If you care at all about your body and health, I'm sure you already know to avoid the obvious sugary cereals like the flakes with sugar frosting, the fruity sugar cereals with artificial colours, the frosted wheat biscuits, or the marshmallow cereals.
However, even most breakfast cereals that aren't frosted in sugar are marketed heavily as "heart healthy ", "rich in fibre ", and "a good source vitamins & minerals "... Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth!
One of the WORST things about most cereals, even so-called "whole grain" cereals is that they ALL cause a significant spike in your blood sugar (regardless of whether they are wheat, rice, or corn based) to dangerously high levels, which results in a cascade of fat storing hormones to be released in your body, and causes more carb cravings later in the day.
Most cereals (even "whole grain" or "high fibre") cause extreme harm to your hormones and create runaway blood sugar in your body
In fact, even cereals that have added fibre (such as bran flakes or raisin bran) have been found to cause just as much of a massive spike in blood sugar as the low-fibre cereals such as rice or corn based cereals. Remember that the starches in wheat, corn, or a bowl of rice cereal break down quickly in your body into SUGAR and immediately do as much harm to your blood sugar regulation system as if you ate 40-60 grams of pure corn syrup or pure table sugar.
Those massive spikes in your blood sugar essentially damage your cells in your body through a process called glycation, which accelerates the rate of aging in your joints, skin, organs, and even your brain.
The more cereal you eat, the more you constantly stress your pancreas and other organs involved in controlling your blood sugar . Insulin levels surge every day to try to control your massive blood sugar attacks from all that cereal, and eventually, your insulin sensitivity suffers, leading many people to type 2 Diabetes, and a life of injecting insulin with needles and stabbing your fingers every day for blood tests every day of your life.
Not only that, but causing high insulin levels in your body every morning by eating cereal also triggers your body to STORE body fat.
Gut Inflammation and even gut damage?
Any cereals with wheat ingredients in them can possibly cause gut inflammation and long term gut damage from too much gluten and lectins , even if you're not officially gluten intolerant or gluten sensitive.
Cereal causes CRAVINGS for more carbs later in the day, leading to excess calories
The blood sugar spike and subsequent insulin surge from your morning cereal makes your body to try to get all that sugar out of your blood and into cells (usually fat cells), and that causes a big drop in your blood sugar hours later. This makes you CRAVE more carb-based or sugary foods later in the day.
The result of this is a constant wild roller coaster ride of blood sugar and insulin all day long, leading you to eat more calories in any given day.
Cereal makes your body a carb-burner instead of a fat-burner
The more carbs that you eat each day from foods such as cereal and breads, the more you train your body to rely on carbs for energy. So when your blood sugar dips again, you need more carbs again, or you'll have a major energy slump .
On the other hand, the more that you get most of your calories from healthy fats instead (avocados, coconut oil, grass-fed butter and cream, olive oil, nuts, seeds, eggs, and pasture-raised meats), the more you train your body to be a fat-burning machine .
This is called creating a "fat adapted metabolism " and you do this by reducing your overall carb intake and simultaneously increasing your healthy fat intake. This doesn't mean you need to go extremely low in carbs like Atkins, but just a LOT lower than the average carb addict, which is pretty much everyone eating a modern diet.
By relying mostly on healthy fats for energy instead of carbs, this balances your hormones and gives you VERY stable blood sugar levels throughout each day without the typical spikes and slumps in your energy that most carb addicts feel every single day.
Another benefit of creating a "fat adapted metabolism " in your body is that you will naturally lose body fat easier !