Health or hype?

Wanting to increase your vitamin intake or the beneficial bacteria in your stomach? Or trying to shed a few kilos? Whatever's on your wish list, there's a cereal marketed to you. But cereals claiming "added benefits" don't always stand up to scrutiny. We look at some of the main claims on the packets.

Vitamins and minerals

Many cereals are fortified with vitamins and minerals. Some replace the nutrients lost during processing; others were never there in significant amounts in the first place.

A cereal like Sanitarium Toasted Muesli Golden Oats & Fruit touts its vitamin and mineral content but not its 16 percent fat. And while Kellogg's Nutri-Grain is fortified with iron and calcium, the positives are outweighed by the negatives: high sugar, low dietary fibre and high sodium. There are healthier options.

Tip: Base your cereal shortlist on fibre, sugar, fat and sodium. If you're already eating a balanced diet, the vitamins and minerals will take care of themselves. Adding milk or yoghurt will boost your calcium intake.

Fat-free

Kellogg's Special-K is "99 percent fat-free" and Signature Range Bran & Sultana Lighten Up is "98 percent fat-free". In their natural state, however, cereals contain almost no fat - and despite processing most are relatively low in fat.

Tip: "Fat-free" (at whatever percentage) is just one factor to think about. You also need to look at the levels of sugar, sodium and fibre.

Low GI

There's some evidence that lower-GI diets protect against both heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

But the GI shouldn't be used in isolation when choosing a cereal. The GI of a food is affected by many factors including the amount of food you eat, how the food is cooked, the type of fibre, and the fat content. It's the overall GI of your meal that counts, not the GI of the individual food. After all, chocolate and ice cream are low GI foods too ...

Tip: Milk and yoghurt are low GI foods so will reduce the GI of your breakfast.

Prebiotics

Prebiotics encourage the growth of good bacteria in your stomach.

Prebiotics are naturally present in some carbohydrate foods and you don't need a special product like Vogel's Café Style Dark Berry Blend or Nature's Path Organic Optimum Zen to get them in your diet. Plus there's no way of knowing the quantity of prebiotics in such products - it may not be enough to do you any good.

Wholegrains

This is the buzzword in breakfast cereals. Cereals from whole grain (the edible part of any grain - including the bran and germ) are best because they haven't been stripped of fibre, vitamins and minerals. Eating more wholegrains is associated with lower cholesterol, weight control, and reduced risk of both heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

But always check the nutrition information panel. Most Sanitarium cereals say "wholegrain" on the label, yet some are wholier than others. Sanitarium Weet-Bix Crunch for example is nearly 30 percent sugar.

Tip: Ignore the marketing hype and the label claims. Go straight to the product's nutrition information panel to check out how healthy it is - and use our criteria for guidance.