Speaker 1: As a child, did you grow up with wheatbis as
Speaker 1: your staple breakfast cereal? Indeed, breakfast biscuits have remained one
Speaker 1: of the most popular breakfast cereals in Australia for many years.
Speaker 1: So today on the Nutrition Couch podcast, we take a
Speaker 1: closer look at two of the most popular breakfast cereal
Speaker 1: biscuits in Ausy supermarkets to decide once and for all,
Speaker 1: which is the healthiest option. Hi, I'm Susie Burrow and
Speaker 1: I'm Lean Wood, and as two of Australia's leading dieticians
Speaker 1: who specialize in evidence based nutrition, we bring you the
Speaker 1: Nutrition Couch Product Review, a weekly chat on new products
Speaker 1: and old favorites you can find in the supermarkets. So Leanne,
Speaker 1: tell me a child. I don't even want to think
Speaker 1: what child you were. I'm thinking the nineties. Maybe what
Speaker 1: was the breakfast cereal that you had in your cupboard
Speaker 1: when you were growing up?
Speaker 2: I think we did. I'm trying to think back. I
Speaker 2: think we did grow up with weep bigs. Mom had
Speaker 2: these like big glass jars. There was this big shelf
Speaker 2: in the kitchen. It was like above height, so as
Speaker 2: a kid, I couldn't even reach up there. It was
Speaker 2: like this big shelf and Mum had all these glass
Speaker 2: jars of cereal, and I remember there was like some
Speaker 2: sort of shredded whip thing in one that was like
Speaker 2: Mum always had, oh, what's the really whole grainy type cereal.
Speaker 2: There was a muslin one that was rolled oats in another,
Speaker 2: that was wheetpicks in another. So we always had sort
Speaker 2: of a range of five or six. But you would never,
Speaker 2: as I listened as know, my mom was very healthy.
Speaker 2: There was never any cocoa pops or fruit loops or
Speaker 2: anything like that in our household. It was a very bland, beige,
Speaker 2: high fiber type of cereals for us. And I was like, Mom,
Speaker 2: I was looking sweet and she'd be like, put some
Speaker 2: fruit on it. So it was always, you know, a bland,
Speaker 2: a low sugar type of high fiber cereal, some milk
Speaker 2: and some fruit. That was if cereal was in the household.
Speaker 2: That was sort of a growing uption. What did you
Speaker 2: grow up with, Suzzy?
Speaker 1: Well, did you not even get the holiday packets where
Speaker 1: you got to take away the little mini boxes and
Speaker 1: then you could pick like as a special holiday thing,
Speaker 1: you could have the cocoa pops or the nutri grain.
Speaker 1: You never got that, no, so deprive. My mum was
Speaker 1: not dissimilar like. She was quite strict as well, and
Speaker 1: I want to say as I got older, we used
Speaker 1: to have just right, which is not overly held in itself,
Speaker 1: but we definitely had wheat pigs absolutely. Growing up we
Speaker 1: had quite plain cereals, but we did on the holidays
Speaker 1: we were allowed to get the holiday mix where we
Speaker 1: would choose like the little one, So that was always
Speaker 1: the very exciting highlight. So it's funny when you ask
Speaker 1: people about their memories of growing up in the different
Speaker 1: cereals that they had. I actually also remember when there
Speaker 1: was calor Complete, so it had like these little currents
Speaker 1: covered in yogurt in the eighties I guess it would
Speaker 1: have been the nineties and it was not overly healthy
Speaker 1: toasted musically, but these little yogurt covered currents were so delicious.
Speaker 2: I remember that.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I feel like there was a type of Sultana brand
Speaker 2: that also had that, because the mum used to buy
Speaker 2: that one. I was like the Sultana brand. I think
Speaker 2: you look on the box and it looks like it's
Speaker 2: super high fiber because the brand type plates in there
Speaker 2: looks like Uber Uber healthy and it's marketed as like,
Speaker 2: you know, yogurt covered raisin but I think a quick
Speaker 2: look at the nutrition label would probably tell us that
Speaker 2: it's jack full of sugar. But back in the day,
Speaker 2: I think, you know, we did a lot of front
Speaker 2: of package you know, reading instead of actually reading the
Speaker 2: nutrition labels. So we definitely had that in our household,
Speaker 2: the brand flakes with sort of the yogurt covered raisins.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so times have changed. You know, you probably come
Speaker 1: as a surprise to hear that, you know, austrain industry
Speaker 1: has actually done a great job at taking quite a
Speaker 1: lot of sugar out of the cereal section. So you know,
Speaker 1: even though there's a perception that it's not overly healthy,
Speaker 1: indeed now it's far far healthier than it ever once was.
Speaker 1: And back in the golden days, sugar was not so
Speaker 1: much of a concern, so there was plenty of it
Speaker 1: in breakfast cereal. But going to two very popular varieties
Speaker 1: of cereal, I think they're still the biggest sellers. Wheatbeks
Speaker 1: will start with Sanitary and Wheatbix. It's an interesting one actually,
Speaker 1: because you know, in the old days, where there was
Speaker 1: a lot of sugary cereal. You were sort of all
Speaker 1: more process cereal. There wasn't a lot of the probiotic
Speaker 1: high fiber varieties you can find now. You know, WHEATBEX
Speaker 1: was kind of always considered the gold standard. And I
Speaker 1: remember a skit at uni or the an ad that
Speaker 1: was on back in the day that said, you know,
Speaker 1: seven out of ten nutritionis or whatever the number was,
Speaker 1: recommend wheatbox. So it was kind of always did at
Speaker 1: the gold standard. And when you take a closer look
Speaker 1: and even the processing of it, it's perhaps not as
Speaker 1: healthy as we may perceive it to be, so especially
Speaker 1: considering the kinds of cereals that you can find now
Speaker 1: which is super high fiber. But if I look at
Speaker 1: the ingredients, it's pretty clean. You know, it's ninety seven
Speaker 1: percent whole grain wheat. Second ingredients or sugar, salt, barley,
Speaker 1: milk extract, and then it's quite significantly fortified with vitamins
Speaker 1: B one, B two, B three, and FOL eight as
Speaker 1: well as iron contains gluten wheat. It's a wheat based product.
Speaker 1: It's got a claim of low and sugar source of iron,
Speaker 1: high in fiber, and you know, when we take a
Speaker 1: look at it, LeAnn, There's not a whole lot in it,
Speaker 1: you know. This is two of the breakfast biscuits, thirty
Speaker 1: three grams that comes in just over one hundred calories,
Speaker 1: so four hundred and eighty eight kilo duels per serve.
Speaker 1: It's got four grams of protein that's without any milk added.
Speaker 1: It's got very little fat orero point four grams, twenty
Speaker 1: one point seven grams of carbohydrate, one gram of sugar
Speaker 1: there is some added sugar, and wheat baks which may
Speaker 1: come as a surprise. Four point three grams of dietary fiber,
Speaker 1: which is a good serve. At least three you would
Speaker 1: want from a bottle of breakfast cereal. Mind you, now
Speaker 1: you're getting cereals that easily come in at six eight
Speaker 1: grams per serve. Sodium eighty nine milligrams, pretty insignificant in
Speaker 1: the big scheme of things. And then more than a
Speaker 1: third of your recommend a daily intake of fol eight
Speaker 1: although it is synthetic fol eate, fifty percent vitamin B one,
Speaker 1: twenty five percent vitamins B two and three, twenty five
Speaker 1: percent dietrin. Although it is non hemine. It's not overly
Speaker 1: well absorbed. We should say in cereal product still a
Speaker 1: great choice for people on a plant based diet, say magnesium.
Speaker 1: So I would describe wheatbeits as being a very plain,
Speaker 1: simple breakfast It's not unhealthy. Is it the healthiest breakfast
Speaker 1: cereal out there? No? Are there a million cereals that
Speaker 1: are worse? Yes? Do I buy it?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: Do I sometimes cook with it? Yes? You know, I
Speaker 1: think really it's splitting hairs. But I think the message
Speaker 1: for most people is I think that there are better
Speaker 1: breakfast cereals out there. The GI is not overly low
Speaker 1: on it, which means it's digested relatively quickly. Because of
Speaker 1: the process nature of the cereal itself, you're not seeing
Speaker 1: sort of big fib as chunks through it, and you
Speaker 1: can tell that lean. Of course, when you serve it, it
Speaker 1: goes really really sloppy, which means it's probably digestive relatively quickly,
Speaker 1: you know. So I kind of if I was rating
Speaker 1: it out of ten, i'd give it a seven. You know,
Speaker 1: it's not it's not amazing, it's not bad, it's affordable
Speaker 1: for many families, there's really nothing wrong with it. But
Speaker 1: for me, it doesn't tick some of the key boxes
Speaker 1: that I think a breakfast cereal should should tick in
Speaker 1: terms of fiber and bulk factor, and you know it
Speaker 1: does have added sugar, and there are options which do not.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I just would give it a seven, and
Speaker 1: I sort of doesn't do much for me. I'm not
Speaker 1: anti or I'm not really pro it either.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And let's be honest, it's not the best tasting
Speaker 2: thing in the world, isn't it. Like it does go
Speaker 2: super so soggy and soppy, So it's not something that
Speaker 2: I'm jumping out of my seat to actually consume. But
Speaker 2: you know, it is a pretty quote unquote clean breakfast option.
Speaker 2: But let's be honest, Like two week bicks with milk
Speaker 2: that doesn't fill me up. I don't know if that
Speaker 2: fills you or anybody else up, but I would routinely eat,
Speaker 2: you know, four or five six week bicks as a tall, active,
Speaker 2: very active kid. So for me like that that's serving
Speaker 2: size for me, and most of the active ladies wouldn't
Speaker 2: actually be enough. I work with very active ladies as
Speaker 2: sort of my client taler. Just two week bits of
Speaker 2: milk wouldn't quite cut it. So I think to balance
Speaker 2: that breakfast add a little bit better. We'd want to
Speaker 2: add a little bit more protein, so a good dollop
Speaker 2: of some good quality Greek yogurd and you know, a
Speaker 2: good sprinkle of some nuts and seeds. Adding a little
Speaker 2: bit of healthy fat in there as well to balance
Speaker 2: out some of those carbohydrates. I think would be would
Speaker 2: be a relatively better option, Susie. I think I think
Speaker 2: a lot of people will put you know, fruit with
Speaker 2: their cereal, which is just sort of adding in more carbohydrates.
Speaker 2: I like to always balance out a bit of cereal
Speaker 2: with some healthy vats and a little bit of extra
Speaker 2: protein as well. That really gives you that longer lasting
Speaker 2: energy throughout the day. So I'm like you, it's not
Speaker 2: terrible or definitely worse breakfast options. It's not a bad one,
Speaker 2: but it's not something that I'm jumping out of my
Speaker 2: seat to recommend left front center for my clients. I
Speaker 2: really do think that, especially from a taste perspective, I
Speaker 2: think it's quite bland. I definitely think there are more tastier, healthier,
Speaker 2: more nutritious cereal options out there.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And I think you know, describing the carbohydrate, you know,
Speaker 1: it's twenty one grams of carbohydrate that's out the milk
Speaker 1: so if you then include a serve of milk, plant milk,
Speaker 1: dairy milk, you're going to get at least ten more
Speaker 1: grams carbo hydrates, so that's thirty grams. Then if you're
Speaker 1: adding some fruit, you're getting a pretty high carbohydrate breakfast cereal,
Speaker 1: which a lot of my clients don't process so well.
Speaker 1: It tends to sort of give them a hit and
Speaker 1: then they're not satisfied right through to lunchtime. So I'm
Speaker 1: like you, if I had a client who loved them,
Speaker 1: I would say, we'll just mash one up or one
Speaker 1: and a half up with and make it like a
Speaker 1: Bircher bowl with your high protein Greek yogurt and some
Speaker 1: berries to make it more balanced and more filling. Or
Speaker 1: for really active people or active kids, you know, including
Speaker 1: one in a smoothie with a banana can be a
Speaker 1: really filling breakfast thing because you're adding the protein backing.
Speaker 1: And for really active people it can be a really
Speaker 1: smart source of carbohydrates to bulk out or to have
Speaker 1: a lot for a relatively cheap price point. For the
Speaker 1: client group that I'm seeing, which is generally interested in
Speaker 1: weight control in their thirties, forties and fifties. It's certainly
Speaker 1: not my go to simply because I tend to opt
Speaker 1: for high protein breakfast rather than carbo hydrate rich ones.
Speaker 1: But certainly with teenagers and teenage boys, it would be
Speaker 1: a food I would go too, because it's relatively inexpensive
Speaker 1: and they can eat a lot of it and get
Speaker 1: that good quality carbohydrate that they do need because they're
Speaker 1: busy and they've got a lot more muscle mass and
Speaker 1: are growing. So, like everything in what we talk about
Speaker 1: here on the Nutrition Couch, there's different strokes for different folk,
Speaker 1: and as I said, it sits in that middle ground.
Speaker 1: But we wanted to compare it to vitebrates because vitebrates
Speaker 1: is an interesting product because I would hug you it's
Speaker 1: better because when we look at the ingredients on vitebrates,
Speaker 1: it's ninety nine percent whole grain wheat and it's got
Speaker 1: some salt in it, but there's no added sugar. So
Speaker 1: I think as a cereal in general, and I personally
Speaker 1: prefer it as a flavor that more wheaty taste to
Speaker 1: me is nicer. I find them a bit harder. As
Speaker 1: a biscuit, I find that it go with soggy, So
Speaker 1: personally I prefer the serve nutritionally very very similar. You know,
Speaker 1: you're looking at four hundred and ninety killer jewels again,
Speaker 1: just about one hundred and twenty calories per serve. Three
Speaker 1: grams of protein a little bit less than the wheatbits,
Speaker 1: but nothing significant. Similar, very little fat, twenty two point
Speaker 1: three grams cover hydro similar amount of five or four
Speaker 1: point two tiny bit more sodium, but one hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty milligrams really insignificant. But I actually can't see there's
Speaker 1: not the fortification that the wheatbeakx has actually, so it
Speaker 1: doesn't have those B group vitamins through there or the
Speaker 1: dietary iron. Now that wouldn't concern me Land because if
Speaker 1: it's a whole grain cereal, you're getting your vitamin B
Speaker 1: anyway naturally without having to fortify. And I'm not a
Speaker 1: massive fan of fortifying with synthetic folate anyway. I'd much
Speaker 1: rather people get natural folate that's naturally occurring in whole
Speaker 1: grains or from grains anyway than synthetic folate. And the
Speaker 1: iron in cereal is not well absorbed. So unless I've got,
Speaker 1: you know, someone who's vegan and really looking for options
Speaker 1: to increase eroed absorption. There's better options for me iron wise,
Speaker 1: even from other plant based foods, whether it's legumes or
Speaker 1: whole grains. So yeah, that wouldn't bother me. As a cereal,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be buying whetbeaks because it's fortified over Vita Brits,
Speaker 1: which has no oded sugar. I think that if I
Speaker 1: was choosing, I would just go for this one. One Personally,
Speaker 1: I prefer the taste, and two it's got no added sugar.
Speaker 1: But you know, in the big scheme of gram of
Speaker 1: sugar in a couple of week bits is likely to
Speaker 1: be the least to your problem exactly.
Speaker 2: They're really much of a muster. So I think from
Speaker 2: a flavor perspective, go with the one that you like.
Speaker 2: I mean, as dieticians are, were always going to say
Speaker 2: the one, but no out of sugar is better. But
Speaker 2: as you said, in the grand scheme of things, it's
Speaker 2: zero sugar versus one gram, so it's pretty insignificant in
Speaker 2: the grand scheme of things, let's be honest. So I
Speaker 2: think either are a good option. I'm not going to
Speaker 2: say that they're my favorite breakfast type cereal option, but
Speaker 2: they're definitely better options than some of our other sugary
Speaker 2: based cereal, So if you kids do like them, I'd
Speaker 2: definitely be encouraging you to have them, and for little
Speaker 2: ones who do struggle to get in fire, but this
Speaker 2: is a really good option. I feel like some of
Speaker 2: the high fiber type cereals we talk about SUSI are
Speaker 2: probably too much fiber for our little least. So this
Speaker 2: is a great sort of first food for toddler's babies,
Speaker 2: that sort of thing, because it does go so soft,
Speaker 2: and it does have a good whacker fiber in there
Speaker 2: as well, and they're nicely balanced sort of you know,
Speaker 2: amount of whole grains and carbohydrates as well. So I
Speaker 2: feel like for our little kids in our growing teens,
Speaker 2: it's a great option. Perhaps for an adults, so they
Speaker 2: just need to think about balancing a little bit more,
Speaker 2: adding in some healthy fats and some protein as well.
Speaker 2: But I think both both are pretty good options and
Speaker 2: very very similar, let's be honest.
Speaker 1: And you know a way that I actually use them
Speaker 1: more often than actually why they're in my cupboard is
Speaker 1: that I sometimes bake with them, like because I'll make
Speaker 1: protein balls with it as a base, because it blends
Speaker 1: quite well, that kind of crunchy base. So if you're
Speaker 1: wanting to block up a banana bread or as I said,
Speaker 1: add it to a smoothie or make some protein balls,
Speaker 1: it's a really good way to do that without using
Speaker 1: refined flour. So with cereals, you know, you can use
Speaker 1: them quite in ingenious ways. I've had clients who use
Speaker 1: them for kids lunchboxes, you know, and they put kind
Speaker 1: of a spread on them and then they have it
Speaker 1: as like a little crunchy snack in the day. So
Speaker 1: you know, certainly there are some ways you can use it.
Speaker 1: And so for ten grams of carbohydrate in a crunchy
Speaker 1: biscuit snack for school, that's a million times better than
Speaker 1: to have an actual sweet biscuit if the kids like it. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: you can use them in a really smart way, and
Speaker 1: there's nothing really bad about them. But if we were
Speaker 1: splitting hairs, yeah, you do have one without a sugar
Speaker 1: and one without and you know, they're just different options.
Speaker 1: But I think sometimes there's a person option out there
Speaker 1: that wheatbeaks is the healthiest cereal you can eat, and
Speaker 1: I would say absolutely not. I think that's far healthier.
Speaker 1: If I was giving that title, it would have to
Speaker 1: beat a whole grain plain oats as sort of you know,
Speaker 1: a whole grain with nothing at it and so nutritious
Speaker 1: and so good for us, and such a good low
Speaker 1: GI breakfast cereal that would absolutely win, hands down. And
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of brand based cereal because I
Speaker 1: think it's so good for the gush without being processed
Speaker 1: at all. So, you know, but it's not a matter
Speaker 1: if there's one standout cereal. There's just different products for
Speaker 1: different people, depending on your goals. And you know, for kids,
Speaker 1: you're doing far worse than giving them a couple of
Speaker 1: week biks or vitebricks and milk for breakfast. But for adults,
Speaker 1: I think in general there are better choices. Couldn't agree
Speaker 1: more beautiful? All right? Well, hopefully that clears up everything
Speaker 1: you ever wanted to know about breakfast biscuits, because that
Speaker 1: brings us to the end of the Nutrition Couch product
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Speaker 1: great week, catch you guys next week.