Breakfast cereals – muesli, snacks, cereals – are very popular today. They allow you not to turn the morning into a hustle and bustle about making cereals, omelets or fried bacon and eggs. They are part of a healthy lifestyle, incl. proper nutrition. Finally, they are healthier than the same cereals and scrambled eggs and help to keep the weight normal. Is it really that rosy? The same muesli – the truth about the favorite breakfast of healthy food fans can surprise and even overwhelm.
In our fast-paced and somewhat hectic age, time is of great value. Today, when getting ready for work, few can afford a full breakfast, consisting of products that would include all those nutrients that the body needs for normal work in the morning. Therefore, the main advantage of muesli is the possibility of their quick preparation. It is enough to pour them into a cup, pour over yogurt or milk, and breakfast – healthy and tasty – is ready.
The health benefits of muesli are that they are rich in vegetable fiber, which significantly improves the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, removes “bad” cholesterol, salts of heavy metals, radionuclides, and fat decomposition products from the body.
The sufficient amount of complex carbohydrates present in muesli turns the product into an effective preventive measure to prevent constipation, the formation of tumors and inflammation in the digestive tract.
Muesli is really good for health (with a caveat – proper muesli, but more on that later). Subject to the technology of preparation, the products that make up their composition retain their useful properties. For example, when properly processed, corn flakes do not lose vitamins A and E, rice flakes – amino acids, wheat, oat and rye – salts of potassium, iron, phosphorus, magnesium. However, in order to ascertain the benefits and nutritional value of muesli, it will not be superfluous to know about the peculiarities of their industrial production.
For the preparation of muesli, cereals such as oats, rye, wheat, barley, rice, corn are used. According to the technology, they are steamed under high pressure. Thus, they retain most of the vitamins, macro- and microelements, amino acids and other useful substances. However, then these flakes undergo additional heat treatment (for example, frying in oil for flavoring), and here they become less useful. Or rather, to use such muesli is already becoming harmful. And if at the same time they are still “polished” with syrup or caramel, the degree of usefulness decreases a hundredfold.
Further, candied fruits, dried fruits, nuts, seeds, chocolate are added to such flakes with an “improved” taste, and now the muesli is ready. We are ready to hit the morning table of healthy food fans. Fully trusting the manufacturers, people are sure that all supplements to cereals are of high quality (after all, this is exactly what they say on the packaging), but whether this is so is unknown. For example, dried fruits and candied fruits can be chemically treated so that mold or insects do not start, and the look is quite attractive and appetizing. As for chocolate, nuts, syrups and honey, even if they are of the highest quality, there is no need to talk about the low calorie content of such muesli. Nutritionists have found that 100 g of this product includes from 350 to 380 kcal, in terms of sugar and fat content, they can be equated to the liver. But among fans of muesli there are a lot of those who preach weight loss.
Of course, a lot depends on the manufacturer, everyone cannot be reduced to one denominator. Therefore, when buying muesli, carefully read their composition on the packaging, and also make a visual assessment of the product (if it is in a transparent bag)
Manufacturers often add all kinds of harmful additives to muesli in the form of flavors, leavening agents, flavor enhancers, acidity regulators, etc. … On the one hand, this is an excellent “recharging of the brain” and an irreplaceable source of energy, and on the other hand, simple carbohydrates do not have the best effect on the figure.
When buying muesli, you need to keep in mind that a product that contains vegetable oil (often hydrogenated, increases blood cholesterol levels and leads to an increased risk of heart disease) can harm people who have heart rhythm problems and have had an infraction.
Is it good to eat muesli for breakfast
In order not to give up the use of muesli, who managed to win the heart with their convenience and taste, there are two ways out:
Carefully study the composition of the product you want to buy. Remember the names of manufacturers and search for information about them on the Internet. Read consumer reviews. Finally, after filtering the information received, choose the most reliable and conscientious one, in your opinion, and buy muesli produced only by this manufacturer;
Make muesli yourself. To do this, buy various “raw” (unprocessed) cereals, in which the calories are 2 times less than those that have been chemically processed or fried, add useful additives to them – nuts, seeds, dried fruits with your own hands, mix everything and put in jars with tight-fitting lids. Take it out in the morning, add fresh or defrosted berries or pieces of fruit, pour milk or yogurt and enjoy a quick, and most importantly, truly healthy and tasty breakfast.