Quest for Healthy Cereal
By Brad Schneider
www.blog-hints.com
I have been watching lately what I am eating. As a result, I have lost 30 pounds in the last 14 months. I am not on any special “diet”, but I am choosing to live a healthier lifestyle. I am looking at nutrition labels more, and am keeping an eye on things like calories, protiens and sugars. I’d like to share a recent comparison of mine, and try to figure which of these two cereals yu would rather feed your children before school on a big test day:
Option A:
This cereal has 190 calories per serving, 46g carbohydrates, and 19g sugars.
Option B:
This cereal has 110 calories per serving, 25g carbs and 13 sugars.
I would assume just by looking at these labels, that option B would be better than option A. Not only for feeding my children, but myself as well. I feel guilty every time I let my kids eat all the sugary cereal then send them off. OK, here is the shocker.
Option A-Post Heart Healthy Raisin Bran
Option B-Post Marshmallow Mania Pebbles, with Sprinkles Baked On!
This article is free to distribute as long as all hyperlinks are attached and this text area is included. Copyright © 2005 www.blog-hints.com All rights reserved.
This article posted 10 29 05
January 29th, 2006 at 4:55 pm
I think you overlooked a few things in those labels. The amount of sugar gave me pause, too, but there are other differences as well:
Serving size: The serving size for the Raisin Bran (59g) is twice the weight of the Pebbles (28g). Maybe this reflects the “puffy” nature of the Pebbles cereal, or maybe it’s based on the assumption that children will be eating it and therefore will be eating smaller portions — who knows? Serving sizes on labels aren’t always very realistic. However, considering the calories per unit weight, the two cereals are similar, with the Raisin Bran having slightly less caloric density.
Fiber, protein, iron: If you halve the serving size of the Raisin Bran to match the calories of the Pebbles, you still get more fiber and protein with the Raisin Bran, as well as more iron.
Sugar: Again matching for calories, Raisin Bran comes in lower than Pebbles in sugar.
All of that considered, I’d choose the Raisin Bran, then adjust the so-called serving size to meet my own caloric needs.