This Is Why Cereal Is A Terrible Breakfast And Makes You Eat More Than You Want

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A lot has been said about processed foods, but sometimes videos pop up that make me very aware of how big a difference exists. In this video, Dr. Greger (author of “How Not To Die”) jumps into the topic of processed vs. unprocessed breakfast options (and why it’s basically impossible to manage your hunger if you eat cereals for breakfast).

I’ve linked the original video right below, but if you’re not in the mood to watch you can also read the most important lessons below the video (I did my best to take all the important pieces of knowledge out for you, enjoy!).

Lesson 1: Food Structure Is Important Than We Thought

First, Dr. Greger explains that processing food has an effect on its glycemic index. This is a scale that measures how quickly carbohydrates in food raise blood sugar levels, or glucose, after eating. The higher the score, the worse the food is for your blood levels and the more prone you become to diseases like diabetes.

For example, cornflakes have a higher glycemic index than sweet corn and the same goes for rice bubbles and actual rice. You could think this is because processed foods have added sugar, but Dr. Greger shows research that indicates that even foods that have the same quantity of every ingredient, still have different glycemic indices depending on if they’re processed or not.

Lesson 2: Eating High Glycemic Index Foods Makes You Want To Eat More

This is because the blood sugar spikes, and the rapid absorption of carbohydrates, starts a sequence of hormonal and metabolical changes that promote excessive food intake.

An experiment that was done with 12 obese boys, found that the ones that ate instant oatmeal for breakfast went on to eat 53% more calories throughout the day than the ones that ate medium-GI steel-cut oatmeal. Once again proving that the same food can have a different effect depending on how it’s processed.

Lesson 3: Cereal Has One Of The Highest GI Of All Breakfast Options

What’s surprising here is that even the cereal with 0 sugar (Shredded Wheat) still has a glycemic index of 83! This shows that it’s not necessarily what’s in the food, but also how it’s processed that can cause serious spikes in blood sugar levels.

Lesson 4: You’re More Hungry Because Of High GI Foods

As you can see in the graph below, spaghetti causes a relatively subtle insulin spike. However, bread that’s baked from spaghetti ingredients is a lot more absorbable for your body. Because of this, your body experiences a big glucose spike.

The result of this glucose spike is that your body has to react with a big insulin spike, as we can see in the image below. The result of all this is that your blood sugar level actually drops BELOW normal levels, and this causes you to be hungry, which means you’ll eat more and so you start overeating.

Lesson 5: Cereal Makes You Eat Twice As Much Than Oatmeal Does

In his video, Dr. Greger also shows research where participants ate one of three things for breakfast: oatmeal, cereal, or water (with the oatmeal and cereal having similar caloric values). Then, they measured how much these people were eating for lunch.

The results? The people that ate the cereal ate twice as much as the ones that ate the oatmeal. They cereal eaters even ate more than the ones that had only had water for breakfast!

Stefan K.

Stefan has been vegan since 2019 and has been regularly working on his strength since the beginning of 2023. He’s on a mission to help other vegans get stronger and have all of them achieve the quality of life they deserve.