If you follow a low-carb diet to lose weight or better manage your blood sugar levels, your best food options for a low-carb breakfast include eggs, cheese, smoked salmon, bacon, ham, sausages, butter, olive oil, nons-starchy vegetables and small amounts of nuts, nut butter or berries. Most breakfast cereals, including cheerios, usually contain too many grams of carbohydrates to be part of a low-carb diet, but they can be included if you adjust the serving size and closely track your daily carbohydrate intake.
Low-Carb Diets
Most low-carb diet programs recommend consuming between 50 g to 150 g of carbohydrates per day, according to MayoClinic.com, which is considerably less than the 300 g to 400 g most Americans eat every day. Because carbohydrates are mostly found in grains, starchy vegetables and sugar-containing foods, most of these foods need to be excluded or limited to keep your carb intake low, and some diet plans also limit the carbohydrates found in fruits, milk, plain yogurt and nuts. Cheerios belong to the grain group and constitute a significant source of carbs.
Carbohydrate Content of Cheerios
Cheerios is a popular breakfast cereal; 1 cup of the original version contains 20 g of carbs and 3 g of fiber. The same serving of Multigrain Cheerios provides 23 g of carbohydrates and 3 g of fiber. Honey Nut Cheerios have 29 g of carbs and 3 g of fiber per cup.
Carbohydrate Target and Other Breakfast Foods
Depending on your personal carbohydrate target on your low-carb diet, your breakfast should not contain more than 15 g to 50 g of carbohydrates. If you wish to have Cheerios for breakfast, it is important to consider that other foods commonly eaten with Cheerios can also contribute a significant amount of carbs to your breakfast, such as milk, yogurt, banana or blueberries. More precisely, 1 cup of milk has 12 g of carbohydrates, 2/3 cup of plain yogurt contains about 15 g of carbohydrates, 1/2 of a banana has 15 g of carbs and 1/2 cup of blueberries provides approximately 10 g of carbs. Take into consideration all the carbohydrate-containing foods to ensure you keep your breakfast carb intake within target if you choose to eat Cheerios.
Low-Carb Breakfasts With Cheerios
If your carb target corresponds to 15 g at breakfast, you can have 1/2 cup of regular Cheerios, which contains 10 g of carbohydrates, with 1/3 cup of milk or 1/4 cup of plain yogurt, which provides about 5 g of carbohydrates, for a total of 15 g of carbohydrates. Cottage cheese is very low in carbohydrates and higher in protein and can be used to mix with your Cheerios instead of milk or yogurt. A serving of 1/2 cup of cheerios mixed with 1/2 cup of cottage cheese contains only 10 g of carbohydrates. If your carbohydrate target is a bit more generous, you could have 1 cup of cheerios with either 1 cup of milk or 2/3 cup of plain yogurt and 1/2 cup of blueberries, for a total of 45 g of carbohydrates.
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