I ate Kellogg’s probiotic cereal every day for a week and and now i’m a believer
I am totally a breakfast person. My day doesn’t start until there is food in my stomach, and by food I don’t mean a banana and a cup of coffee. I need at least two different liquids (preferably water and hot tea), some sort of grain, maybe an egg, and a fruit/nut/yogurt item. There are a ton of reasons why everyone should eat breakfast every day. For me it’s all about providing my body with fuel for the morning, activating my metabolism, and putting something tasty in my mouth that is going to keep me full until my desk snacks start to look appealing.
Some mornings, I totally nail the breakfast situation. I wake up and toast half a bagel, smoosh some avocado on that bad boy and cover it with pepper, Himalayan pink salt, and sliced cucumbers (please try this; it is fantastic) and then I bring my creation to work (along with a couple of tangerines). Other mornings, I wake up too late, I can’t decide what to wear, or I’m tired so I grouchily wait in line at Starbucks and blow $10 on a greasy breakfast sandwich that always gives me a stomachache - plus a grande chai tea latte with almond milk and a shot, because I am actually a monster.
Yes, there are breakfast hacks involving eggs and cinnamon rolls that would work great on a weekend when I have the time, but when I roll out of bed at 5 a.m. on a Tuesday, what I really need is a surefire breakfast that is easy to make, gives me energy, will keep me full, and will provide my body with nutrients that will maintain my glow-y existence (i.e., something that won’t break my skin out or hurt my tummy). Enter my latest breakfast experiment.
I was challenged to eat Kellogg’s Special K Nourish Peaches & Berries with Probiotics cereal for breakfast every day for a week. As a person who shops in grocery stores, I am familiar with Kellogg’s Special K. I’ve seen their boxes my entire life. What I did not know was that this particular kind of Special K contains probiotics.
You might be thinking: “What is a probiotic?” They’re live and active cultures (aka good bacteria) that aid in digestion, help absorb minerals, and fight bad bacteria. They also keep you “regular,” if you catch my drift.
My first day having Kellogg’s Special K Nourish Peaches & Berries with Probiotics cereal (or in shorthand, KSKNP&BW/P) for breakfast, I was nervous that the cereal might be too sweet. When I poured myself a bowl, I saw a bunch of pieces of dried strawberries, blueberries, and peaches, as well as some yogurt-y looking rectangles mixed in with the Special K pieces. However, my first bite was delightfully fruity without being sugary. The yogurt pieces gave the almond milk that I poured over my breakfast a velvety mouth feel that I particularly enjoyed. I did briefly wonder if one bowl of cereal would be enough for breakfast, but I decided that I would listen to my body. I stayed pretty satisfied until an hour before lunch!
Day two went just as smoothly. I am one of those people who will eat the same thing for breakfast every day until they burn out on it, so having the same meal two days in a row was not a big deal. As I ate my breakfast at work I was pleased by the crunchiness of the cereal pieces mixed with the tanginess of the berries and decided to read the box. Apparently there are 12 grams of whole grains in this! It’s a good source of fiber! There were, however, no puzzles, mazes, or riddles for me to solve while I ate.
On day three I noticed that I was not absolutely ravenous by lunchtime anymore. I had stayed full and energized pretty much all three mornings by the time I decided to break for lunch. Most mornings, unless I have a big breakfast, I get pretty hungry about two hours after I eat and either start eating my lunch at 10 a.m. or consume many desk snacks. Since starting my new breakfast regimen I had stayed fairly content until right around lunch! My ideal time to get hungry again!
In December I decided that I would enter 2018 being more aware of how different foods positively and negatively affect me. I gave up coffee (because it makes me a jittery mess) and cow’s milk (because it makes me break out) and I can now say, as a person living in January 2018, I have seen an improvement. However, I still occasionally suffer from digestive issues. I am prone to tummyaches and nausea and all that fun stuff that I should definitely see a doctor about. I did notice on day four of my breakfast challenge that my stomach had been hurting a lot less under my newly established morning routine. I would love to attribute it to probiotics. Gut health is actually crazy important, and you may not realize how much you are neglecting the discomfort you are in until you start making a change. Eating this fiber-filled cereal with live and active cultures every morning did appear to be making a positive difference! I felt full, yet my stomach wasn’t churning or doing any of its usual business.
On my fifth day eating Kellogg’s Special K Nourish Peaches & Berries with Probiotics cereal for breakfast I decided to have it with non-dairy yogurt instead of my usual nut or oat milk. I am pleased to say that it was crunchy and delicious as a topping. Also, for those of you wondering if the yogurt pieces broke me out because they were not dairy-free - no! My skin was-and is (knock on wood) fine.
I finished my weeklong breakfast event over the weekend and felt quite pleased with myself and with this cereal. It was tasty and not too sweet, did not hurt my stomach, and honestly probably helped it a little. Plus after a week of eating the cereal, my supply had not run out. The box still had enough left for potentially another seven days.
Would I get tired of eating the same thing every morning eventually? Yes. But eating Special K Nourish made me realize that I should definitely introduce a probiotic into my vitamin menagerie, and having a breakfast that provided me with the fuel my body needs to function properly and powerfully absolutely helped simplify my morning routine. Consider me a believer.
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