This common breakfast food 'makes your blood sticky', warns top BBC presenter
Breakfast time can take on different forms for different people. Some may indulge, as they view it as the most important meal of the day, others may quickly grab a piece of toast while they are running out the door, and there are some who skip it altogether.
However, not all breakfast options may be the best for your body - as one BBC presenter found out. After looking at the ingredients of a common household breakfast food, she decided to cut it from her kids' diets.
Countryfile presenter Julia Bradbury discovered that one ingredient common in many breakfast staples stops your immune system by making your blood useless and "sticky".
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And despite much eye-rolling in her house, Bradbury has held firm with her stance of banning sugar at breakfast - and her children know it isn't up for negotiation.
Speaking on Davina McCall's 'Begin Again' podcast, she said: "Breakfast has changed for them - they do not have sugary cereals. They have to eat their vegetables everyday - it's a non negotiable and they know why.”
Surrey Live reports that well known British cereals, such as Rice Krispies, contain 10g of sugar per 100g. According to the NHS, with one bowl of sugary cereal, a child will be having around half of their recommended sugar intake for the day.
While already potentially setting your child back at the start of the day, Bradbury says that sugar can also contribute to "brain fog". This is because sugar has been proven to cause inflammation in all areas of your body, which includes the brain.
Bradbury explains that your brain becomes "fried" while trying to help with inflammation in the rest of the body and this is ultimately when "disease makes its way into your life.”
She added: “Sugar affects your immune system, it sends out a message your immune system doesn’t understand this so it can either break up the cell - which causes inflammation -or it can repair and replace the cell - which is the good stuff.
“Sugar makes your blood sticky like velcro and then it doesn't work properly. We’ve all got thousands of cancer cells to deal with every day - your immune system needs to be working on those - but it’s busy.”
However, Bradbury does say that it is all about moderation. She said: “Do they still eat pizza? Yes, they do. Do they have it every day or even every week? No.”
She suggests for anyone wanting to cut back on their sugar intake they should give themselves two weeks and then reassess. Everyone is different but after a fortnight you will likely be feeling the benefits starting to kick in.
In order to fight off cravings, she argues the key is to have a simple distraction. She uses her colleague as an example who "runs up and down the stairs just to keep herself busy".
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