Trap Foods - Breakfast

Aug 23, 2024

Comment Print
Share on:

Note
The following is an excerpt from my post ‘Healthy’ Trap Foods, in which I made a detailed list of foods that I believe to deceptively unhealthy. I’ve broken that list down into easier to digest categories based on what food they are. Linked below are all the individual posts:

Introduction
I wanted to put together a list of foods that people consider to be healthy, but are really just either a product of good marketing or misinformation. These foods are typically referred to “Trap Foods”, or “Fake Healthy Foods”, as they can lure customers into thinking they’re making better decisions, when in realty these “healthy” alternatives can be just as bad, if not worse.

TLDR (Too Long; Didn't Read)

Extensively read ingredient labels
Avoid ultra processed foods, especially ones containing refined sugar, refined grains, and vegetable/seed oils
Don’t believe marketing claims
Prioritize nutrient dense whole foods or minimally processed foods

Disclaimer
I’m not saying you should absolutely never eat any of these foods. Moderation is key, and the dose makes the poison. Most of the foods on this list are treats, and should be treated as such, but it’s healthy to enjoy treats every once in a while. Don’t eat them all the time, but don’t forbid yourself from having anything. Find a proper balance.

List of Foods

Cereal
Oatmeal
Granola Bars
Milk
Yogurt
Bread
Muffins
Banana Bread
Pancakes and Waffles

Cereal
“Part of a complete breakfast” is what we were taught growing up. That children need cereal, and that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. That’s a hell of a successful marketing campaign. Cereal is probably one of the worst things you can eat in the morning; it’s essentially just a bowl of added sugar. Don’t worry guys, it’s fat free though (as if that’s really helping it’s case).

It doesn’t take a nutritionist to realize that Lucky Charms or Froot Loops are nothing more than a treat, but where the real “danger” lies is the cereals that are instead marketed as healthy. I’m talking about things like Honey Nut Cheerios, Raisin Bran, and any of the other “boring” adult cereals that aren’t “sugar bombs”. Except they are. For a 1 cup (36 g) serving of Honey Nut Cheerios, you’ll run yourself 12 g of added sugar and 140 calories, the exact same as in Lucky Charms. Oh and that “can help lower cholesterol” claim, only Original Cheerios actually have the American Heart Association certification on it. And let’s be honest, no one eats just 1 cup of cereal.

If you’re going to eat breakfast cereal, go with a sugar free option like plain cheerios or unsweetened puffed rice, and instead add flavors using fruit. Original Cheerios only have 1 g of added sugar per serving, and the serving size is larger (1.5 cups as opposed to 1 cup). Even then cereal still isn’t the healthiest breakfast; it’s still a bowl of empty refined carbs with no healthy fats or proteins, but at least this way it can actually be “part of a complete breakfast”. I’ve also had good success making my own cereal called Cinnamon Toast Chickpeas, which are crispy chickpeas tossed with cinnamon, served over a protein shake, and topped with berries and nuts. Now that’s a complete breakfast!

Don’t know why I just came out swinging with a vendetta against General Mills, the rest will be toned down. Probably because I’ve personally been duped by this in the past, and it’s a very common trap food. Look for cereals with no added sugars, whole grains, and high in fiber. Anything else is junk food with a good marketing team.

Oatmeal
Okay so you’ve gotten past cereal, but surley oatmeal is safe right? Think again. Oats can be a great addition to your diet: they’re a whole grain, high in fiber low fat, versatile, delicious, and gluten free. They also contain a fair bit of manganese and iron, and are rich in antioxidants. It even boasts about being “heart healthy” (so does cereal) on the box. So what’s the problem?

The main issue isn’t with oatmeal, but how it’s prepared. I’m mainly talking about flavored packets of oatmeal here, like ones in the image above. Unfortunately, these are really no different nutritionally from a bowl of sugary cereal; it’s just warm now. These packets are loaded with added sugars. When it comes to oatmeal for breakfast, make it yourself from plain oats, and sweeten it with fruit and a small amount of maple syrup or honey if desired. Also add some healthy fats like chopped nuts or nut butter, and some protein with yogurt or protein powder (or both!)

Below I’ll list a bunch of oatmeal recipes which are all low in added sugar, packed with protein and fiber, have a good dose of healthy fats, and can be eaten warm or cold:
- Overnight Oats with no Protein Powder
- Strawberry Chia Protein Oatmeal
- Yogurt Free Protein Oats
- Bigger Boi Oatmeal
- Banana Nut Bread Protein Overnight Oats
- Very Vic
- Peanut Butter Punch Protein Overnight Oats
- Berry Delicious Protein Overnight Oats
- Pumpkin Pie Protein Overnight Oats
- Reese’s Protein Overnight Oats

Granola Bars
Oatmeal flows us nicely into granola bars. Usually thought of as a healthy boring snack, these are actually much worse than they seem. Granola and granola bars are loaded with added sugars; just 1 Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bar has 7 g of added sugar in a 24 g serving. Do you know what else has the same amount of added sugar? 2 Chips Ahoy cookies. The vast majority of bars on the market contain sugar (or some type of sugar) as one of the first 3 ingredients on the label, making them a dessert.

Don’t think Nature Valley, Nutrigrain, Kind Bars, or Clif Bars are any better. I will say I used to be a huge fan of all 4 of these, and Clif Bars in particular serve a purpose. On a long hike or after a hard workout, the simple sugars in Clif Bars are actually exactly what your body needs to replenish energy, and the protein aids in recovery. Just don’t eat them as a day to day snack. If you want your own homemade granola or granola bars, you should check out my Low Sugar Granola and my Peanut Butter Banana Granola Bars, which only use a minimal amount of sweetener, and no refined fats or oils. Just nuts and oats!

If you’re going to get a bar, I’d recommend either Larabar or RxBars (or my own Copycat Chocolate RX Bars); both are made with dates and nuts, and contain no added sugar or artificial sweeteners. RxBars even have some protein powder as well.

Milk
Ah, the humble milk. Whether you get whole milk, low fat, or skim, milk can be a nutrition option. It’s a complete protein, the fat helps with feeling satiated, and of course is a good source of calcium. Milk isn’t on this list because of it’s fat content. I think we know by now that fat is very good for you when not overconsumed; we don’t live in the low fat craze of the 90s anymore.

The issue is again, added sugars (are you seeing a pattern?), and this plagues both milk and milk adjacent products. Firstly, let’s look at chocolate milk and strawberry milk. A 14 fl oz bottle of Chocolate Milk or Strawberry Milk contain 39 g of sugar, 18 g of which are added. But they’re made with low fat milk, so people were duped into thinking these were helathy ways to give their kids calcium. Oh, and strawberry milk doesn’t contain any strawberry. Go figure.

The other main issue with milk is it’s non-dairy counterparts. I’m talking about almond, oat, soy, pea, cashew, and any other type of plant milk you can think of. I’ll be fully transparant and say that I keep almond milk in my fridge instead of cow’s milk, mainly because it lasts way longer in the fridge (a few months instead of just a week). I hardly ever drink milk too; normally it gets used a little at a time in my oatmeal or something.

As long as you purchsae an unsweetened variety, you should be relatively okay. Most plant based milk do contain other gums and weird ingredients, so as an almond milk purchaser, I will say that cow’s milk is almost always the better choice (assuming you can digest it). Sweetened plant based milk can have 12 g of added sugar in just a cup, as is the case with this Sweetened Vanilla Almond Milk. I always stick to either Unsweetened Original Almond Milk or Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, or occasionally I’ll make my own Homemade Plant Based Milk using either oats or peanuts for a cheaper option.

I’ll be honest and say that in high school, I never used to understand why my mom would get mad at me for buying vanilla almond milk instead of unsweetened vanilla almond milk, but we all grow up and learn from our mistakes. Be willing to change, and keep an open milk (I mean mind).

Yogurt
Yogurt, just like milk has the same deceptions. It offers low fat “healthier” varieties that are pumped full of added sugar, and are way worse for you than their original full fat counterparts. Just like with milk, the low or no fat options can also be healthy, as long as they are plain. For me, Plain Nonfat Greek Yogurt is the king of all dairy products. Just 1 serving (2/3 cup, 170 g) contains 17 g of protein, no fat, no added sugar, and just 100 calories. Greek yogurt is also a fantastic source of both calcium and vitamin B12, where 1 serving has 15% and 53% of your daily value, respectively. I opt for the nonfat version, as I don’t taste a difference between that and the full fat variety, so I’ll instead get my fat from other sources, like nuts, chia seeds, or natural nut butter.

Things start to get worse when you look at flavored yogurt, where Vanilla Nonfat Greek Yogurt contains 13 g of added sugar (remeber, that’s up from 0 g), and less protein (14 g instead of 17 g). Don’t be fooled by the fruit flavors either, even the ones with fruit chunks in them. These contain just as much added sugar as the vanilla, if not more. I used to eat the single serving fruit cup yogurts (like this one) every day in high school, until it started to hurt my teeth to eat it. Only then did I flip it over and notice how much sugar was loaded into these small “healthy” cups. Stick to plain, and add your own fruit and additional sweetner if desired.

Leaving the realm of Greek yogurt and going to Vanilla Lowfat Yogurt, the added sugar content increases yet again to 16 g, and the protein content is slashed down to just 5 g now. Yopait Key Lime Pie Yogurt was my favorite in elementary and middle school, and unforunately it does not fare any better. At the bottom of the barrel is Go-GURT, but I don’t think anyone thinks this junk could be healthy right?

Bread
Since white flour is generally a poor nutrition choice, it would then follow that white bread would also not be your healthiest option. Though whole wheat bread isn’t that much better of an option if we’re still talking about commercially processed bread products. Most store bought loaves of bread are high in our old friend, added sugar (a lot of whole wheat breads actually contain more sugar than their white bread counterparts), as well as vegetable oils and preservatives. Look at that giant list of ingredients below! There’s a reason why grocery store bread can last for weeks without going bad, whereas real bread from a bakery goes stale in just a day or two (tip: store extra fresh baked bread in the freezer, it’ll last forever in there). Traditionally, bread is just flour, water, yeast, and salt; one of man’s oldest and simplest creations.

Bread is a soft spot for me; baking bread is what first got me into cooking during COVID (no I’ve never made sourdough; apparently I missed that memo). The process of creating a loaf of whole wheat bread from scratch is my favorite thing to do in the kitchen, leading me to enjoy the delicious resulting loaf more than the cake like loaves bread you typically see on store shelves. There’s a reason my most Europeans describe American bread as being way too sweet, and why Ireland declared Subway “bread” to instead be cake due to its high sugar content. White bread is essentially entirely made up of glucose, leading to the largest blood sugar spike of any food you could consume. Even whole wheat bread is a high GI food, but it is significantly lower than white bread. Below is a chart of different foods and their respective GI values.

If you’d like to get into breadmaking, I have plenty of whole wheat flour recipes. I’ve linked some of them below.
- 100% Whole Wheat Bread
- Oat-Wheat Tortillas
- Home Oven Baked Pizza
- Whole Wheat Hot Pretzels
- Whole Wheat Pita Bread
- Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Loaf
- Whole Wheat and Oat Flour Irish Soda Bread
- No Yeast Whole Wheat Burger Buns

For anyone with Celiac disease, I also have a few gluten free bread recipes for you to enjoy. I’ve used flour alternatives such as coconut flour and oat flour, but I’ve come across other GF bread recipes with almond flour, ground flaxseed, psyllium husks, or millet flour.
- High Protein Flatbread Wrap
- Gluten Free Oat Wraps
- Gluten and Grain Free Coconut Bread
- Low Carb Cloud Bread
- Gluten Free Savory Pretzels
- Cheesy Protein Cornbread

Muffins
Muffins are unfrosted cupcakes that somehow get a pass as a breakfast food. These Blueberry Muffins have 350 calories per muffin with 21 g of added sugar and 17 g of fat. They’re filled with a ton of ingredients, and contain almost as much sugar as flour. I used to make muffins decently often (banana chocolate chip specifically). Just take a look: 1/2 cup of vegetable oil and 3/4 cup of sugar, as well as 1.5 cups of white flour, for just a dozen muffins. If that sounds like a lot, that’s because it is. Most “breakfast” options are just a meal of dessert. Which is fine in moderation if you know what you’re getting yourself into. A muffin can be a fine dessert on occasion, but is a terrible start to your day. Sorry, but a Triple Chocolate Muffin is just a brownie.

As for healthier homemade versions, you should check out my Sweet Potato Banana Muffins, Oatmeal Banana Mini Muffins, or my Peanut Butter & Jelly Muffins.

Banana Bread
So take muffins, mash some bananas into it, and bake it in a loaf pan. What you end up with is banana bread. A delicious cake, no doubt, but not a breakfast, bread, or a healthy snack. Just because it has bananas or nuts doesn’t make it healthy; it’s still a dessert. At least this one below is honest and refers to itself as a cake.

As for healthier homemade versions, you should check out my Protein Banana Nut Bread or my Double Chocolate Banana Bread.

Pancakes and Waffles
Last on the chopping block for breakfast foods are pancakes and waffles. Take your banana bread recipe, and cook it instead on a frying pan for pancakes or a waffle maker for waffles. Just the same dessert in a different shape again, being filled with sugar and refined flour, leading to massive spikes and crashes in your blood sugar, energy, and mood.

I’ll be honest, I absolutely loved waffles growing up. I’d make myself chocolate chip banana waffles once a week in high school by following a boxed mix, mashed in a banana, and fold in chocolate chips. They’re delicious, but again not something to start your day off with. Instead, consider a pancake (or waffle) recipe made of protein and whole grains, like my Pumpkin Protein Pancakes.

Sources