It claims to be “nutritionally packed” and lots of articles online say that it’s healthy, but is it really all THAT healthy if it’s coming out of a cardboard box in the cereal isle?
Help a nutrition newbie out here.
Unfortunately I wouldn’t consider them healthy. They contain only wheat and sugar and have 26 g carbs per serving and only 3.8 g fiber - this is a very low ratio of fiber and makes calling them “whole grain” a stretch. The low fiber and lack of fat and protein means those 22 g carbohydrates will be quickly broken down into 22 g sugar in your body, leading to a blood sugar spike and subsequent crash a couple hours later.
I don’t know if there’s a specific product you are interested in but speaking about their biscuits:
They contain only whole wheat, so they’re source of fibre. They are sweetened with Malted Barley Extract (lower calorific value than sugar, lower sweetness, composed mainly of maltose) and sugar, but only a little - they list 4.4g of added sugar per 100g of product, which is a pretty nice number. The biscuits are also fortified with vitamins and minerals.
The organic version of their biscuits uses organic ingredients and doesn’t list any added vitamins, otherwise it’s an identical product.
Their flavoured versions also have fine composition, but contain twice the amount of sugar.
They also offer a protein version - where the protein content varies by 7 grams per 100 grams.
With all this being said, it’s quite nice products. Remember, that just because something is sold in a carton in the supermarket doesn’t make it a bad food. Even in ordinary supermarkets we can find plenty of good quality food - and of course plenty of poor quality food too.
I’ve been taught to think of anything being sold ‘processed’ as more of a “snack” and less of a regular “meal”. Meaning, snacks aren’t meant to replace meals, or be eaten frequently, the same goes for breakfast cereals.
Processed does not have to mean unhealthy, but the consensus seems to be: do your shopping around the perimeter of grocery stores, limit what you buy from the center aisles. Essentially, focus on buying whole food items if you want a balanced and healthful diet.
Theres nothing to them.
The organic ones are atleast unfortified with the nonsense but other than that it’s just carbs and small amounts of minerals.
Add some yogurt and berries with a side off eggs and spinach and we can talk about something.
It’s important to remember that processed≠bad
Processing can make a food item that is inedible, edible, or more nutritious, or palatable, or last long enough to actually be viable to eat if you don’t live where it’s produced.
In this case weetabix/weet-bix are a very simple processing, and fairly nutritious for a breakfast cereal (the more processed ones usually have more nutrients, but also more sugar to cover the taste)
Almost all breakfast cereal is wholegrains (even things like fruit loops), so weetabix being wholegrain isn’t particularly noteworthy, but it’s still a good thing.
They pair well with a tiny bit of brown sugar or some fresh fruit/yoghurt to add extra nutrition without bulking up calories.
I’m a nutrition scientist and have a PhD in nutrition. Weetbix is minimally processed and whole wheat grains are used so as far as cereal goes it is not a bad options. You really only need to consider that the rolling out of the wheat grains means they are digested quite rapidly so the glycaemic index is quite high. So although they are fairly healthy you’ll probably be hungry again quickly. Not the worst choice out there but whole oats and really grainy breads are better options.
0 benefit.Not eating it will increase your health.Reasoning: GMO grains, glyphosphate contamination, poor fibre type, sugars and unnecessary carbs in the morning.Any break - fast should be nutrient dense to refeed the beneficial gut bacteria. Weet-Bix will refeed the bad.