Food

A Better Breakfast for You and the Environment

Posted: 1/7/2012

Malt-O-Meal is creating healthy cereals for kids and the planet.

(NewsUSA) - Your mother was right: Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day -- for many reasons.

Starting each day with a bowl of whole-grain cereal creates a diet high in nutrients, vitamins and minerals for great energy and endurance. Cereal is also one the of the healthiest breakfast choices you can make, and ready-to-eat varieties have fewer calories than almost any other breakfast option.

But while establishing a breakfast routine may please Mom, it may not be the healthiest habit for Mother Nature. Each year there are about 2.3 billion cereal boxes sold in the United States -- if even half of those boxes were eliminated, it would save 170 million gallons of wastewater. And the environmental effects go far beyond pollution. It takes 2.4 trillion units of energy to power the plants that manufacture cereal boxes -- enough to power 26,000 homes. These same plants produce as much particle air emissions as 31,000 city buses, as much greenhouse gas as 50,000 cars and enough solid waste to fill 4,677 garbage trucks.

Fortunately, there's a cereal company that pleases both moms and Mother Nature. Malt-O-Meal is changing the way people think about breakfast cereal by providing cereals that are not only great tasting, but are fortified with essential vitamins and minerals, including folic acid, iron and vitamin C. Many varieties -- Frosted Mini Spooners, Honey Nut Scooters and the new Blueberry Mini Spooners, among others -- boast more than 44 grams of whole grains per serving and no trans fats.

But what really makes Malt-O- Meal brand cereals stand out from competitors is the company's commitment to creating innovative products that use fewer natural resources and create less waste. By eliminating the box most breakfast cereals are sold in and packaging cereals in a bag, they've reduced the amount of packaging consumers dispose of by 75 percent. That's 1.1 trillion units of energy saved and 2,000 tons of CO2 that are never released into the air.

For more information and facts, visit www.bagthebox.com and www.maltomeal.com.