Naturalpath

Nearly every morning my kids ask if they can have cookies for breakfast.  And every morning I tell them "No way, breakfast is no time for cookies!"  "Why???!", they ask.  "Too much sugar -- it's bad for you and can make you sick," I respond.  "How do you know?" asks my now 6 year old girl who now questions everything.

Good question.  I showed her (and myself!) the sugar labels on the cookies we often eat for treats and then the cereal boxes from the cereals they most often eat for breakfast.  Guess what?   Compared to a lot of the cereals, cookies weren't that bad.

Here's the results from the (rather limited, I'm afraid) assortment of products we looked at:

We had two types of cookies:

Newman's Own Organics Arrowroot Alphabet Cookies have 7 grams of sugar per 10 (yes, TEN) cookies (granted they are small). 

Country Choice Vanilla Organic Sandwhich Cremes have 11 grams of sugar per 2 cookies. 

We had several types of cereals, so I'll just give a few of the BEST ones.  I read labels religiously and try to get the best tasting stuff my kids will eat without a lot of sugar.  I haven't done a good enough job....

Barbara's Puffins have 5 grams of fat per 3/4 cup (I LOVE that new trick many food manufacturers now pull to measure the servings differently so their labels look great).

Nature's Path Oaty Bites have 6 grams of fat per 3/4 cup.

Nature's Path Hemp Plus Granola (my favorite) has 5 grams of sugar per 1/2 cup. 

Whole Kids Organic Honey Nut Morning-O's (Whole Foods product) have 10 grams of sugar per 1 cup (finally an honest measure).

The only cereal from our cupboard that came out looking great was Food for Life Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Whole Grain Almond (and their other flavors), which has less than 1 gram of sugar per half cup.  The only problem is my kids refuse to eat it.

I can only imagine what sugar levels the "typical" kid cereals like Captain Crunch or Fruit Loops or Lucky Charms have...  Bet they'd make the cookies look REALLY healthy.

Are cookies for breakfast the answer as my daughter suggested?  I'm guessing no.  I'm also guessing I'd better start looking for better breakfast alternatives.  I feel glad that I haven't relied entirely on breakfast cereals the past several years, but have been rotating what I feed them.  I need to focus more on whole, unprocessed foods.

Some of the ideas I've tried (and will try more often) include: 

Slow cooked oatmeal (it does take 30 minutes to cook, but it can just simmer while you're getting the kids up and having that first cup of coffee -- or should I say "green tea") -- it's better than instant oatmeal which is processed and much higher in sugar (I heard it converts really quickly to sugar when eaten).  My 6 year old daughter will eat the good oatmeal, but only if I pour on lots of maple syrup... My son (who's 6 and has cerebral palsy with food texture sensitivities) and younger daughter (2 1/2) refuse the slow cooked oatmeal because they hate the texture... so it's instant oatmeal for them despite the higher sugar....  I've thought about taking the slow cooked oatmeal and pureeing it (however crazy that sounds) with butter and maple syrup to make mush. 

Fried Tomatoes with coconut oil (unrefined for nice flavor), with eggs.  Ok, only my 6 year old daughter will eat this one too.  Sometimes I give in to my youngest and also cook up chicken apple spice sausages (no nitrates, free range and non-antibiotic fed meat) from Whole Foods.  It's the only thing she's guaranteed to eat besides bananas.

Fruit Salad with sprouted whole grain toast (putting unrefined cocunut oil on the toast will give Omega 6s if your kids will eat it.  I put a layer of butter over it and try to fool them....  My son won't eat fruit, except the occasional bite of banana, so this is for the girls in our family.

Smoothies - I throw a bunch of fresh or frozen fruit in a blender with almond milk and Rainbow Light Vanilla Protein Powder (which is supposed to be food based) and all the kids actually drink it.

Quinoa or Amaranth hot cereal cooked up with maple syrup with fruit on top (or cooked in) is an option for some -- not for my kids.  They won't touch the stuff!  My poor husband has to eat it when I try to feed it to the kids and they turn up their noses.

Any more good, healthy, whole food breakfast ideas are invited!