Please note that this post contains affiliate links – all opinions are my own.
I’m being honest here… I’m not much of a cereal person. The irony of my disease is that I used to eat cereal every morning – and I used to eat a lot of it! In fact, you’ll never guess what my favorite cereal used to be? Go ahead, take a guess… My favorite cereal was Frosted Mini Wheats. Yep, I loved that stuff. Ironic, don’t ya think?
Today, however, I prefer to eat a gluten-free protein pancake for breakfast, or some scrambled eggs or egg white omelet.
However, my kids like cereal in the morning, so it was time to explore the GF breakfast world. My kitchen is completely GF, so in order for my kids to have cereal again, we needed to find some trusty GF brands. We started taste testing a bunch of them – including many of the standard store brands that are loaded with sugars, GMOs and artificial ingredients. But when you shop at the natural foods grocery stores, like Sprouts, Natural Grocers and Whole Foods, you find the clean ingredient lists and a plethora of new and up-and-coming GF cereal brands.
Below I share with you the three GF cereal brands that we have tested and approve!
(1) Love Grown Foods: Love Grown Foods makes all sort of breakfast cereals, oatmeals and granolas. My son really loves the Chocolate Oat Clusters, and we all enjoy the Power O’s in both strawberry and chocolate flavors. I also bought the Sea Stars and my kids like them too – more for snacking than for breakfast – but I’ll take whatever I can get them to eat! Love Grown products are made with BEANS! That’s pretty cool if you ask me! The kids cereal, Sea Stars, has 3 grams of protein and 2 grams of fiber per serving. And while the ingredients are clean, GMO- and artificial-free, it still contains 8 grams of sugar. Please note that some Love Grown products are certified gluten-free and others are moving in that direction but contain no gluten or wheat in the ingredient lists. See all Love Grown Foods products here.
(2) Purely Elizabeth: I contacted Purely Elizabeth after seeing the company’s founder, Elizabeth Stein, give a lecture at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (where I am currently enrolled). I asked her if I could try some of her cereals for my post and she was kind enough to send me free stuff to try. I tried the Cranberry Pecan cereal made with millet puffs and granola. It is really good. It’s GMO-free, certified GF, and is made with coconut sugar. I can’t say that my kids were as crazy for this cereal because it has some healthy ingredients in it – like nuts – but I’ve enjoyed snacking on it and I think it’s growing on them too (a work in progress)! I also recommend trying the Blueberry Hemp Ancient Grain Granola – it’s got a great crunch and taste – perfect for snacking. See more Purely Elizabeth products here.
(3) One Degree Organic Foods: One Degree makes sprouted rice cereals that my kids love. Specifically, my kids go crazy for the Sprouted Brown Rice Cacao Crisps (think chocolate rice cereal but better!). We also enjoyed the Sprouted Honey O’s. One Degree products are made with organic ingredients and are sweetened with organic, low glycemic coconut palm sugar vs. refined sugar. These cereals make for a great breakfast or snack – if find myself using it in homemade trail mix and just snacking right from the box! I highly recommend One Degree products! View One Degree Organic products here.
While the market is flooded with so-called “gluten-free cereals” from brands you know, it’s so important to support companies that truly care about the GF community and the world at large. I choose to support companies that use quality ingredients and are free from artificial ingredients. These are companies that aren’t just out to make a profit, but they’re also here to heal us from crappy ingredients.
The three companies featured above – Love Grown Foods, Purely Elizabeth, and One Degree – all operate with a conscious, sourcing ingredients in a responsible way, and using alternative ingredients like beans, beet juice (vs. artificial colors) and coconut sugar (vs. refined white sugar). This is a stark contrast to the Trix cereals of the world (read about how Trix tricks parents into thinking it’s healthy) and the Cheerios of the world who don’t take the time to get their products certified GF (what are they hiding?).
I hope your gluten-free cereal experience is fun – after all – being gluten-free is more about freedom to choose better-for-you-brands. You can’t go wrong with the three GF breakfast options mentioned in this post.
Happy breakfast (and snacking)!