2013-05-31

Foodie Friday 2: Gluten Free Cereal Guide

There are SO many gluten free cereals on the market, I had a hard time deciding where to even begin with this post... but here goes. My first attempt at summarizing the g-free cereal brands on the market. In order of BEST to WORST, in my opinion. 

1. Hot Cereal I really don't advocate cereal because, as you'll see from this summary, MOST g-free cereals are empty calories. They are made of corn or rice (practically void of protein and fiber) and contain way too much sugar. I'd rather eat a bowl of plain oatmeal where I get to choose my own toppings, fillers, and sweeteners. Alternatively, homemade granola is an amazing 'cereal' option. 

An old picture of oatmeal with almond butter swirl and strawberry jam.

2. Enjoy Life Enjoy Life is a company that focuses on allergen-free foods. Their flax crunch cereal (pictured below) is stellar. The ingredients? Sorghum flour, flax, honey, raisin juice (for sweetener), and salt. No junk, no refined sugar, no corn or rice. The nutritional stats are great too (7 grams of protein per serving! That is very high for a g-free cereal). If it is too 'plain' for your liking, try dressing it up with berries, a vanilla nut mylk, chopped banana, or a sprinkle of cinnamon. If you find it super bland, you could eat it with a sweetened nut or soy mylk to add some more sweetness. 

3. Barbara's Similar to Enjoy Life's products, Barbara's uses some alternatives to refined sugars, like molasses. Their products are mostly made of oat flour, but beware because others are mainly corn-based. Overall, I still like Barbara's because their ingredients lists are pretty straight forward. Just be mindful of the corn based varieties and that some of their cereals do contain gluten. 

4. Nature's Path Nature's Path is the gluten-free cereal king! They have TONS of varieties. They have g-free granola, puffed cereal, flake cereal, etc. However, they are mostly made of corn and rice and I find them to be very, very sweet. Mesa Sunrise is probably the most nutritious because it contains ground flax... but it's still corn based. *Sigh*.

5. Glutino Not a fan of these cereals. While Nature's Path is corn and rice based, and is sugary, they at least have flax, hemp, and other healthy ingredients added. Glutino cereals are pretty plain and pretty nutritionally void. 

6. General Mills/Kellogg's/Post Oh, boy. The big cereal brands are now making gluten free versions of their classic cereals! You can get g-free Rice Krispies, Chex, Cocoa Puffs, Trix, Fruit Pebbles, and more. Don't be tricked into thinking that these are healthy cereals now that they have been dubbed gluten-free... they are still the same old candy cereals that they've always been. 

More to come! Next week I'll be featuring a homemade cereal recipe...



The best (in my opinion)! Image source here.

2 comments:

  1. cocoa puffs and trix have gluten free versions -really?

    I think it is high time the Canadian and American "FDA" to a look at our wheat production in the Western world if there is such a gluten free requirement.Somethings gotta give!!

    Gluten free Mama

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh yes! Most of the big cereals brands now have gfree versions. It's still junk... just gluten-free junk!

    ReplyDelete

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