We’ve all heard the expression before that ‘breakfast is the most important meal of the day’. But not many people know where this saying actually comes from. It was first coined in 1917 by Lenna Cooper, a prominent American dietitian who used it in a magazine article published for a sanatorium. The phrase might have simply faded away into obscurity had the sanatorium not been run by future cereal king, Dr John Harvey Kellogg. Spotting an opportunity, he decided to ‘adopt’ the slogan and use it in a marketing campaign to promote his breakfast cereal. The rest, of course, is history. More than a century later, the phrase is still being used to sell breakfast by food marketing execs and by parents, who are just trying to get their children to eat something in the morning. Though, in reality, there is no meal importance podium where breakfast sits sky high above all other meals. It’s not like if you’ve ‘done breakfast’, anything goes with lunch and dinner. Clearly, all meals in your diet are important and will impact your health, even if evidence shows that eating breakfast is nutritionally important. The question is what kind of breakfast should you eat that will help you stay healthy? Competing cereal manufacturers are still trying to convince us that their latest bowlful is the answer. Which is why I read with interest about the three new breakfast cereals launched by Nestle.       

In a triple threat launch, Nestle’s Shredded Wheat Happy Heart, Shredded Wheat Active and Shreddies Peanut Butter have all hit the shelves. But are they actually the healthy breakfast choices we should be reaching for? Starting with the first two so-called functional cereals, they are targeted at consumers with longevity in mind. These cereals are intended to ‘support healthy ageing without compromising on taste’. Which sort of suggests that cereals that support good health do not taste all that good. It is a curious claim coming from the makers of Original Shredded Wheat, one of the best known healthy cereals around. Then again, other than pushing their 100% Whole Grain Wheat Ingredients USP, they don’t mention very much about it being moreish…Nevertheless, Shredded Wheat Happy Heart is specifically aimed at consumers who want good heart health. The cereal is fortified with Vitamin B1 (Thiamin) which plays an important role in heart function and it is also low in sat fat and salt to help support normal cholesterol and blood pressure levels.   

These are all very beneficial and entirely consistent with promoting good heart health so on the surface, this seems to be a bowlful of nothing but hearty goodness. However, on closer inspection of the ingredients label, it tells a different story. The cereal also contains sugar, glucose syrup, honey and molasses, which add up to more than 1½ tsp of added sugar in a 40g serving. That is quite a lot of added sugar for a cereal that is presumably aimed at adults. Which makes me wonder why Nestle thinks they need so much sweetness just to get to the end of a bowl. Especially when adults are quite likely to eat far more than a measly 40g serving, which means that they will be consuming even more added sugar in a bowl. But solid evidence shows that eating a diet high in sugar can lead to weight gain and obesity, which are well known risk factors for coronary heart disease. So rather than being a healthy choice to help you age well, I fear that this breakfast may only lead to having a Heavy Heart.  

The second functional cereal offered by Nestle is Shredded Wheat Active. This cereal was developed to support consumers’ health and wellbeing and help get them on the move. It comes with pumpkin seeds and nuts and is fortified with Vitamin D and calcium to support muscle function, bone health and to help you ‘live the active life you want’. The cereal also contains wholegrain wheat, is high in fibre and low in salt. Now these are all very good things to have in a breakfast cereal and from its appearance, a bowlful would seem to be a nutritious choice. However, like Happy Heart, Shredded Wheat Active also contains sugar, honey, glucose syrup and molasses. None of which are going to help you maintain strong muscles and bones. And although it contains slightly less added sugar than Shredded Wheat Happy Heart, no adult needs over 1 tsp of added sugar in a 40g serving. Which means that a realistically larger than 40g serving is not going give you a healthy start of the day. It may not even help you feel like moving much at all.

The third new cereal launched by Nestle, Shreddies Peanut Butter, was a bit of an outlier because it wasn’t promising heathy ageing or to be anything ‘functional’. It was unapologetically not pretending to be anything more than a new flavour twist on the famous wholegrain squares. Primarily because it was developed in response to the rising popularity of the nutty spread among consumers and particularly among Original Shreddies eaters. Nestle cited evidence from a 2024 consumer study using a cross-shop metric that found that 38% of Original Shreddies purchasers also bought peanut butter. The prospect then of being able to combine the two in a bowl must have seemed like marketing gold. Potentially, they would not only reach an even larger number of young peanut butter eating consumers but they could also tap into the growing number of older gym goers who always sought out protein gains. Nestle was not alone in thinking that adding peanut butter to their products could be very lucrative, as there were already several peanut butter cereals, granolas and porridges on the market.

Shreddies Peanut Butter is under the Original Shreddies umbrella of sorts, and is advertised as containing wholegrain wheat, being high in fibre and fortified with several B vitamins and iron. It is worth noting though that Original Shreddies also contains 1 tsp of added sugar in a serving, but the cereal doesn’t claim to be anything other than enjoyed ‘as part of a healthy diet and lifestyle’. By appearance, Shreddies Peanut Butter looks just like it is the Original Shreddies, but has some peanut butter added. Therefore, most consumers would assume that Shreddies Peanut Butter would only differ substantially in terms of nutrition from the Original by being higher in protein and several other vitamins and minerals from the added peanut butter.

However – spoiler alert – Shreddies Peanut Butter cereal does not actually contain any peanut butter. Not a drop. Sure, they do not exactly hide it but it is very easy to miss the word ‘flavour’ under the more prominent Peanut Butter branding. Which seems utterly nonsensical in a cereal made for, and targeted at, peanut butter eaters. But even worse, Shreddies Peanut Butter is not only significantly higher in added sugar than Original Shreddies but it also contains less protein, fibre, iron and B vitamins. That’s a huge trade off in nutrition just for some peanut butter flavouring. Shamelessly, one of the cereal’s serving suggestions is to eat it with a drizzle of peanut butter on top to ‘double down on nutty-ness’. How you can possibly double down on something that’s missing in the first place is a mystery. It would be far more nutritious (and probably tastier) to drizzle real peanut butter over a bowlful of Original Shreddies. I can only hope that parents and protein conscious gym-goers will not be fooled by this latest offering.

Ultimately, breakfast may not be the most important meal of the day but eating a nutritious one will help keep you on the road to good health. Therefore, I’m afraid that Nestle’s latest cereals are not ones I would recommend reaching for in the morning if you are looking for a healthy choice. Fortunately, there are plenty of other nutritious breakfast options that will get you off to a great start. Simply base your breakfast on wholegrain carbohydrates then add some fruit and a source of protein, such as milk. Some great choices include porridge with berries, no-added sugar muesli with apple and yoghurt, wholewheat toast with banana and peanut butter or multigrain toast with scrambled eggs, tomato and mushrooms. Even a bowl of Original Shredded Wheat with fruit and milk is a nutritious start to the day. However, the best breakfast is also the one you are actually going to eat. It’s just a matter of finding the healthiest version of whatever works for you or your children.

Speaking of which, if you are looking for another healthy breakfast option, try making this Oatmeal soda bread with nectarines and raisins. It’s a no-nonsense loaf that can be whipped up in a flash and is perfect for slicing up and eating throughout the week (if it lasts that long).