Waking up to a breakfast of stodgy chocolate bars and salty crisps sounds like an unappetising way to start the day.

But tucking into a bowl of cereal every morning could have the same effect on your body as feasting on a menu of junk food.

Health experts are warning the traditional healthy alternative to the greasy fry-up could be clogging your arteries with fat and sending your blood pressure shooting up.

Lurking beneath the saintly exterior of cereal and toast lies a daunting minefield of sugar and salt.

Family favourite Kellogg's Crunchy Nut Cornflakes is a prime example. Two large bowls of the cereal contain almost as much sugar as a Boost chocolate bar.

And in the same portion, you will have eaten 1.5g of salt accounting for a quarter of your daily recommended allowance.

Boxes of Kellogg's Cornflakes fly off supermarket shelves but not many people realise it is one of the main contenders to send your blood pressure soaring.

A study carried out by Consensus Action on Salt and Health shows choosing crisps and ketchup would be a less salty alternative.

A glass of sea water would drain only a little more moisture from your system but the thought of gulping this down first thing in the morning is far from appealing.

Despite a deceptively healthy appearance, some wholemeal breads can fool consumers into eating the equivalent of a Kit Kat for breakfast due to their high fat content.

Some producers even admit to adding fat to the bread to extend its shelf life by a couple of days.

Warburton's seeded batch loaf is another loser with four slices containing 16.4g of fat, more than a Dairy Milk bar.

A Marks & Spencer's organic wholemeal bloomer contains 4g of fat in each slice making a white Hovis crusty bloomer looks harmless in comparison. The Hovis loaf wins all round containing little fat, sugar or salt.

The benefits of eating breakfast are well known. It makes us healthier, happier and less likely to reach for the cake and crisps come mid-afternoon.

But the best start to the day is a breakfast high in protein and unrefined carbohydrates, low in salt and sugar and containing an element of natural fatty acids.

Translated into supermarket terms, that equates to a boiled egg with brown toast or homemade muesli with a good helping of almonds and pecans, all washed down with a glass of hot water and a squeeze of lemon to flush out the liver and balance hormones.

The shiny packaging and convenience aspect of cereal bars might seem appealing when you're rushing around the supermarket. But these are also banned if you want to stay in shape.

Fruit and Fibre bars are by far the worst culprits. If you're snacking on these throughout the day you may as well help yourself to a feast of Mars bars and Snickers.

A healthier option would be a bowl of Nestl bitesize Shredded Wheat, which has hardly any sugar, very little salt and a good portion of fibre.

But it's probably easier to steer clear of the cereal aisle altogether. Even if packets claim to be low in fat and better for you, read the entry in the sugar column and you'll get a different story.

Experts no longer consider cereal a nourishing meal. The quick buzz provided by the sugar will eventually make you more tired in the long run.

In fact, before we can even begin to think about changing our diet we need to adopt a completely different attitude to food.

Messages are sent to the brain from the stomach telling it to produce gastric juices which break down what we're about to eat.

If we don't sit down and look at our food before we dive in, the brain doesn't get these messages and the food won't be digested properly, leaving us feeling bloated and likely to end up with indigestion.

A homemade muesli is one of the best ways to refuel after a night's sleep.

It can easily be made the day before so there's no excuse for those scared of early mornings.

Add chopped apples, strawberries or bananas to a couple of handfuls of oats soaked in fruit juice, milk or water.

A sprinkling of almonds, pecans and walnuts provides a source of essential fatty acids and an extra handful of linseed nuts will relieve constipation.

If you are making it the night before, squeeze half a lemon over the apple pieces to stop them from going brown and add a drop of honey to balance the bitter taste of the lemon.

Buckwheat pancakes topped with strawberries and creme fraiche are another healthy alternative. The buckwheat is an unrefined carbohydrate, which gives a much more gradual release of energy than sugary cereals.

Strawberries are loaded with vitamin C, which strengthens the immune system, balances stress hormones and gives you more energy.

A cooked breakfast could make it to the table providing you boil, poach or scramble the eggs, grill the bacon and fry the mushrooms in a heat-stable oil like dripping or coconut oil.