Speaker 1: We all care about our kids' health, but sometimes it
Speaker 1: can be really difficult to decipher the nutrition labels of
Speaker 1: the foods that kids like to eat but that are
Speaker 1: also healthy. So is it possible for us to be
Speaker 1: able to balance the health of our kids with some
Speaker 1: food choices that the kids are happy with? Two Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm Susie Barrel and on Liam Wood, and as two
Speaker 1: of us Jays leading dieticians, we bring you the Nutrition
Speaker 1: Couch product review, a weekly chat on old products and
Speaker 1: new favorites you can find in supermarkets. I think I
Speaker 1: just turn that around, but anyway, we'll just go with it.
Speaker 1: So on today's episode, Leanne, you have chosen three kids
Speaker 1: breakfast cereals, which I actually don't think that we have
Speaker 1: done before on the Nutrition Couch. But I know this
Speaker 1: can be really tricky for parents because we all want
Speaker 1: the kids to have something healthy before they go to school,
Speaker 1: and how do you know, like the cereal section is
Speaker 1: really difficult to decipher, and you've sort of got those
Speaker 1: traditional sort of sugary favorites of children that maybe you
Speaker 1: and I had on holidays but maybe quite par and
Speaker 1: then you've got kind of the plainer options as well.
Speaker 1: And then there's some in between. So I love that
Speaker 1: you've chosen three sort of contrasting products to look at today.
Speaker 1: My kids don't eat cereal. Actually, they are much more
Speaker 1: sort of toast in the morning. And probably partly my
Speaker 1: fault land, I haven't really ever introduced it to them
Speaker 1: because I wasn't a massive serial eader. I myself like
Speaker 1: a Brandy mix or a sort of nice Carmen's granola.
Speaker 1: But yeah, my kids are not big cereal eaters. What
Speaker 1: about little Mea? What's she haven't for breakfast?
Speaker 2: Yeah, she loves a good cheer pudding and an overn
Speaker 2: adut in New So she was a cheer putting snob
Speaker 2: shit one every day from the local cafe. She loved it,
Speaker 2: chihuba and an entire one for herself. And also we
Speaker 2: do the kids weeks, which we're going to talk about today,
Speaker 2: especially when she was little. I found that that was
Speaker 2: really easy. It just was so soft. And for teething
Speaker 2: as well, I'll put cold milk in it, and I
Speaker 2: think she does really well with that. So she does that,
Speaker 2: she does some over at oats, she does a avocado
Speaker 2: on toast sometimes. Yeah, she's kind of gone off her eggs,
Speaker 2: which is a bit of a shame in the morning,
Speaker 2: so we're sort of limited. I used to make a
Speaker 2: lot of French toasts and some Eggy pancakes, but she's
Speaker 2: not really a faner than these days, so we don't
Speaker 2: do a lot of cereal. Like there just aren't that
Speaker 2: great options out there, if I'm being honest. But I
Speaker 2: think Weekbix is a really nice one to start on,
Speaker 2: particularly at the little kids range, which is the first
Speaker 2: one that we're going to chat about today, which I like.
Speaker 1: It's the Sanitarium Whebaks little Kids Essentials Breakfast Cereal and
Speaker 1: now we know that Weebeax is the highest selling breakfast
Speaker 1: real in Australia, but this is the kid's version, and
Speaker 1: we'll talk about the differences and why it's marketed as
Speaker 1: a different one for kids. So it retails at a
Speaker 1: very reasonable price point, I have to say at the
Speaker 1: moment when the cluster of food is through the roof
Speaker 1: for for four hundred grams, it's four dollars fifty, which seems,
Speaker 1: as I said, to be quite reasonable given current times.
Speaker 1: Certainly it's a cost effective way for families to provide breakfast.
Speaker 1: It's got a five health star rating. If we look
Speaker 1: at the ingredient list, it's pretty clean. It's ninety seven
Speaker 1: percent whole grain cereals, which is what we love to
Speaker 1: see lean dieticians. We love the idea of whole grains.
Speaker 1: Of that ninety seven percent seventy seven percent whet, ten
Speaker 1: percent rye, and ten percent sawgum. Then it's followed by
Speaker 1: raw sugar, calcium rich seaweed, which is a very interesting addition.
Speaker 1: I don't think I've seen that previously in food, Barley,
Speaker 1: malt extract, and some added minerals so iron and zinc,
Speaker 1: as well as vitamin's B three, B two, B six,
Speaker 1: B one and FOLL eight. Now I'll have a look
Speaker 1: at the nutritionals which you've cut and paste into massive
Speaker 1: form for me, So thanks for that. What I will
Speaker 1: say straight away, though, is that if I've got something
Speaker 1: that is a whole grain serial ninety seven percent, even
Speaker 1: though sugar's up there, it's a reasonably small amount, but
Speaker 1: we can have a look over all what that looks like.
Speaker 1: So per serving, they're thirty three grams served, so I'm
Speaker 1: assuming that's sort of two smallish biscuits, comes in just
Speaker 1: over one hundred calories. At four hundred and eighty two
Speaker 1: kilodeels coming in four grams of protein, which is not
Speaker 1: insignificant really because if you added milk to that, you're
Speaker 1: getting close to sort of fifteen grams. That's a pretty
Speaker 1: decent breakfast load. So that whole grain cereal content is
Speaker 1: bumping up the protein, very little to no fat as
Speaker 1: you would expect. Carbohydrate twenty one grams, of which one
Speaker 1: gram is sugar or it's less than three percent sugar overall,
Speaker 1: so not completely sugar free. I think vitebrates from memory
Speaker 1: have got no added sugar, four grams of dietary fiber perserve,
Speaker 1: which is not insignificant. That is a really good dose
Speaker 1: for a small child, and very little salt. So I
Speaker 1: think the standout feature of this compared to a number
Speaker 1: of cereals is that it's got no added sodium, so
Speaker 1: particularly good for very small children. For mely and it's
Speaker 1: about an eight. I don't like sugar added for a
Speaker 1: kid's breakfast cereal, to be honest, I probably wouldn't spend
Speaker 1: and spend on little kids weep weeks. I probably would
Speaker 1: just use the regular ones because the nutritional profile of
Speaker 1: those are pretty good, and I myself would probably go
Speaker 1: for Vitebrits only because they've got no added sugar. But
Speaker 1: you know, it's a solid cereal choice. You know, it's
Speaker 1: maybe i'd give it eight out of ten. It's a
Speaker 1: really solid choice. It's got some fortification with iron, although
Speaker 1: it's not come up on this label here, but I
Speaker 1: think it's twenty five percent if we can look very
Speaker 1: closely at the small print and some you know, really
Speaker 1: nice amounts of dietary fiber. So if a client came
Speaker 1: to me and was having this, or if I was
Speaker 1: suggesting a cereal product, I would have no qualms recommending
Speaker 1: this at all.
Speaker 2: Will not be I'm going to give it a nine
Speaker 2: to nine and a half. I honestly do think out
Speaker 2: of all kids CRUs it is one of the top
Speaker 2: on the market. You are paying a little bit more
Speaker 2: for the little kids' rain, so if budgeting is a cost,
Speaker 2: I would say just go for the standard We'd picks.
Speaker 2: But the standard Weebix does have a little bit more sodium.
Speaker 2: So for very little kids I'm talking under twelve months,
Speaker 2: just be weary of for that. It's not something I'd
Speaker 2: be giving every single day. But I don't think you
Speaker 2: can go past a cereal that's ninety seven percent whole grains. Yes,
Speaker 2: there's added sugar in there, but considering what most kids
Speaker 2: get in through fruit and fruit bars and roll ups
Speaker 2: and all that sort of thing, like, I'm so happy
Speaker 2: to recommend a cereal with one gram abouted sugar. So
Speaker 2: for me, I'm giving it a nine and nine and
Speaker 2: a half. I really don't think that there's much more
Speaker 2: on the market that can beat this. It's also got
Speaker 2: a little bit of added probotics as well, which is
Speaker 2: great for our gut health and the vitamins as well,
Speaker 2: you know, I think that's really good. So for me,
Speaker 2: it gets a thumbs up in every area. And I
Speaker 2: add a little bit of healthy fats in there as well,
Speaker 2: just because it's mostly you know, a carbohydrate type food,
Speaker 2: which is great for little growing kids. But I always
Speaker 2: sprinkle some hem seeds or some cheer seas, or a
Speaker 2: bit of LSA or flax onto me as one she's
Speaker 2: got allergies towards nuts. But you can use some crush
Speaker 2: nuts or some nut paste as well if you like.
Speaker 2: But I think balancing it out with a bit of
Speaker 2: fat and a bit of milk, whatever you know your
Speaker 2: kids choose to consume is a really nice, sort of
Speaker 2: well balanced breakfast and depending on their age, add a
Speaker 2: little bit of fruit in there as well. So I
Speaker 2: think it's just it's quick and easy, it's really soft
Speaker 2: for little kids to start on, and it's good for teethings,
Speaker 2: so it gets all the ticks in my boxes. But yeah,
Speaker 2: budgeting is a concerned. It is more expensive than just
Speaker 2: the standard Wheatbix range. You definitely don't need to go
Speaker 2: for the little kids range once they were over sort
Speaker 2: of twelve months. I think they're both very good. The
Speaker 2: Standard week biks of standard vitebrates, as you mentioned, it
Speaker 2: is Australian. It is no outed sugar, so it does
Speaker 2: sort of trump the standard week Bix. But yeah, I
Speaker 2: think this one for the little little eaes is quite
Speaker 2: a good one.
Speaker 1: The next one we're looking at is a controversial one.
Speaker 1: It's the Nesse Whole Grain Energy and Fiber Milo Cereal. Now,
Speaker 1: at the time we are publishing this, it was half
Speaker 1: priced at three dollars twenty five, but normally six dollars
Speaker 1: fifty for three hundred and fifty gram so a whole
Speaker 1: two dollars more for less than compared to what you're
Speaker 1: getting with the kids at, wheatbiks, whole grain cereal fifty percent,
Speaker 1: So that's twenty five percent less than what you were
Speaker 1: getting on like almost half. Sorry, I should save what
Speaker 1: you were getting with the whole grainwet BIX, of which
Speaker 1: thirty four percent was wheat, sixteen percent corn, followed by
Speaker 1: sugar as the basically second ingredient formulated supplementary food based
Speaker 1: which is Milo itself, which is ten percent of the
Speaker 1: total cereal is Milo. Now Milo is heavily fortified with
Speaker 1: key vitamins, but it's also basically quite high in sugar,
Speaker 1: so that to make the MILEA, you're getting melt extracts, milk,
Speaker 1: powdered sugar, cocoa, choc malt, blend plus calcium iron vitamins CEE,
Speaker 1: B three, B six, B two, D and B twelve,
Speaker 1: so it does tick the box and a number of
Speaker 1: those a multifier wheat flour, cocoa and malt, extra skim milk,
Speaker 1: powdered vegetable oil flavors and multipliers salt vitamins, minerals. Again
Speaker 1: quite heavily fortified. Now very long ingredient list, very long
Speaker 1: ingredient list. We look at the nutritionols for eighty kilogees,
Speaker 1: so again just over one hundred calperserve, two point seven
Speaker 1: grams of protein, so not overly high, not overly low,
Speaker 1: but not overly high. One point four grams are fat,
Speaker 1: zero point four saturated, coming a bit from the milk
Speaker 1: and coco through there. One point five grams of carbohydrate,
Speaker 1: but are massive eight grams of sugar per serve. Now
Speaker 1: the serve is only thirty grams, so almost a third
Speaker 1: of that product is sugar.
Speaker 2: Let's be honest, most people eating far more than thirty grams.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, thirty grams is quite not much for of
Speaker 2: a breakfast guarantee. Most people eating sixty, if not ninety
Speaker 2: to one hundred grams of the cereal.
Speaker 1: Well because it's sweet too, hey, so you just load
Speaker 1: up the bowl. But that's a massive amount of sugar.
Speaker 1: It's like almost a third, you know, too high for
Speaker 1: kids like wow, we want them to be on less
Speaker 1: than twenty five grams of addeds per day. That's like
Speaker 1: a quarter of their intake and even more than for
Speaker 1: little kids. And the fibers not greatly And two point
Speaker 1: three grams is not high. I'd want to breakfast cereal
Speaker 1: to at least have three if not closer to five,
Speaker 1: so I'm pretty disappointed. Yes, it is fortified, it's got
Speaker 1: a whole lot of vitamins, vitamin D, B, twelve, iron, zinc.
Speaker 1: But I'm not giving my client cereal for the nutrients.
Speaker 1: I'm giving it for the good quality fuel and dietary fiber,
Speaker 1: and unfortunately for me, this falls way short on those
Speaker 1: key nutrients. It's got way too much sugar and it's
Speaker 1: got not enough fiber for me to choose it as
Speaker 1: a regular daily breakfast cereal of choice. I give it
Speaker 1: a five at best.
Speaker 2: You're being generous. I was gonna go three or four.
Speaker 2: It's something that is super popular, and because it's promoted
Speaker 2: heavily within athletes, I think a lot of parents think, oh,
Speaker 2: it's milow cereal. It's not that bad. You know, milo's
Speaker 2: low GI. It's quite good for you. But let's just
Speaker 2: break down that ingredient list again, Susie. It's fifty percent
Speaker 2: whole grains. It's heavily promoted as a whole grain type cereal,
Speaker 2: but it's only got two grams of dietary fiber in it,
Speaker 2: so it's just not great from that perspective. The second
Speaker 2: ingredient is sugar. So it's fifty percent whole grains, followed
Speaker 2: by sugar, followed by Milo at ten percent. So if
Speaker 2: you break that down, that's a high sugar product. In fact,
Speaker 2: it's twenty five percent sugar in this cereal. It's twenty
Speaker 2: six point six grams of sugar per hundred grams. That's
Speaker 2: a lot of sugar. It's a high sugar cereal. There's
Speaker 2: nothing healthy about this. Yes, as you mentioned, it is fortified,
Speaker 2: but if you're giving your kids like a high sugar
Speaker 2: cereal for the fortification, honestly, you're not doing it right.
Speaker 2: Like they need to be getting their nutrients from other
Speaker 2: whole food sources. So for me, just even the cost
Speaker 2: of it, like it's nearly seven dollars for a box
Speaker 2: of it, it's not inexpensive. E. They're sure it's delicious
Speaker 2: and kids love it, But I would be using something
Speaker 2: like this with say, for example, two week bigs or
Speaker 2: two vitebriots and sprinkling one or two tablespoons of the
Speaker 2: Milo cereal on top, versus actually giving them an entire
Speaker 2: bowl of Milo cereal like I was not, Like my
Speaker 2: mum was very health conscious growing up. We would never
Speaker 2: allowed something like this. And if we did have it
Speaker 2: on a special occasion. We would make a box last
Speaker 2: month like she would make us, you know, use a
Speaker 2: good quality whole grain usually or some Vita Briots or something,
Speaker 2: and we'd sprinkle a little bit on top of an
Speaker 2: actual base of a healthier cereal. So we'd use it
Speaker 2: to add a little bit of sort of flavor and
Speaker 2: sugar in there. But we absolutely would never allowed a
Speaker 2: whole bowl of Milo cereal for breakfast. I think that's
Speaker 2: a good way to use it. If your kids love it.
Speaker 1: That's a really smart way to do it, I think too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: with negotiating with kids. So it's not saying you know,
Speaker 1: a no, it's saying this is how we use it.
Speaker 1: It's not the base, but if you want a bit
Speaker 1: of flavor, actually really like that as a tip. All right.
Speaker 1: And the third product we're going to talk about is
Speaker 1: a really interesting product because this range of the No
Speaker 1: Nasis project we've spoken about in terms of lower sugar cooks,
Speaker 1: and they've sort of ventured into the area of cereal.
Speaker 1: So this is the No Nasties fruity fifty percent less
Speaker 1: sugar fruity loops cereal. So it's basically designed to be
Speaker 1: a healthier version of good old fruit loops now two
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty five grams at six forty so not inexpensive,
Speaker 1: significantly more than the cereals we've spoken about. If we
Speaker 1: look at the ingredient list, it's interestingly and so the
Speaker 1: first ingredients is rice flour. Now that is a heavily
Speaker 1: refined grain, it's not whole grain, so that's that's interesting,
Speaker 1: followed by wholemeal wheat flour, sugar, natural sweetness, so they're
Speaker 1: basically sweetening with erythrotol and stevia salt natural colors to
Speaker 1: it to get those colors, similar to fruit loops, food
Speaker 1: acid and multifier natural flavors. God does have some wine
Speaker 1: added vitamins B one, B two, B three. I'm just
Speaker 1: remembering my p groot vitamins and folic acids.
Speaker 2: One of them is BE six and I said rather
Speaker 2: flavor diamond and following us, Yeah, and the sweetness are
Speaker 2: with retol and steavia. So the natural types of sweetness,
Speaker 2: which is good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So similar thirty gram serving size, which like you
Speaker 1: described as not very much, just over one hundred calories
Speaker 1: at four hundred and eighty three kildeels two point six
Speaker 1: grams of protein. You know, they're very low in fat,
Speaker 1: twenty four grams of carbo hydrate perserve and four grams
Speaker 1: of sugars, which is not as low as how wheat bix,
Speaker 1: not overly high, but still go a little bit, but
Speaker 1: leanne like one point two grams of dietary fiber. And
Speaker 1: all I will say is, if you're going to go
Speaker 1: and formulate this flash cereal and claim to be healthier,
Speaker 1: stick some fiber in there. Like one point two grams
Speaker 1: is so low, you know, even if you would say
Speaker 1: it's a healthier I wouldn't even say it's a healthier
Speaker 1: fruit loops because it's got no fiber in it. So
Speaker 1: I don't like the grain. I don't like that. It's
Speaker 1: rice flour that's a high GI grain. It's heavily refined.
Speaker 1: So even though it's lower in sugarly and I'm giving this,
Speaker 1: you know, low, I'm giving it a four. I don't
Speaker 1: like it. I think that if you're going to be
Speaker 1: playing in the health area, you've got to make sure
Speaker 1: you're ticking a minimum things like a whole grain component
Speaker 1: and dietary fiber. And for me, this doesn't do any
Speaker 1: even though it's heavily marketing on less sugar, it's a
Speaker 1: bit disappointing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when you compare it to fruit loops directly, it's
Speaker 2: certainly a better option. I mean, a box of fruit
Speaker 2: Loops to eighty five grams of froot Loops just looking
Speaker 2: at coals right now is seven dollars, So this is
Speaker 2: actually twenty five grams similar size, it's six dollars forty.
Speaker 2: It's actually cheaper than buying a box of fruit loops.
Speaker 2: So it is if your kids love that and you're
Speaker 2: looking for a better version of it, certainly this is better.
Speaker 2: The flavors are natural, we're not getting the added colors
Speaker 2: like froot loops, and the sweetness are natural as well.
Speaker 2: Plus you're getting it about half the amount of sugar
Speaker 2: so per serving in fruit loops, which is a thirty
Speaker 2: gram serving. As well, the sugars are eleven point six grams,
Speaker 2: so this is actually it's nearly a third less sugar.
Speaker 2: This is only four grams per serving the dietary fiber
Speaker 2: and fruit Loops is point seven. This is one point
Speaker 2: two grams per serve. So certainly it's better. But when
Speaker 2: we compare it to what we would want, it's definitely
Speaker 2: I'd be a little bit more generous souzie. I'd give
Speaker 2: it a five. Maybe's certainly a lot less sugar than
Speaker 2: a lot of other brands out there in terms of
Speaker 2: kid cereals, but there's no real positive nutritional benefit. You're
Speaker 2: just getting a ton of carbs from this. There's no
Speaker 2: real healthy fats, there's no great quality whole grains in there.
Speaker 2: There's no real you know, even protein from things like
Speaker 2: our nuts and our sea that we'd like to see.
Speaker 2: So it is what it is. It's a better option
Speaker 2: than fruit loops itself. But you know, I don't think
Speaker 2: you have to be Einstein to work out that fruit
Speaker 2: loops aren't actually good for you. So certainly, if your
Speaker 2: kids are obsessed with fruit loops, so you want a
Speaker 2: better option, this is certainly something to play with. But
Speaker 2: again I'd be mixing it with a couple of vita
Speaker 2: bread sauce and wheat bigsil, putting in a bit of
Speaker 2: good quality depending on the age if it's a bit
Speaker 2: older kids, some good quality granola or musically or that
Speaker 2: sort of thing, with a nice blend of fruit and
Speaker 2: mix as well to add in some healthy fats to
Speaker 2: just reduce down the whole carbohydrate load there as well,
Speaker 2: so it is what it is. I thought it was
Speaker 2: an interesting one to pop in there because I think
Speaker 2: most people are aware that things like our standard froot
Speaker 2: loops and Coco Pops that you know, you and I
Speaker 2: grew up in that generation where that was all you
Speaker 2: saw on a kid's breakfast table. Most of us know
Speaker 2: that those sorts of things aren't healthy. So to see
Speaker 2: some better varieties out there as nice. But let's be real,
Speaker 2: it's not a great option, like, it's not something we'd
Speaker 2: be recommending. It's not something I had to ever write
Speaker 2: into a client's meal plan for them all their kids.
Speaker 2: I really do feel like it has a place, but
Speaker 2: it's certainly not something that we're going to give you
Speaker 2: top marks to on the Nutrition Couch today, it's very
Speaker 2: much sitting very standard four or five out of ten
Speaker 2: at best.
Speaker 1: And if you do want to know what are the
Speaker 1: kid cereals and even adult cereals that Leanne and I
Speaker 1: highly recommend, including Granola's oats and kid cereal, you need
Speaker 1: a copy of the Nutrition Couch product guid which you
Speaker 1: can find on our website at the nutritioncouch dot com.
Speaker 1: Well lean that brings us to the end of the
Speaker 1: Nutrition Couch product review for another week. If you haven't
Speaker 1: done so, don't forget to subscribe and tell your friends
Speaker 1: about us or if there's a product you would like
Speaker 1: us to review, feel free to communicate with us on
Speaker 1: our socials. We've got to Instagram and Facebook site and
Speaker 1: we love to read your feedback and we will see
Speaker 1: you on Sunday morning for our regular weekly episode drop.
Speaker 2: And just in case you missed the news, we're super
Speaker 2: excited to announce that the brand new Nutrition Couch Takeaway
Speaker 2: Guard is now available for sale on our website, which
Speaker 2: is the nutritioncouch dot Com. The Nutrition Couch Takeaway Guard
Speaker 2: is your ultimate resource to help you navigate your way
Speaker 2: through hundreds of options provided by various Australian takeaway restaurants,
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Speaker 2: and I have shared our preferred options available within all
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Speaker 2: go and find the Nutrition Couch Takeaway Guard on our website,
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Speaker 2: hear your feedback about the guide.
Speaker 1: Have a great week. This is the mocots storm Comtist station.