Hey San Antonio, are you eating candy for breakfast?

So, you want to sit down to a healthy breakfast...one that won't make you sluggish and will help you to lose fat.

Which of these two would you guess has more potential to create fat storage in your body: a chocolate and caramel Snickers bar or a bowl of whole-grain Grape-Nuts cereal?

The Snickers bar, right?

Wrong.

While they both contain relatively equal number of calories, the glycemic index of the Snickers bar is 41 and the Grape-Nuts is 75.

For those that don't know what the glycemic index of foods is, you can click the link above, but basically it ranks carbohydrate foods according to how much they raise blood sugar levels in the body.

The question is this: Does that mean that the Grape-Nuts have a greater potential to make you gain fat?

According to Dr. Al Sears it does.

Here's why:
"Their glycemic indices (category) show that the Grape-Nuts produce nearly twice as much blood sugar as the Snickers bar. This, in turn, will trigger the production of more insulin. Higher insulin will signal your body to convert a higher percentage of calories consumed into stored body fat. Since the calories are the same, you will build more fat from the Grape-Nuts."

And this is not some under-handed attempt to fool you and get you to believe that Snickers is lower in GI ranking than other bars. Quite the opposite. By simply adding more fat or chocolate, or maybe switch walnuts or almonds for the peanuts and the GI rank goes down even more.

And what about the Grape-Nuts? Are they alone in the "fat gaining" list of cereals? There again, you may have guessed wrong. Grape-Nuts are actually one of the lower glycemic brands.

Other "healthy" brands fair far worse. Total, which is supposed to be VERY healthy, ranks in at 76 on the scale.

What about Rice Chex. Not with a score of 89.

How about my childhood favorite, Kellogs Corn Flakes? A 92. It's a wonder I can fit through a door...

So...should you dump the breakfast cereal for candy bars? Not only no, but NO!

What I'm advising you is what I always advise: Save your starchy carbs (most of which have a high GI) for when you awaken and right around your training time. In other words, if you about to go train, or have just returned from training, then have some cereal. I prefer steel cut oats...but that's just me.

At any other time it is just like downing a candy bar. And when was the last time any health professional advised you to eat candy to achieve successful fat loss?

Well, don't look to me to do it either.

Steve
Steve Payne is San Antonio's premier fat loss expert. If you're really serious about fat loss, then please consider San Antonio's finest fat loss "boot camp", the Firestorm Fitness Systems Fat Burning Fit Camps, The 28 Day Miracle Fat Loss Program or you can e-mail Steve here for more information on his many GUARANTEED success programs.