Having grown up in an Indian household, starting our day with cornflakes has been an essential. All through childhood, we have been told of the numerous cornflakes benefits. Even today, for most of us living away from home, cornflakes is the quickest and easiest breakfast option.
And why wouldn’t it be? It’s just a handful of cereal and your choice of milk in a bowl. No fuss, no cooking and the best part, it’s still healthy, right? Or is it? Yes, we have been always told that cornflakes is a healthy breakfast option, but who fed us this idea? Commercials that claim health benefits without numbers or stats or any real proof? Well, it may be time to take a look at your favourite breakfast cereal – cornflakes and the side effects of it.
Cornflakes benefits: Taking a look at the (dis)advantages of the breakfast cereal
Cornflakes are not as beneficial to your health as you may think. Here are the side effects of cornflakes that you should know of.
Cornflakes are highly refined
We all know the truth about refined and processed food. Even though brands might boast of cornflakes and its benefits, anything that’s produced in the factory after going through stages of refining and processing loses all health benefits. Regular consumption of processed foods can even lead to an increase in the risk of developing cancer.
It leads to weight gain
Cornflakes contain a huge amount of added sugar. On top of that, we tend to add extra sugar or honey when consuming cornflakes or any breakfast cereal. Starting your day on such a sugary note daily will lead to weight gain. So if you are someone who’s trying to lose weight, staying away from cornflakes would be a wise decision!
Cornflakes have added sugar
What’s packaged and marketed as a healthy breakfast option is loaded with sugar. When you start your day with something sugary, it spikes up your blood sugar levels and even leads to inflammation sometimes. If you are having cornflakes on a daily basis, some of the side effects of cornflakes include higher blood pressure, inflammation, weight gain, diabetes, and fatty liver disease. According to the National Library of Medicine, excess sugars even lead to chronic diseases.
Worsens your diabetes
If you have diabetes, cornflakes are an absolute no-no! Due to its high sugar content, it will spike up blood sugar levels to a great extent and that is a poison for people with Type 2 diabetes!
They have high glycemic index
In simple words, glycemic index (GI) measures how quickly a food causes our blood sugar levels to rise. We already told you cornflakes are high in sugar. GI is measured on a scale of 1 to 100, where 100 means pure glucose. Higher the number of a food item on the GI index, higher the sugar content and health risks. Cornflakes have a GI of 80! According to studies, foods with a high GI also makes it harder to lose weight.
High content of corn syrup
Cornflakes are high in high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). What does it mean? That they have a high sugar content. Since cornflakes do not have a great taste on their own, these additives are added to add a taste. This takes away further from the cornflakes benefits and adds to the side effect of cornflakes.
To sum up, cornflakes are not what we have believed them to be. While we have only been told of the numerous cornflakes benefits, it’s time to change the whole perception and look at all the side effects of cornflakes.
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Sreetama Basu
A journalism student who studied the subject only to meet SRK in person, she settled for the best way to meet him. Covering Entertainment throughout her career, and now Food, Health and Lifestyle as well, Sreetama is also a self-proclaimed plant mom. In love with all things slow and quiet, she can often be found hunting for quiet corners with a glass of wine in hand. Other loves include little, inconsequential things, like neatly tucked-in bedsheets and big, significant things, like whole cheesecakes. She dreams of being a baker and writing about food someday.
