Are breakfasts
We asked food expert EMMA BROWN to put these time-saving and popular on-the-go meal options to the test
THE old saying goes that breakfast is the most important meal of the day but as many as two-thirds of us don’t even have enough time to pour ourselves a bowl of cereal before dashing off to work with a rumbling stomach.
Starting the day with a well-balanced, high-protein, high-fibre breakfast will help to keep you feeling full until lunch. It also reduces the chances of reaching for a high-sugar, high-fat, mid-morning snack.
A whole host of breakfast drinks have been launched to fill the gap for time-poor Brits but can they really replace a sit-down meal of toast and cereal? Here we look at some of the popular products that are available nationwide. £1.50 for 250ml, 206 calories, 4.5g fat, 12g sugar, 8.5g protein WITH this product you could be forgiven for thinking you were getting a bowl of Weetabix with skimmed milk in the form of a blended drink but it’s actually more like a glorified milkshake, which is available in chocolate, strawberry, vanilla or banana.
Comparing the on-the-go product with a typical bowl of Weetabix and skimmed milk for similar calories, there is three times as much saturated fat, more than two times as much sugar and 60 per cent more salt.
There is a little more fibre and calcium in the drink but the addition of fresh fruit and extra milk on your Weetabix biscuits would balance this out. What’s more, there’s the price – a bowl of Weetabix with skimmed milk sets you back around 30p whereas the on-the-go version costs five times as much. £1.38 for 330ml, 215 calories, 3.4g fat, 19.5g sugar, 15.2g protein THIS breakfast drink markets itself as “breakfast without the bowl” as well as being “super nutritious, calcium rich, protein packed, fibre loaded, wheat free, energy giving, stomach filling, time saving and full of vitamin D, C, B6 and B12”.
It sounds fantastic but is it as nutritious as it claims to be? Compared with a traditional bowl of porridge with skimmed milk, the Up & Go breakfast drink (which comes in vanilla, banana and honey, milk chocolate and strawberry and banana flavours) does supply more fibre, protein and calcium.
However the nutritional scales balance when you factor in that it contains three times as much sugar as well as added oils and preservatives.
A bowl of homemade porridge and skimmed milk costs as little as 15p while Up & Go is more than nine times the price.
It also has a rather acquired taste and texture so it may not be for everyone. £1.40 for 200g pouch, 174 calories, 3.2g fat, 13g sugar, 4.4g protein THIS is porridge in a squeezable pouch (similar to some baby food brands) and comes in a range of three flavours: apple and cinnamon, blueberry and red fruits.
The ingredients list for the product isn’t bad – there are no added sugars and only lemon juice as a preservative. However