Hello!

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Spend a morning in my house and you’ll realize that anything that can be done to streamline the ‘get up, get ready, get fed and get out the door’ routine should be done. Immediately.

I’m sure our neighbours kill themselves laughing each and every morning as they listen to me muster the family through the morning routine!

I must admit though that a lot of the hoo ha is probably of my own doing. With 1 teenager, 1 tweenager and another one following their lead, breakfast has almost hit 5 star status when it comes to options – buckwheat pancakes, green smoothies, protein breaky balls – you name it, we’re doing it.

I’ve allowed the outside world to mess with my head and because of this breakfast has strayed a long, long way from a healthy, simple and quick solution.

The bench ends up covered in chia seeds, LSA, spilt biodynamic yoghurt , kale leaves, ice cubes, the pumpkin seeds someone has picked off the organic sourdough and someone’s scrambled eggs that the kids ended up overcooking and now resemble a rubber stress ball!

I take the blame. Completely. A few years back I fell victim to opinions from ‘the experts’ and anyone else who was on the wagon that cereals were all full of sugar, would have my kids bouncing off the walls until bedtime and were actually no better than actually eating the cardboard box they came in.

And like a mad woman, I listened, threw the baby out with the bathwater and made cereals (well all cereals except oats) a ‘holiday’ food only.

Crazy, crazy me. In my quest to be the mum who sent my kids off fully fueled and protein-powered to be the dynamite children I knew they were, I forgot that there are loads of cereals that are actually a brilliant choice for not just my kids but the big people in the house too.

The trouble for me though is that I shop like I do everything – at a hundred miles an hour! You could probably describe my style as ‘smash & grab’ to get in and out as quickly as possible. So strolling the aisles and checking every last ingredient isn’t going to work.

I do have a pretty good understanding about nutrition but to be honest, manufacturers can get pretty tricky with what they say and how they say it. It’s no wonder I’m never quite sure whether I’ve actually made a healthy choice or not.

Thankfully, there is help at hand … and it comes in the form of a bright blue dot!

Yes a blue dot that brands can include on their cereal packaging so that you know on first glance just how GOOD for you that particular product is. It’s officially called the Health Star Rating System and has been developed by the Government as a guide on the front of food packs to help us understand the nutrition content of food ‘at-a-glance’.

 

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It’s simple. The more stars … the more nutritious the product. Now that is easy!

Now some manufacturers may be up in arms about this. What will the big blue dot do to their marketing claims? Yes well we’ll all see won’t we?

But our mates at Uncle Toby’s couldn’t be happier. The range of their cereals that are scoring 4.0 HSR, 4.5 HSR and 5.0 HSR is huge. Their space on the supermarket shelf will soon be a sea of blue dots!

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And just quietly I also couldn’t be happier. Now all I need to do is check out the stars and teach my kids to do that same. If it’s less than a 4.0 HSR (Health Star Rating), it doesn’t make it into our trolley. One less thing to feel guilty about.

Perhaps now I can get back to “Good morning gorgeous kids” as opposed to “Good … ness me! What kind of a mess do you call this?”

Much love,

Nik from the MoM Team xo

p.s. If you’re not like me and you like the details, you can check it all out here. Uncle Toby’s have made understanding the new Health Star Rating system easy and it’s all in one place.

p.p.s In case it wasn’t obvious, we worked with Uncle Toby’s to put this together. But as you know, we don’t run it, unless we really believe in it.

And we really do believe they’ve put the GOOD back into GOOD MORNING!

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  • To be honest I don’t think all Health Star rating is accurate. The health star rating regards the ingredients, not the process the product is made. There’s nothing wrong with a bowl of oats and homemade granola is a great choice too.
    The problem of Cereals is not with the ingredients themselves, which are simple and seem “whole” enough in the case of organic cereal. The unhealthy aspect of boxed cereal is due to the violent processing required to manufacture it. Factory Processing Destroys Cereal Grain Proteins.
    This factory driven process, called extrusion, applies so much heat and pressure to the cereal grains that they actually liquefy. This slurry allows the grains to be quickly and easily shaped into the puffs, flakes, and other shapes that make each cereal distinct.
    The manufacturing process used to make boxed cereal is so violent and denaturing that the proteins in the grains are actually rendered toxic and allergenic as a result. This is why whole grain boxed breakfast cereal is shockingly even more toxic than cheap boxed cereals made with white flour — because whole grains are higher in protein. The more protein, the more toxic the boxed cereal.

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  • There are some really delicious cereals out there

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  • This was an interesting mini article. Thanks for posting!

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  • Uncle Toby’s such a trusted brand. I like the health star ratings too. Makes it easy to choose.

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  • An interestingly put together ad/article for Uncle Tobys, thanks for sharing.

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  • It must be only uncle toys products as I have checked my products all which happen to be kelloggs and there is no star rating system at all on any of the packaging. All Bran , cornflakes , weetbix etc which we have in our cupboard I would have thought are in the healthy range for cereals.

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  • A warm bowl of oats with a dash of milk and honey is a great way to start the day. I also like to top it up with some fruit for an easy satisfying brekkie.

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  • Great article, very interesting! I’ll be looking out for the blue dots now. Really will make things easier and rest my mind knowing how healthy something is. Thanks for posting!

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  • That’s such a great help. Thank you

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  • Blue dot will be code for something different for my boys, it;ll encourage them in positive wayno probs.

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  • I do agree that food labeling is very hard to work out especially when you are trying to choose the best for your family. The other issue which has come to media attention lately is the Product of Australia and Made in Australia labeling on packages. I have heard they are trying to make that more customer friendly as well so fingers crossed that will happen.

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  • Very good to know, i have never heard of this before and its good to know about

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  • Despite the focus on Uncle Toby’s, this applies across cereals and is really handy. My goodness, I’m looking forward to having it on everything.

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  • This is only new – I steer clear of cereals generally too because I can’t be bothered reading the labels but I saw these little blue dots appearing over the last few weeks and now I know how to read them!

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  • hubby is in charge of cereals. we pretty much have a cupboard full of frootloops chocoballs and other unhealthy options.
    we also have wheetbix and oats and some healthy options but miss 7 wont choose them until they are the only option left.

    Reply

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