It’s National Cereal Day!

March 7^th is recognized as National Cereal Day.  Cereal is the staple food for most of our KES Breakfast Clubs.  Students enjoy cereal every day in our Clubs – cold cereal, hot cereal, dry cereal – they LOVE it all!  While cereal may be the go to food for our Clubs, we want to ensure we are serving healthy choices to our students.  The question “what cereals are we allowed to serve” is a common one we get from our volunteers who shop each day for their KES Clubs.  To help you select the best cereals when shopping, these are some rules of thumb to consider for cereals that can be served daily:

• Choose whole grain cereals
• Total fat per serving, less than 3 g
• Total sodium per serving, less than 240 mg
• Total fibre per serving, more than 2 g
• Total sugar per serving, less than or equal to 9 g (aim for lower)
• Total iron per serving, more than or equal to 20% daily value

*amounts are based on 30 g or 125 ml serving size*

Some cereals suggested by NL School Food Guidelines that are allergy friendly in most schools are:

• General Mills Original Cheerios
• General Mills Multigrain Cheerios
• Kellogg’s Raisin Bran
• Kellogg’s Mini Wheats
• Post Shreddies
• Quaker Instant Oatmeal (original)

Information retrieved from: http://www.livinghealthyschools.com/school_food_guidelines.html

Janel Genge is a registered dietitian with Kids Eat Smart Foundation Newfoundland and Labrador