Healthy Eating Club Courses 
Cereals & cereal products
Key Points
How many serves can I have daily? a variety of FIVE serves
(if you are very physically active you can have up to 12 serves)1 serve =
1 slice of bread (preferably wholegrain with seeds and soy, and reduced in salt
e.g. Pritikin bread, Burgen Soy linseed, Country Life and some Fruit bread.
1 cup breakfast cereal (preferably wholegrain)
1/2 cup natural muesli
1 cup cooked pasta, noodles, rice, couscous, polenta, semolina
MAYBE, if they are not wholegrain and reduced in salt and if they are consumed instead of fruit and vegetables
Audio Transcripts
Can eating too much bread/cereals/rice/pasta be undesirable?
Cereals, especially bread and some breakfast cereals, are a major source of salt in the Australian diet. Many food guides recommend we 'eat most' of bread and other cereals compared to other food groups and advise to avoid adding salt to our food - this is a paradox and of doubtful relevance when a single staple food is recommended in large quantities and which contributes so much salt in its present form. It is therefore advisable to consume a variety of cereals from this group e.g rice and pasta which have no salt. Low salt breads include Pritikin bread, Country Lifebreads, Soy Linseed breads, Burgen bread and some Fruit breads.
Emphasis needs to be on whole grain cereals of various kinds, since they have different and important micronutrient and other phytochemical profiles of health relevance. Refined grains and cereals such as white bread are not sufficiently rich in nutrients and phytochemicals for increasingly sedentary populations, who may not be able to eat enough food without energy (calorie) excess. They have also been linked with stomach cancer, obesity, diabetes and heart disease. At the same time, enough "food space" in the diet needs to be retained for other protective foods like fruit and vegetables, fish and for low fat meats and dairy products.
For these reasons the Nutrition Australia Pyramid has placed cereals, fruit and vegetables altogether in the bottom tier to indicate that they are equally important. In contrast, other food guides (12345+ pyramid, or the New Australian Food Guide which is in the shape of a plate) have cereals alone in the bottom tier or represented as the largest segment of the plate, suggesting that these should be consumed in larger amounts than fruit and vegetables. This recommendation could be detrimental if consumers select more refined cereals (instead of wholegrain) high in salt and if reliance on cereals results in reduced intakes of other plant foods.
Please read this summary on new evidence regarding recommended intakes of cereals
