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