Sorting Out Starches and Sweets

Whether you're picking up something quick for breakfast at the deli counter, breakfasting at a fancy restaurant with white linen tablecloths, or touring the aisles at a supermarket, avoiding baked goods and cereals made with refined grains and sugars takes some diligence. Sweet rolls, pancakes, waffles, bread, and many hot and cold cereals are mostly comprised of these ingredients that can lead to high blood sugar, weight gain, and eventually heart problems when they become your usual breakfast. They also shortchange you by providing calories without a comparable amount of nutrients. But the good news is that nutritious-carb baked goods are showing up more and more often.

Adding whole carbs while reducing refined carbs

Avoiding all the white flour and white sugar that's offered to you every day takes commitment, because the white foods are so prevalent. You need to be a sleuth and read those package labels closely. Planning what you'll eat for the day ahead of time also helps keep you from resorting to these products. Making changes to your daily meals in steps is a fine approach. You stand to benefit if you manage to replace even half of the refined carbs you normally eat. Here are some actions to take:

• When you go grocery shopping, search out whole-wheat bagels, English muffins, and whole-grain and multigrain breads. More and more manufacturers are providing these alternatives. Also, request whole-wheat and whole-grain breads when you're eating out.

Look for cereals made with whole grains and not made with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils and added sugars. Read the label and you find that by these standards, Grape-Nuts cereal is a winner.

• Be aware of the many forms of added sugar and their names. Many commercial cereals contain several forms of sugar that can really add up:

• Corn syrup and corn sweeteners

• Fructose and high-fructose corn syrup

• Dextrose and dextrin

• Fruit juice concentrate

• Evaporated cane juice

• Have a big enough breakfast at home so you're not hungry when you leave the house and are tempted to eat from the snack cart at work or stop for a fast food breakfast. Assemble what you plan to eat for breakfast the night before so it's ready to prepare quickly in the morn.

• Carry nutritious snack foods with you when you're away from home. That way, when you feel a little hungry, you don't cave in and buy something starchy and sweet, the usual sort of snack food you find. Bring along almonds, fresh cherries, grapes, or crunchy vegetables and a bit of yogurt dip.

Ode to oats

Oats are one of the few grains that manufacturers leave as is, bringing oats to market still unrefined with germ and bran intact. Several years ago, this homey breakfast staple suddenly became a must-have health food for its ability to lower cholesterol. The fanfare has died down some, and other foods such as legumes now share the spotlight, but a bowl of oatmeal still ranks as a healthy choice for breakfast.

Oat bran gives you soluble fiber, the kind that lowers cholesterol. Oats also are a good source of vitamin E, folate, iron, copper, and zinc, and they're very high in manganese and protein. According to one study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2002, oats are far better than wheat for lowering cholesterol and for improving blood lipids and lipoprotein profiles. Researchers at Colorado State University had 36 men, ages 50 to 75 years, consume two large servings of oat cereal or wheat cereal daily for 12 weeks. For those eating oats, levels of LDL cholesterol declined without lowering HDL cholesterol or raising triglycerides. But for those consuming the wheat cereal, LDL cholesterol, the ratio of LDL to HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides all increased.

The requirements for soluble fiber are between 5 and 10 grams a day. According to the American Dietetic Association, to experience the cholesterol-lowering effect of soluble fiber, consuming 3 grams a day is required. In terms of oatmeal, here's how much you need to eat to obtain this amount:

• 1 1/2 cups cooked oatmeal, made with 3/4 cup dry oats

• 1/4 cup dry oat bran, sprinkled on foods or cooked

• 1/2 cup dry oatmeal plus 1/8 cup oat bran, cooked

If eating a cup and a half of oatmeal each day doesn't appeal, you can sneak oatmeal, oat flour, and oat bran into your meals in other ways. For example, you can include them in recipes for muffins, pancakes, and meat loaf. Oatmeal cookies count, too!

Watching your sugar intake

If you're not careful, your breakfast can include more sweet foods than any other meal of the day. No wonder Americans eat over 150 pounds of sweeteners per person per year. Sweet breakfasts give you a running start on the nearly half pound of sugar you must consume each day to reach this mammoth amount. Sure, this estimate of sugar intake is probably exaggerated, but individuals eating a Western-style diet are definitely taking in too much.

If you want to figure out how much sugar is in a food product, check the label for the number of grams of sugar it contains per serving — 4 grams equals 1 teaspoon of granulated white sugar.

Natural sweeteners to keep on your pantry shelf

You can still include sweet somethings in your breakfast by using more wholesome kinds. Try these natural sweeteners, each with special benefits:

• Maple syrup: The natural sap of the maple tree, this syrup contains calcium, potassium, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, and iron, as well as trace amounts of B vitamins. Maple is also just the right flavor to complement so many breakfast foods.

• Honey: You need less honey to sweeten a dish because honey is sweeter than table sugar. Hunt for artisanal honeys with special flower flavors at farmers markets. Some honeys even have medicinal properties, such as Manukka honey, which is antibacterial.

• Date sugar: This form of sugar is dried dates that have been ground. Like dates, date sugar is loaded with nutrients such as niacin, potassium, and calcium.

• Stevia: This plant compound is 200 to 300 times sweeter than sugar and contains virtually no calories. It's available in liquid form and in crystals in health food stores and an increasing number of markets. Stevia is considered safe in small doses, which is all you'll ever need. South Americans have used stevia for centuries, and the Japanese sweeten all sorts of commercial pickled and preserved foods with this herb.

Stevia has a slightly earthy aftertaste, and if you use too much, it can taste bitter.