per 100g.Ìý

Kellogg’s Froot Loops

• Health Star Rating: 2
• Added sugar: 38.8g per 100g
• Sodium: 360mg per 100g
• Fibre: 2.4g per 100g
• Price: $2.46 per 100g

Nutrition

Kellogg’s Froot Loops are probably better categorised as confectionery than cereal, but since they’re found in the cereal aisle we’ll treat them as such.Ìý

Unsurprisingly, they make the list of cereals our in-house nutrition expert recommends you avoid due to their sky-high sugar levels and the absence of anything even vaguely nutritious.Ìý

Per 100g, these cute loops pack a whopping 38.8g of added sugar and 360mg of sodium with only a tiny 2.4g of fibre, making them the stuff of dietitians’ nightmares.Ìý

If you’re buying something like this as a treat, you’re best to give Froot Loops a miss and choose something lower in sugar, like Aldi’s Goldenvale Fruity Rings (18.8g/100g of added sugar), Woolworths Colourful Rainbow Rings (15.8g/100g total sugars), or Coles Frooty Rings (15.6g/100g sugars).Ìý

If your kids have never actually tasted Froot Loops but they’re begging you for some, you could always try buying Uncle Toby’s Cheerios Vanilla O’s instead – they tick the box for loop-shaped flavoured cereal but they only have 4.1g of added sugar per 100g. Maybe you could pass them off as ‘healthy Froot Loops’? 

Price

At a whopping $2.46 per 100g, Froot Loops are the most expensive kids’ cereal we analysed.Ìý

Similar products from supermarket own-brands all cost around 83c per 100g. So they’re lower in sugar and cheaper to boot.Ìý

Sanitarium Weet-Bix

• Health Star Rating: 5
• Added sugar: 3g per 100g
• Sodium: 270mg per 100g
• Fibre: 12.9g per 100g
• Price: 87 cents per 100g

Weet-Bix is one of the most recognisable, well-known cereal products in Australia. For many of us, they were a first food and a staple breakfast option throughout our childhoods (and beyond).

So, how do they compare with other bix on the market? 

Nutrition

As far as nutrition goes, Weet-Bix compare very favourably! They have a Health Star Rating of 5, only 3g per 100g of added sugar, and are 97% wholegrains.Ìý

Many of the wheat biscuit cereals we analysed score 100% for nutrition. They’re generally high in fibre, low in sugar and saturated fat and a source of whole grains.Ìý

Aside from flavoured products, almost all the bix we reviewed have a Health Star Rating of 5, so you can be confident that most plain wheat biscuit cereals you put in your trolley will be good for you.Ìý

Price

When you shop by brand, you’ll often pay more for a well-known name – and that’s definitely the case for Weet-Bix. Per 100g, it’s the second-most expensive wheat biscuit cereal we analysed at 88c per 100g.Ìý

The cheapest is Aldi Goldenvale Wheat Biscuits at 36c per 100g – less than half the price of Weet-Bix.Ìý

And according to ÌÇÐÄVlog taste testers, they’re not dissimilar to the OG Weet-Bix product. Check out our wheat biscuit cereal comparison.

The post Which popular Australian cereals are actually healthy – and cheap? appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog.

On this page:

• Top flakes
• Watch out for added salt and sugar
• Which is better: Corn flakes or oats?
• Which flakes are the best value?
• How we tested flake cereals

Times have changed, and we now have a smorgasbord of options at breakfast time. The health profile of flakes has probably changed a bit since then as well – in our analysis of 23 flake products we found that many come with plenty of added sugars and salt for flavour.

Read on to find out which flakes are better for you than others, which are the cheapest, and more.

Top flakes

Here are the top performing flake cereals based on Health Star Rating (HSR), lowest estimated added sugar per 100g and lowest sodium per 100g.

Kellogg’s All-Bran Wheat Flakes

• Price: $1.82 per 100g
• Health Star Rating: 5
• Estimated added sugar: 10.8g per 100g
• Sodium: 360mg per 100g
• Claims on pack: Very high in fibre to support a healthy gut, supports digestive wellness, helps you feel fuller, promotes regularity and good gut bacteria, supports digestive health.

Kellogg’s Guardian

• Price: $1.94 per 100g
• Health Star Rating: 5
• Estimated added sugar: 12.6g
• Sodium: 200mg per 100g
• Claims on pack: 97% fat free, 63% whole grains, supports digestive wellness, helps you feel fuller, promotes regularity and good gut bacteria, no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives, four essential B vitamins, zinc and iron, 25% of your daily fibre needs, psyllium to stimulate the breakdown of cholesterol, helps to support heart health.

Uncle Tobys Weeties

• Price: $1.00 per 100g
• Health Star Rating: 4.5
• Estimated added sugar: 0g per 100g
• Sodium: 375mg per 100g
• Claims on pack: All natural wheat, source of fibre, over 60% of your daily wholegrain target, no artificial colours or flavours, source of wholegrain, 99% wholegrain.

Watch out for added salt and sugar

When you’re watching your salt intake you don’t expect to find a large amount in your breakfast bowl.

The average sodium content from this category is over 300mg per 100g. To put these figures into perspective, a McDonald’s large fries has 269mg salt per 100g and a Big Mac has 438mg per 100g.

If your bowl of flakes is no larger than the portion size stated on the pack then you won’t exceed the Australian Dietary Guidelines recommendation of less than 400mg sodium per 100g.

But the guidelines also say that 120mg or less is best. Of the flakes we looked at, the only ones that meet this level are Woolworths Honey Nut Corn Flakes at 120mg per 100g, and Coles I’m Free From Gluten Wheat Special Flakes at 119mg per 100g.

The flakes with more than 400mg of sodium per 100g are:

• Kellogg’s Gluten Free Corn Flakes (510mg sodium per 100g)
• Kellogg’s Gluten Free Special K (500mg)
• Kellogg’s Corn Flakes (485mg) 
• Nature’s Path Gluten Free Corn Flakes (425mg).

When it comes to sugar, the flakes we assessed have an average 11.4g estimated added sugar per 100g. By way of comparison, some kids-style breakfast cereals have less than this – and kids’ cereals are the ones with the bad reputation for added sugars!

For example, you’d be better off having Uncle Tobys Cheerios Vanilla O’s (4g sugar per 100g) than Kellogg’s Corn Flakes (8.9g per 100g) if you’re watching your added sugar.

The Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend we avoid foods with more than 15% added sugar. We found four flakes products that exceed this recommendation:

• Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes (31.3% estimated added sugar)
• Woolworths Honey Nut Corn Flakes (22.5%)
• Kellogg’s High Fibre Special K (20.6%)
• Goldenvale Honey Nut Cornflakes (20.3%).

Which is better: Corn flakes or oats?

Oats are rich in beta-glucan, a soluble fibre that helps keep your blood cholesterol down. They’re also low GI, which means their carbohydrate is slowly absorbed into your system, providing you with energy for hours after you’ve eaten. And they’re packed with B vitamins, vitamin E, protein and minerals. Eating oats is also associated with protective effects against heart disease in adults.

While corn flakes can be part of a varied healthy diet, the added sodium and sugars in some products and the lack of the benefits exclusive to oats can make them a less healthy breakfast option compared to oats overall.Ìý

Which flakes are the best value?

The most expensive flake product in our review is the Nature’s Path Gluten Free Corn Flakes, which costs $3.33 per 100g, or $1.25 per serve. This can really add up if the family is scoffing bowlfuls every morning – to the tune of $456.25 per year per person, just for breakfast cereal! 

Even Australia’s OG flake, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, are $1.59 per 100g, or 58c per serve (and that’s provided your teenage boys stick to the recommended six servings per packet).Ìý

If you’re trying to cut back on your grocery bills but you also want a flake breakfast cereal that’s nutritious, the supermarket own-brand flakes have you covered here.Ìý

Coles Corn Flakes in particular are a bargain, costing just 40c per 100g or 13 cents per serve, but have a Health Star Rating of 3.5.

Although double the cost of the Coles product at 80c per 100g, the Woolworths Free From Gluten Corn Flakes are still cheaper than premium-branded options and have a Health Star Rating of 4.

How we tested flake cereals

The flake cereals’ packaging was collected in November 2022. We analysed the nutrition information panels and recorded Health Star Ratings. Where the product did not have a labelled HSR, we estimated it based on the nutritional information that was available on the pack. The estimated added sugars per 100g were received from the George Institute for Global Health’s Ìý³Ù±ð²¹³¾.

We ranked the flake cereals by Health Star Rating, added sugars per 100g, and then sodium per 100g.

The post What’s the healthiest flake cereal? appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog.

On this page:

• Top scoring granola
• Is granola good for you?
• Which is better: Granola or muesli?
• How we tested granola

We analysed more than 70 breakfast cereals labelled with the word “granola” or “cluster”, to see which ones came out better nutritionally.

Top scoring granola

To find this selection, we assessed the granola products on their Health Star Rating (HSR) and the estimated added sugar content. Three of these products have less than four grams (one teaspoon) of estimated added sugar per serve.

Blue Frog Keto Almond, Peanut & Raspberry Cereal

• HSR: 5
• Estimated added sugar: 0g per 100g
• Fibre: 17.9g per 100g
• Claims on pack: 88% nuts and seeds, 1g sugar per serve, gluten-free

Carman’s Low Sugar Granola Raspberry and Coconut 450g

• HSR: 5
• Estimated added sugar: 4.8g per 100g
• Fibre: 17.2g per 100g
• Price: $1.53 per 100g
• Claims on pack: Excellent source of fibre, no artificial colours or flavours, low sugar, less than 3g sugar per serve, prebiotic fibre, suitable for a vegan diet

Jordan’s Low Sugar Granola Almond Hazelnut 500g

• HSR: 4.5
• Estimated added sugar: 0g per 100g
• Fibre: 7.9g per 100g
• Price: $1.70 per 100g
• Claims on pack: Less than 5% sugar (total sugar), no artificial colours or preservatives, suitable for vegetarians, whole grain oats

Jordan’s Granola Low Sugar Cherry Almond 500g

• HSR: 4.5
• Estimated added sugar: 0.7g per 100g,
• Fibre: 7.4g per 100g
• Price: $1.70 per 100g
• Claims on pack: Less than 5% sugar (total sugar), low sugar, no artificial colours or preservatives, wholegrain oats, suitable for vegetarians

Is granola good for you?

Sugar

Granola can be high in sugar because it is necessary to help form clusters of cereal. However, in our review of 300+ cereals that include categories such as muesli, oats, kids’ cereals and flakes, it was the granola category that had the most claims regarding sugar, with 21 products bearing a claim about low or reduced sugar.

Wholegrains

The use of wholegrains such as rolled oats and barley in some granolas means they have the benefit of containing fibre, and at least 26 different nutrients including carbohydrates, protein, minerals and a variety of phytonutrients. Consuming wholegrains is also shown to reduce inflammation-related conditions.

Fat

If the granola has been toasted with oils it may have a higher fat content than granola that’s been dry-toasted. So if you’re watching your kilojoule intake, look for those without added oils.

Which is better: Granola or muesli?

If you’re stuck between the choice of buying granola or muesli for breakfast, on average muesli will be the healthier choice.Ìý

In our review, muesli has an average HSR of 4, with an average estimated added sugar content of 3.6g per 100g. Granola products had an average HSR of 3.6, with an average estimated added sugar content of 13g per 100g.Ìý

If you’re looking to save money, then muesli again is the better choice. The muesli products in our review averaged $1.62 per 100g, compared with $2.24 per 100g on average for granola.

How we tested granola

The granola label information was collected, and where Health Star Ratings weren’t available on pack we estimated them, using estimates for fruit and nut content where necessary. Estimates of added sugar per 100g were sourced from the George Institutes Food Switch Team.

To find the top rating granola products, we ranked them by Health Star Rating and added sugars per 100g as listed by the George Institutes 

The post How to choose the best granola appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog.

Most of us are either Team Weet-Bix or Team Vita Brits, with the rivalry between the two brands almost as intense as Coke vs Pepsi.

But for the more open-minded, supermarkets also have their own bix offerings at less than half the price of the major brands. If your budget is feeling the squeeze, could it be worth switching from branded bix to a cheaper alternative?

We challenged ÌÇÐÄVlog staff to a blind taste test of four wheat biscuit products to see if they could tell the difference between two supermarket house brands and two well-known branded products.Ìý

Our in-house food and nutrition expert also analysed 16 biscuit-style breakfast cereals and compared them in terms of nutrition, including sugar and sodium content. What we found may surprise you.

The blind taste test: Big brands vs supermarket own-brands

Just how much difference can there be between one wheat biscuit cereal and another? Surely they’re pretty much the same, right?

To test that theory, we asked a panel of ÌÇÐÄVlog staff to try four different biscuit brands (two of the big brands and two supermarket own-brands) to see if they could pick their preferred cereal from the lineup.Ìý

Five devoted Weet-Bix fans and two die-hard Vita Brits-eaters showed up to find out how attuned their taste buds are to their breakfast cereal of choice.Ìý

Could our panel pick their usual breakfast biscuit from the lineup?

Yes! Everyone nailed it:

• All five Weet-Bix eaters picked the Sanitarium product correctly.
• Both the Vita Brits eaters picked the Vita Brits sample as their regular cereal.

Not bad, huh? But what about the other two bix?

Aldi Goldenvale Wheat Biscuits

Surprisingly, Aldi’s Goldenvale Wheat Biscuits gave many of our testers pause for thought. While they all picked the Weet-Bix sample as the OG Sanitarium product, three wondered whether the Aldi product might be their old faithful cereal.Ìý

“It’s hard to choose between sample 1 [Aldi] vs sample 4 [Weet-Bix],” said one taste tester. “Could be my usual brand of Weet-Bix but I’m not sure,” said another.

Looks like Aussie kids really are Weet-Bix kids. (But perhaps they could possibly become Aldi kids if their parents did a sneaky switch!)

Woolworths Wheat Biscuits

Unfortunately the Woolworths Wheat Biscuits weren’t a favourite, with tasters saying they “lack texture” and “go mushy quickly”, and many commenting that they tasted bland.

That could be because they’re very low in sugar (more about that below), which could mean they’re less flavoursome than sweeter bix. Despite added sugar not being great for our health, it seems we do have a taste for it!

Taste tester comments

Here’s what our testers said about the four products:

• Aldi Goldenvale Wheat Biscuits: “Good but not quite the one”
• Vita Brits: “Way too hard”
• Woolworths Wheat Biscuits: “Nice but a bit blander than the ones I usually eat”
• Sanitarium Weet-Bix: “Very crunchy and delicious”

Note: We didn’t include Coles Wheat Biscuits in the taste test because the product wasn’t available at the time of testing.

How do you eat yours?

Most of us are very set in our ways about our breakfast. We often eat the same food, prepared in the same way every time. There’s something comforting about predictability first thing in the morning.Ìý

To ensure our testers were tasting the four bix in our taste test on an even playing field, we asked them to prepare each sample in the same way they do each day.Ìý

The differences in prep styles were quite interesting. They ranged from broken vs unbroken, with and without sugar or honey, through to warm versions, including one that was deliberately turned to mush before being microwaved.

During the test, one ÌÇÐÄVlog staff member popped her head in to comment that she eats her Weet-Bix dry, smothered in butter and Vegemite – a contender for the most Australian breakfast ever!

Which is the cheapest wheat biscuit breakfast cereal?

Of the three big supermarkets, Aldi often has the lowest prices. True to form, its Goldenvale Wheat Biscuits are the cheapest of the lot, costing just 36 cents per 100g.Ìý

However, they were neck and neck with Woolworths Wheat biscuits, which come in at 37 cents per 100g.Ìý Coles is the most expensive supermarket own-brand option at 41 cents per 100g.

Sanitarium Weet-Bix cost more than double all the supermarket own-brand products at 87 cents per 100g.Ìý

If you’re looking to reduce your grocery spend, the Aldi bix could be a good option as they tick all the boxes for nutrition, price and taste. If you’re not an Aldi shopper, Woolworths is your best (supermarket-branded) bet as it delivers on both price and nutrition.Ìý

Here’s how the branded products compare with supermarket products on price:

Are wheat biscuit breakfast cereals healthy?

We compared biscuit-style cereals using the to calculate estimated added sugar per serve, Health Star Rating (HSR), and the highest wholegrain content.

Almost all ‘bix’ cereals had an HSR of more than 4.5, so they’re generally a healthy option, and most are low in sugar, thought some have surprisingly high levels of salt.

No-added-sugar options

When we surveyed parents about their cereal buying habits, 44% said they look at the sugar content when choosing, or opt for low-sugar cereals.Ìý

If you want to opt for the products no added sugar, these are the way to go:

Woolworths Wheat Biscuits

• Price: 37c per 100g
• Estimated added sugar: 0g per 100g

Uncle Tobys Vita Brits 

• Price: 88c per 100g
• Estimated added sugar: 0g per 100g

Uncle Tobys Shredded Wheat

• Price: $2.04 per 100g
• Estimated added sugar: 0g per 100g

While Vita Brits may have no added sugar, it actually has the highest sodium content of all the biscuit cereals we analysed, so take that into account when adding it to your shopping basket.

If you’re trying to reduce your sugar intake, make sure you avoid Sanitarium’s Weet-Bix Bites Wild Berry, which packs a huge 21.8g of sugar per 100g.

Low-salt options

Salt in your cereal? Yes, really.Ìý

“Watch out for the sodium in these biscuit-type cereals,” says ÌÇÐÄVlog nutrition expert Shadia Djakovic. “You might be shocked by the amount found in some products.”

The Heart Foundation recommends that you choose foods with a sodium content of 120mg per 100g, but the average sodium content for this category was more than 237mg per 100g – almost twice as much!

The worst offender was Uncle Toby’s Vita Brits, with a sodium content of almost 400mg per 100g.Ìý

Only two products out of the 16 we examined meet the Heart Foundation’s recommendation for low sodium content:

Sanitarium Weet-Bix Little Kids Essentials

• Price: $0.75 per 100g
• Sodium: 12mg per 100g

Uncle Toby’s Shredded Wheat

• Price: $2.04 per 100g
• Sodium: 21mg per 100g

“Uncle Toby’s Shredded Wheat is 100% wholegrain: just shredded wheat with only 21mg of sodium per 100g (and naturally occurring sodium at that), and no added sugar,” says Shadia.

The post Weet-Bix and Vita Brits vs house brand wheat biscuit cereals: Which is the best? appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog.

On this page:

• The healthiest kids' cereals
• Cereals to avoid
• Added vitamins and minerals
• The power of marketing
• Cereals that are lower in added sugar
• How we got our results

But there are a lot of cereal products marketed to kids, ranging from those that claim all sorts of health benefits, through to colourful, sugary shapes (that still attempt some health claims). How do you balance what’s healthy enough with what kids will actually eat?

To help you make a more informed decision, we’ve compared the nutrition information of 49 different children’s breakfast cereals. We’ve categorised “kids’ cereals” as the products that are marketed to and generally enjoyed by children, including extruded cereals (those that are processed into fun shapes, porridges, biscuits and mixes).

The healthiest kids’ cereals

We define ‘healthiest’ as cereals with a Health Star Rating (HSR) of 4.5 or more, a wholegrain content of more than 50%, and added sugar of less than 15g per 100g (roughly less than a teaspoon per serve, as listed by the George Institute For Global Health’s ).

Sanitarium Weet-Bix Little Kids Essentials Breakfast Cereal

• Health Star Rating: 5
• Wholegrain content: 97%
• Estimated added sugar: 2.9%
• Label marketing to children: Yes
• Price: $1.13 per 100g
• Claims on pack: “Recommended by kids’ dietitians, five benefits for healthy growing kids, prebiotics, high fibre, nine essential vitamins and minerals, full of wholegrain goodness, high in iron, low sugar, no added salt, no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives”.

Uncle Toby’s Squarz The Original 

• Health Star Rating: 5
• Wholegrain content: 95%
• Estimated added sugar: 4.2%
• Label marketing to children: No
• Price: $1.30 per 100g 
• Claims on pack: “Four simple ingredients, less than 5% sugar, high in fibre with the awesomeness of whole grains, absolutely no refined sugar”.

Uncle Toby’s Nat Oat Sachets Cocoa Strawberry Porridge

• Health Star Rating: 4.5
• Wholegrain content: 81%
• Estimated added sugar: 13.2%
• Label marketing to children: Yes
• Price: $1.88 per 100g
• Claims on pack: “Made with natural wholegrain oats, no artificial colours or flavours”.

Uncle Toby’s Cheerios Vanilla O’s

• Health Star Rating: 4.5
• Wholegrain content: 67%
• Estimated added sugar: 4.1%
• Label marketing to children: No
• Price: $1.18 per 100g
• Claims on pack: “Low sugar, high fibre, four crunchy whole grains, no artificial colours or flavours”.

Cereals to avoid

These four cereals contain more than an estimated 35% added sugar, have a Health Star Rating of two or less, and have some form of marketing incentive to get kids pestering parents for them. If you want to provide a healthier breakfast, then steer clear of serving these products regularly.

Goldenvale Cookies & Crème Pillows

• Health Star Rating: 1.5
• Wholegrain content: Not specified
• Estimated added sugar: 38%
• Price: 53c per 100g
• Label marketing to children: Yes

Goldenvale Choco Rice

• Health Star Rating: 2
• Wholegrain content: Not specified
• Estimated added sugar: 35%
• Price: 61c per 100g
• Label marketing to children: Yes

Kellogg’s Froot Loops 

• Health Star Rating: 2
• Wholegrain content: Not specified
• Estimated added sugar: 39%
• Price: $2.46 per 100g
• Label marketing to children: Yes

Kellogg’s Frosties

• Health Star Rating: 2
• Wholegrain content: Not specified
• Estimated added sugar: 41%
• Price: $1.86 per 100g
• Label marketing to children: Yes

Added vitamins and minerals

Many breakfast cereals contain added vitamins and minerals, which can make a useful contribution to your child’s diet.ÌýHowever, it’s more important when choosing a cereal to base your shortlist on the Health Star Rating (or alternatively high fibre and lower salt and added sugars) before considering added vitamins and minerals.

The bottom line is that most kids’ cereals are better than no breakfast at all, and the vitamins and minerals as well as the protein and good-for-your-bones calcium from the milk are a bonus.

Sugar and salt do play a vital role in the tastiness of a product, but many cereals targeted specifically at kids have more in common with treat foods than a nutritious breakfast.

The power of marketing

Pester power or repeatedly nagging parents to buy certain foods is a form of influence used by food industry marketers to increase the sales of their products. Children have been shown to demand that their parents buy food products with packaging that contains cartoons, therefore influencing their purchasing choices.

Of the cereals we looked at, we found that products with cartoon characters or games on their packs had on average:

• one less health star
• 7g more added sugar
• 19g less wholegrain
• 1.6g less fibre
• 65mg more sodium per 100g.Ìý

What’s compelling is that those that didn’t display marketing to children were generally on the healthier side, with 8 in 10 of the products earning a Health Star Rating of 4 or more.

Of the cereals that did market to children, just 4 in 10 had a Health Star Rating of 4 or more. If you don’t have time to check the nutritional information when shopping, then based on our findings it’s probably safe to assume that the cereal that doesn’t have marketing that appeals to children is the healthier option.

Policies needed to support parents

Dheepa Jeyapalan, a dietitian with the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth), says using children’s beloved characters, shows and games to promote products is a very powerful marketing tactic.Ìý

“Children associate these characters with their favourite TV show or video game and overall with a pleasurable experience, resulting in a child recognising and desiring this brand even if they’ve never actually tried the product before.”

And the sheer volume of these products makes buying healthy alternatives even more challenging for parents.

“Unhealthy options are twice as [many] as healthy alternatives, making it harder for parents to put healthy food items into their shopping basket,” says Jeyapalan.

Banning such marketing on packaging has been done successfully overseas. In 2016 Chilean authorities banned cartoon characters from unhealthy food and drinks and enforced warning labels to limit the purchase of these products. These policies were found to positively impact the purchasing behaviour of Chileans and their perceptions of the food and drinks that were targeted.

Jeyapalan says that policies are needed in Australia to prevent processed food companies from using marketing features and techniques such as cartoons and games that directly appeal to children.

Cereals that are lower in added sugar

Health advice tells us we should limit the amount of added sugars we eat, yet food producers aren’t required to label it. Currently, there’s no clear way of knowing how much sugar has been added to a food by looking at the label.

You can check the ingredient list to see if a product contains added sugar – the higher up the list, the more sugar the product contains. But added sugars can be disguised under more than 60 different names and distributed throughout the ingredient list, so they can be tricky to identify and even harder to quantify.

You can also look at the total amount of sugar in a product on the Nutrition Information Panel (NIP). However, this total doesn’t differentiate between sugars that have been added by the manufacturer (including glucose, honey and fruit juice concentrates) and those that are intrinsic to the food or one of its ingredients (such as the lactose in milk).

How we got our results

We collected label data for a wide range of breakfast cereal products. We then calculated Health Star Ratings based on the information on the pack* and used the , which gives an estimate of added sugars in packaged food, to determine added sugars per 100g. To use the app yourself, simply scan the barcode of a product and you’ll see an added sugar estimate along with a few healthier alternative products to choose from.

For porridge, we looked at the Health Star Rating and added sugars per 100g, and for oats, we looked at the price alone.

_{*Some cereal products didn’t list their fibre content on the pack, so we used an average fibre amount to calculate a more realistic Health Star Rating.}

The post Best and worst kids’ breakfast cereals appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog.

On this page:

• Better breakfasts
• Healthy snacks
• Bake with oats
• Sneaky solutions for fussy eaters
• Savoury saviour
• Make your own oat milk

We asked ÌÇÐÄVlog home economist Fiona Mair to share some creative ways to get the most out of this frugal food. And when you’re ready to head to the supermarket, we’ve sifted through more than 70 different types in our porridge and oats review, focusing on their nutritional content and cost, to help you find the product that suits you.Ìý

Why choose oats?

This naturally gluten-free whole grain is great for both you and your budget.

“Oats are packed with B vitamins, vitamin E, protein and minerals,” says ÌÇÐÄVlog food and nutrition expert Shadia Djakovic.

“Eating oats is associated with heart health benefits in adults and promotes a wealth of gut bacteria growth that may protect against obesity and metabolic disease,” she says.

If that’s not reason enough to add oats to your shopping list, you’ll be won over by the low price tag of this humble grain. With 100g of oats costing as little as 17 cents (for Aldi’s Goldenvale Australian Oats), it’s a convincing argument for feeding a family for less.

Better breakfasts

Oats have always been a popular choice for breakfast, and for good reason. “Oats are low GI, which means their carbohydrate is slowly absorbed into your system, providing you with energy for hours after you’ve eaten, which can help you to feel fuller for longer,” says Shadia.Ìý  

The satisfying texture and comforting flavour of oats also make them a perfect breakfast food.Ìý

“Porridge is the best way to eat oats, especially with the cooler mornings coming,” says Fiona. She recommends adding seasonal fruit and honey for a warming treat or soaking them overnight in apple juice to make a healthy bircher muesli topped with grated apple, cinnamon and toasted coconut.

For those who prefer a liquid breakfast, try adding oats to your morning smoothie or milkshake. This is particularly good for ensuring kids head off to school with full bellies.

Healthy snacks

It’s easy to weave the goodness of oats throughout your day by making delicious snacks to stave off hunger and the temptation of less wholesome food choices. Try adding oats to protein balls, baking oat slices, or making your own muesli bars with rolled oats, dates and peanut butter.

Bake with oats

Oats can be added incognito to baked goods simply by replacing half the quantity of wheat flour with oats or oat flour, which you can make yourself by grinding oats in a food processor. This is a great way to boost the nutritional value of baked treats and add a little fibre to balance out sweets.Ìý

Sub in your homemade oat flour to make biscuits, muffins and pancake batters. Baked oats tossed with sugar and nuts also makes a delicious topping for seasonal fruit crumbles.Ìý

Sneaky solutions for fussy eaters

With their nutritional benefits hard to ignore but their flavour easy to disguise, oats can be used to increase your child’s fibre intake without them suspecting a thing. Plus, adding oats to bulk out meals will help your more expensive ingredients, such as mince or cheese, go further.Ìý

“A great way to hide oats in kids’ meals is by using an oat flour or finely ground oats. You can either buy oat flour or make you own by grinding in a food processor or blender,” says Fiona. “Then add the oats to meatballs or burger patties as a binder.” Fiona says you can also use coarsely ground oats as a replacement for breadcrumbs on chicken or fish, or even mix with cheese as a topping for gratins or mac and cheese.

Savoury saviour

While oats may be more commonly regarded as a breakfast food, they can also stretch to savoury meals. Added to vegetable slices or used to make breads, they can level up the nutritional content of many meals. As a grain, oats can also be used much like rice and make for a delicious Asian-style oatmeal, or congee, when simmered in stock and flavoured with onion, ginger, garlic and plumped out with egg or poached chicken.

Make your own oat milk

For dairy avoiders, making your own oat milk is a satisfying cinch and far cheaper than buying premade versions. Simply blend oats with water and strain to release the ‘milk’ to enjoy in coffee, tea, smoothies and milkshakes. Remember to pop the discarded oats in your compost or worm farm.

The post Why you should add oats to your shopping list appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog.

On this page:

• What to look for in a breakfast cereal
• What are wholegrains?
• Best value for money cereals
• Navigating marketing spin

If you want to know how to choose a cereal that will give you the best start to your day, read on.

What to look for in a breakfast cereal

Health Star Rating

In the first instance, we look at a product’s health star rating (HSR). HSRs go from 0.5 stars to 5 stars and are designed to help you choose healthier options at a glance.

The HSR is an assessment of the overall healthiness of a product, taking into consideration the less desirable nutrients in food, such as sodium, sugars and saturated fat, as well as beneficial nutrients, including fibre and protein.

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A breakfast high in protein will likely keep you feeling more full than one not high in protein. If a food contains 5g or more of protein, it can be considered (and marketed as) a “source of protein”.

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Look for cereals with at least 5g of wholegrains, which is roughly a third of the daily target (16g). We explain more about wholegrains later.

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A cereal high in fibre is a real bonus. Adults need about 25–30g of fibre a day, and most of us don’t eat enough. Aiming for a good source of dietary fibre is a great place to start the day – look for a cereal that contains at least 4g a serve.Ìý

Less added sugars

Added sugars can be disguised under 60 or more different names and distributed throughout the ingredient list, so they’re not always straightforward to identify, and even harder to quantify.

You can also look at the amount of total sugar in a product on the Nutrition Information Panel (NIP). However, this total doesn’t differentiate sugars that have been added by the manufacturer (including glucose, honey and fruit juice concentrates) from those that are intrinsic to the food or one of its ingredients (such as the lactose in milk). See What are added sugars? for more.Ìý

The World Health Organization recommends that the total daily intake of added sugar for adults and children should not exceed 10% of our total energy needs, which works out to about 50g a day, and suggests a further reduction of 5% or about 25g per day to be even more beneficial.Ìý

To help come in under that the 25g per day stick to what the Food Standards list as a low-sugar food and limit your breakfast cereal to no more than 5g of added sugar per serve. We used the , which estimates the added sugars for many products on the market.Ìý

What are wholegrains?

In general, a grain has three parts: the bran, which is the outer layer or skin of the grain; the endosperm, which is the starchy bit in the middle; and the germ, which is the part that can sprout and create new plants.Ìý

Wholegrain foods contain all three parts, intact as the whole grain, or processed into flour or meal, typically in the same proportions as found in the intact grain. Examples of wholegrains include wholemeal foods, popcorn, brown rice and rolled oats.

Wholegrains are usually recommended for their fibre content, but they have more to offer than just that. They contain 26 different nutrients including carbohydrates, protein and minerals, and a variety of phytonutrients.Ìý

Research has shown that wholegrains are better than refined grains for heart health and that consuming wholegrains reduces type 2 diabetes risk and total cancer mortality.Ìý

How much do you need?

A serving size of wholegrains is the same as any grain food: the daily target intake is 48g for adults and 24–40g for children (up to 9 years old) each day.Ìý

This can be achieved easily with three serves of grain foods a day. For example, one serve of oats in the morning and a wholemeal sandwich (two pieces of wholegrain bread) at lunch would give you your daily target intake.

How to tell if your breakfast contains wholegrains

Look on the nutrition information panel to see if they’ve included the wholegrain percentage, and also look for mention of whole grain, oats, brown rice, oatmeal, wholemeal, sprouted, mixed grain, malted whole grain, sorghum, buckwheat and quinoa.

The breakfast cereals with the most wholegrains are:

• rolled oats
• biscuit type cereals (e.g. Weetbix and Vita Brits)
• porridge
• raw muesli.

Best value for money cereals

We’re all looking to make our dollar go further, especially when we have hungry mouths to feed. Small-batch granola with premium ingredients may be delicious and nutritious, but isn’t always the best choice on a tight budget.Ìý

The categories of breakfast cereal that are the cheapest based on average price per serve are:

• oats
• biscuit-style cereals
• kids cereals
• raw muesli.

As oats and biscuit-style cereals are also on the list for the highest HSRs, make these your pick for healthiest cereals on a budget.

Navigating marketing spin

Breakfast cereal packets are plastered with a bewildering range of claims designed to catch your eye and get you choosing one product over another.Ìý

The problem is that claims such as “no artificial colours or flavours”, “contains wholegrain”, “added vitamin and minerals”, “source of fibre” and “99% fat-free” are masking a cereal that’s fibre-flimsy, contains too much salt, too much sugar, or all of the above.

Reading the ingredients list is useful for identifying sources of added sugars (such as glucose syrup or honey) and if the sugar comes from fruit, or to find out if the fat is the healthy, polyunsaturated kind that comes from nuts and seeds).

Added vitamins and minerals

Any processed cereal can have nutrients added during the manufacturing process and be made to appear healthier by slapping “source of vitamins and minerals” on the packet. Most cereals have vitamins and minerals added to them, including those that are unhealthy in every other way.Ìý

Make your shortlist based on the Health Star Rating – or alternatively, look for high fibre, a source of protein, wholegrains and/or less added sugar – before considering added vitamins and minerals.

Wholefoods and paleo

Claims such as “100% wholefoods” and “paleo” were seen on many of the cereals with lower Health Star Rating cereals.Ìý

Wholefoods may sound nice but it doesn’t translate into a cereal that’s higher in fibre and protein or lower in added sugars.

As for paleo, this is a diet that excludes or greatly limits the intake of grains. We’ve already outlined the benefits of wholegrains for health, and excluding whole food groups in your diet may not be the best option. And with such low Health Star Ratings, these are clearly not better choices for most people.

Low-GI

A low GI diet can be beneficial if you suffer from diabetes, and may be useful for people watching their weight, but most people are better off prioritising a cereal with a higher HSR first before looking for a low-GI option.Ìý

Any GI claims should be backed up by reliably measured GI values – 55 and under is classified as low. The only way to be certain is to look for the GI logo which means the food must meet specific nutrition criteria as well.

The post Guide to choosing breakfast cereal appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog.

On this page:

• Rolled vs quick vs steel-cut oats: What's the difference?
• Top porridges
• Best value oats
• Gluten-free porridge
• Wheat-free oats
• Are oats good for you?
• Porridge and oats with a nutrition boost

To help you make an informed decision, we sifted through more than 70 different types of oats and porridge, focusing on health and cost.

We split our analysis into two categories: porridge, which is usually cooked or soaked overnight, and plain rolled oats, which can be cooked or eaten raw.

Rolled vs quick vs steel-cut oats: What’s the difference?

Whether you should pick up ‘rolled’, ‘quick’ or ‘steel-cut’ oats at the supermarket depends on how much time you have, and whether or not you’re a fan of a nuttier flavour and/or a chewier texture in your morning porridge.

• Rolled oats, also referred to as traditional oats, are produced by hulling (removing the outer husk) then steaming oat grains (also known as oat groats), pressing between rollers and then drying. To prepare them you simply add water or milk, and cook for about five minutes on the stove or three in a microwave.
• Quick oats have been pressed thinner than rolled oats. You prepare them in the same way as rolled oats, but they cook faster, and the resulting porridge is smoother.
• Steel-cut oats are produced by removing the outer husk and then cutting the whole oat groat into several pieces using steel discs. Steel-cut oats take around 20 minutes to cook, but if you soak them overnight to soften the grain they can take just a couple of minutes in the microwave. They have a nuttier flavour than rolled or quick oats, and a chewier texture.

Top porridges

When looking at porridge options with a Health Star Rating of 5 and no estimated added sugars, these are the ones that came out on top.

Macro Wholefoods Five Grain Porridge 750g

• Serving size: 30g
• Price: 47c per 100g
• Protein: 3.4g per serve, 11.3g per 100g
• Fibre: 4.1g per serve, 13.5g per 100g

Uncle Tobys Quick Sachet Big Bowl Original 368g

• Serving size: 46g
• Price: $1.58 per 100g
• Protein: 5.9g per serve, 12.8g per 100g
• Fibre: 4.2g per serve, 9.2g per 100g

Carman’s No Added Sugar Porridge 5 Grain Super Seed 320g

• Serving size: 40g
• Price: $2.03 per 100g
• Protein: 5.3g per serve, 13.2g per 100g
• Fibre: 5.24g per serve, 13.1g per 100g

Carman’s No Added Sugar Porridge Almond, Pecan and Hazelnut 320g

• Serving size: 40g
• Price: $2.03 per 100g
• Protein: 5.9g per serve, 14.7g per 100g
• Fibre: 4.3g per serve, 10.7g per 100g

Best value oats

Plain oats are a versatile grain that you can use in just about anything – they make as much sense with mushrooms and eggs as they do with bananas, honey and cinnamon. Australia’s rising cost of living is front of mind for most people, especially when it comes to groceries, so we’ve rounded up the cheapest oats we could find (based on the price per 100g).

We looked at oats closest to a 750g pack size where possible, but there are larger packet sizes available that may be cheaper per unit.

All of these oats products have a Health Star Rating of 5.

Goldenvale Australian Rolled Oats 750g

• Serving size: 50g
• Price: 17c per 100g 
• Protein: 5.9g per serve, 11.7g per 100g
• Fibre: 5.1g per serve, 10.1g per 100g

Goldenvale Quick Oats 750g

• Serving size: 50g
• Price: 17c per 100g
• Protein: 6.4g per serve, 12.8g per 100g
• Fibre: 5.7g per serve, 11.3g per 100g

Woolworths Australian Rolled Oats 750g

• Serving size: 30g
• Price: 19c per 100g
• Protein: 3.9g per serve, 13.1g per 100g
• Fibre: 3.2g per serve, 10.8 per 100g

Woolworths Quick Oats 750g

• Serving size: 30g
• Price: 19c per 100g
• Protein: 3.9g per serve, 13.1g per 100g
• Fibre: 3.2g per serve, 10.8 per 100g

Black & Gold Quick Oats 750g

• Serving size: 35g
• Price: 35c per 100g
• Protein: 3.9g per serve, 13.2g per 100g
• Fibre: 3.5g per serve, 11.7g per 100g

Gluten-free porridge

These days there’s a good variety of gluten-free options on the porridge shelf and we included eight of them in this review, with ingredients ranging from brown rice flakes and buckwheat to almond meal.ÌýThese options do range in nutritional content, so if you’re looking for a gluten-free porridge that’s similar nutritionally to oats, go for the Orgran gluten-free porridge quinoa, which has similar compositions of protein, fibre and carbohydrates.

Wheat-free oats

Wheat-free oats have been grown away from any wheat crops so there’s no cross-contamination with gluten-containing crops like barley. However, according to the Food Standards Code, these oats aren’t allowed to be labelled gluten free. Wheat-free oats can be consumed by people with a specific wheat allergy or intolerance to wheat, but not by those with coeliac disease (where gluten is the issue). If you’d like to find out if eating oats will affect your coeliac disease, speak to a doctor.

Are oats good for you?

Oats are rich in beta-glucan, a soluble fibre that helps keep your blood cholesterol down. They’re also low GI, which means their carbohydrate is slowly absorbed into your system, providing you with energy for hours after you’ve eaten. And they’re packed with B vitamins, vitamin E, protein and minerals. Eating oats is associated with protective effects against heart disease in adults.

Whether they’re steamed and rolled like traditional or quick oats, or chopped up like steel-cut oats, they’re still complete whole grains with the bran (the outer layer which is a good source of fibre, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins and minerals) and germ (the smallest part of the grain rich in vitamin E and other vitamins and minerals) intact – so they have similar nutritional properties.

Flavoured varieties have a lower Health Star Rating

Most of the porridge oats you can buy in supermarkets receive a Health Star Rating of 5. The exceptions are the various flavoured instant and quick oat varieties. These are usually high in sugar – as much as 19.9g per 100g, compared with about 1g per 100g for traditional options – and this can knock their Health Star Rating down to 4 or lower.

So if you can’t resist adding a dollop of honey or a teaspoon of brown sugar to your porridge, you might want to stick with the unflavoured varieties.

Porridge and oats with a nutrition boost

As you can see from the top three porridges, ‘no added sugar’, ‘high fibre’ and ‘multigrain’ all serve to boost a food product’s nutrition rating. The more fibre and less sugar a food product has, the more favourable its Health Star Rating.Ìý

With a whopping 23% protein, we have Carman’s protein-rich porridge sachets, with increased protein through the addition of wheat protein. These sachets contain more than double the average protein content of the other porridges we looked at (but if you’re sensitive to gluten, give them a miss).

In the oats category we saw products with boosted protein, fibre, omega 3 and cholesterol lowering abilities thanks to healthy ingredients like oat fibre, wheat protein, plant sterols and linseeds and chia seeds.ÌýAll of these oats have a Health Star Rating of 5, so if you’re after a specific nutrient boost give them a go, but be prepared to pay double the price as the average price per 100g is $1.20 compared to 60 cents for regular oats.

How we got our results

We categorised a wide range of breakfast cereal products and collected their label data. We then calculated Health Star Ratings and used the George Institute for Global Health’s  to determine added sugars per 100g.

For porridge we looked at the Health Star Rating and added sugars per 100g, and for oats we looked at price alone.

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On this page:

• Best cereal and muesli bars
• Best nut bars, raw bars and seed bars
• Lowest rating snack bars
• Honesty in health stars needed
• Total vs added sugars
• Faux fruit
• Snack bars compared

So it might come as a surprise to find that many of these bars are so loaded with saturated fat and sugar, they have more in common with products in the confectionery aisle than those in the health food aisle.

2019 taste test: We asked the public to try 11 popular muesli bars. Find out which muesli bars topped our taste test.

Snack bars are always going to be sweet, because the manufacturers rely on sugars of various kinds – but usually ordinary sugar (sucrose), glucose or glucose syrup – to hold them together. They’ll also usually include some fat to make them tastier. This could be a small amount of polyunsaturated vegetable oil (such as canola). But it could equally be palm or increasingly coconut oil, which are both high in saturated fat.Ìý

Whatever their nutritional shortcomings, there’s no lack of choice. We found more than 200 products in the supermarket, and assessed their nutritional value to find the best and worst products.

Best cereal and muesli bars

These two products received the highest health star rating (HSR) in this category (4.5 stars) and also met our criteria for energy and wholegrains per serve.

• Goodness Superfoods Better for U Cereal Bars Wild Berries & Yoghurt
• Uncle Tobys Farmer’s Pick Roasted Macadamia & Almond

By their very nature, gluten-free (GF) bars tend to be grain-free. While they don’t meet our wholegrains criteria, the following bars also have a 4.5-star rating and meet our energy criteria, so are worth considering if you need a gluten-free option (these were GF at time of publish):

• Food For Health Cinnamon, Hazelnut and Chia Bars
• Food For Health Coconut Cacao and Chia Bars
• Food For Health Vanilla Blueberry and Teff Bars
• Freedom Foods Crafted Blends with Superfoods Pepitas, Spinach & Chickpeas
• Well Naturally No Sugar Added Cereal Bar Almond Sesame Seed Linseed
• Well Naturally No Sugar Added Cereal Bar Currant Pepita Seed Sunflower
• Well Naturally No Sugar Added Cereal Bar Peanut Puffed Quinoa Almond

Best nut bars, raw bars and seed bars

Nuts are a good source of protein, healthy (poly- and monounsaturated) fats, fibre, antioxidants and a range of vitamins and minerals. Although they’re nutritious, the high fat content of nuts means they can contribute quite a bit to your kilojoule intake, so it’s good to be mindful of portion sizes.

A number of bars in this category received HSRs of 4.5 or higher, but of these, only six products also met our criteria for energy per serve:

• Emma & Tom’s Chia Bar Cacao
• Emma & Tom’s Chia Bar Cinnamon
• Golden Days Seed Bar with Quinoa Original (GF at time of publish)
• Naturally Nood Wholefood Bar Apple Rumble
• Soma Bite Apple & Superseed (GF at time of publish)
• Soma Bite Goji & Chia (GF at time of publish)

Lowest rating snack bars

Seven products managed an HSR of just 1. Of these, only the indulgent Coles Nut Bars Choc Coated Nut is labelled with its 1-star rating.

Fontelle Oven Baked Mini Meal Choc Chip (1 star) is true to its name; a 120g bar provides 2412kJ – as much as a meal, and more than a quarter of the recommended daily energy intake. Not to mention the 8.5 teaspoons of sugar it crams in too.

Coconut and butter feature high up in the ingredients list of Carman’s Oat Slice Belgian Chocolate Brownie, Carman’s Oat Slice Cranberry & Blueberry and Carman’s Oat Slice Golden Oat and Coconut (all 1 star), which may make them tasty but also bring saturated fat to the party.Ìý

Carman’s Oat Slice Cranberry & Blueberry tops the chart, with 21.1% saturated fat.Ìý

The oat slices in our review were higher in saturated fat and contained more kilojoules per serve on average than other bars, so it’s a category best avoided if you’re after a healthier choice.

Kellogg’s LCM’s Split Stix Yoghurty and Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Bars (both 1 star) are only small (23-24g), but they’re both high in saturated fat, pack a sugar punch and are among the saltiest products reviewed.

Honesty in health stars needed

A key benefit of the HSR system is it cuts through the marketing spin and allows you to make healthier choices at a glance.

But the system is currently voluntary, and not all manufacturers are using it. Of the 224 products in our review more than half (55%) didn’t display an HSR. And some companies are only putting HSRs on their healthier offerings. Products that achieved a higher star rating (3 or above) were about five times more likely to show an HSR than products that rated 2.5 or less.

Our findings reflect those from an Obesity Policy Coalition (OPC) of HSR use on snack bars published earlier this year.Ìý

Jane Martin, OPC executive manager says, “Leading brands such as Kellogg’s and Weight Watchers have not put health star ratings on any of their snack bars, while Carman’s appears to be using the system as a promotional tool by only displaying the stars on its healthiest products. Unless all brands put the stars on all products, it’s very difficult for shoppers to compare at a glance and make an informed choice.

“At a time when 63% of Australian adults and 27% of children are overweight or obese, it’s disappointing that so many food companies are not supporting consumers with the information they need to make healthier choices for themselves and their families,” Martin adds.

Total vs added sugars

Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend we limit our intake of foods containing added sugars. And last year the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued new sugar guidelines recommending that we reduce our daily intake of free sugars – sugars such as glucose and sucrose that are added to foods as well as sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates – to less than 10% of our total energy intake in order to reduce the risk of overweight, obesity and tooth decay. Based on an average energy intake of 8700kJ, that’s a limit of about 52g (13 teaspoons) of free sugars a day. Recently, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that one in two Australians usually exceeds the WHO recommendation.

Most of the bars in this review are pretty high in sugars, containing 25% on average, and some as much as 50%. It’s sugar, after all, that helps the bars stick together. But how much of it is the type of sugar you need to limit? Right now it’s almost impossible to tell.

Example 1

• Go Natural Macadamia Dream bars (1.5 stars) contain about 40% sugars, and they’re essentially all added (free) sugars.
• Woolworths Homebrand Oven Baked Fruit Bars Apple & Blueberry (2.5 stars) are 40% sugars as well, but only a portion of the sugars come from their minimal (18%) fruit content, the rest is added by the manufacturer.
• Emma & Tom’s Life Bar Cacao & Orange (4 stars) is also 40% sugars – but that’s all sugar from fruit (and therefore has associated beneficial nutrients such as fibre).

But just based on the sugars total on the nutrition information panel, these products look the same. You can try looking at the ingredients list to get a feel for how much added sugar is in there (ingredients are listed in descending order by weight), but as there are so many different names for added sugar, this might not help. Only the Woolworths bar has its HSR labelled.

Example 2

• Weight Watchers Coconut Delight Indulgent Bar (1.5 stars) is 37% sugars, mostly added sugar (sugar, invert sugar, dextrose and honey according to the ingredients list).
• Naturally Nood Wholefood Bar Cocoa Lamington (3 stars) is also 37% sugars, but the sugars are from whole fruit ingredients.

Not surprisingly the Weight Watchers bar isn’t labelled with its HSR.

ÌÇÐÄVlog is currently calling on the Forum on Food Regulation Ministers to itemise added sugars in the nutrition information panel as well as identifying them in the ingredients list.

Faux fruit

Some products contain ‘fruit’ that owes more to chemistry than agriculture, despite what pictures of freshly cut strawberries, plump raspberries or sliced apples on the packaging might have you believe. This is only revealed if you pay close attention to the ingredients list.

• The “strawberry flavoured fruit pieces” in Hillcrest (Aldi) Chewy Muesli Bars Strawberry & Yoghurt are made from “fruit [strawberry puree, fruit puree concentrates (apple, pear, plum)], humectant (422), wheat, gelling agent (440), natural strawberry flavour, acidity regulator (296), natural colour from fruit concentrate (anthocyanin from elderberry)”
• The “raspberry and apple fillings” in Kellogg’s K-Time Twists Raspberry & Apple are made from “sugar, fruit [raspberry juice concentrate (4%), apple (2%), apple powder], fructose, thickeners (1442, 1404, corn starch, 460, 466), humectant (422), brown sugar, food acids (330, 296), natural colour (163), flavours, preservative (221), stabiliser (470)”
• The “apple strawberry pieces” in Woolworths Select Muesli Bar Yoghurt Strawberry consist of “concentrated apple puree, concentrated apple juice, strawberry puree (23%), citrus fibre, concentrated Aronia juice, gelling agent (pectin) and natural flavour”.

Snack bars compared

We compared 224 cereal, muesli, nut, seed and raw bars. We’ve listed them below in order of health star rating (highest to lowest).Ìý

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