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What’s in Your Cereal??
INTRODUCTION
Ready-to-eat cereals vary in nutritional value and cost.
a. Whole grain. To increase your odds of finding more whole grain:
 Check the ingredients list. The first ingredient should be “whole.” Unless
a grain specifies its wholeness in the ingredients list (“whole wheat” or
“whole grain barley flour,” for example) assume it isn’t whole grain
(“wheat flour” means it’s not a whole grain). Exception: rolled oats and oat
flakes are always whole grain, but may not say so. The most common
refined grains are rice, rice flour, corn flour, corn meal, wheat flakes, and
wheat flour.
 Count bran. Count bran (wheat, corn, or oat) as a whole grain, since it
contains much of the fiber and other nutrients lost when grains are refined.
 Soy, flax, chia, and sesame seeds. They may contribute fiber, but they’re
not grains.
 Ignore claims like “made with whole grain,” “whole grain guarantee,” or
“multi-grain.” They can appear on cereals with very little whole grain.
b. Rich in fiber (at least 3 grams of fiber for every 100 calories). Look for cereals
with the most fiber per calorie. The package’s Nutrition Facts panel can be
used to determine the amount of fiber in a serving but, because lighter cereals
(like Cheerios and bran flakes) have roughly a 1 oz. serving (30 grams), while
heavier cereals (like shredded wheat and raisin bran) have roughly a 2 oz.
serving (55 grams), that makes a fiber content of 3 grams fairly good for a
lighter cereal like Wheaties (which has 100 calories), but not so good for a
heavier cereal like Honey Nut Clusters (210 calories).
c. Full of intact fiber. Studies suggest that people who eat more fiber have a
lower risk of heart disease, diabetes, and constipation. But in those studies,
people were eating whole grains (especially wheat bran cereals) with their fiber
intact. Food companies now add a number of ingredients that can be counted
as fiber. Among the most popular in cereal: inulin (also called chicory root
extract), oat fiber, soy fiber, maltodextrin, dextrin, pectin, methylcellulose,
polydextrose, psyllium, and gums (Arabic, guar, acacia). It’s not known yet if
all of these isolated fibers also protect health. (Exception: psyllium does lower
cholesterol in your blood and acts as a laxative.)
d. Low in saturated fat (no more than 1 gram per serving) and no trans fats. A
handful of cereals have more saturated fat, mostly from palm kernel oil
(typically used in fake yogurt coatings and fake chocolate), coconut oil (popular
in granolas), or chocolate. And, if there is “partially hydrogenated vegetable
oil” on the label, there is trans fats in there even if the Nutrition Facts label says
there isn’t.
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LEARNING OBJECTIVE:
To determine the cost per serving and nutritive content of several ready-to eat cereals
and use that information to choose healthful cereals that are relatively low in cost.
Using the Nutrition Facts for the cereals provided, fill out the following table.
Nutrition and Cost Comparison of Ready-to Eat Cereals (per serving)
Cereal
Serving
Size
(cups or
grams)
100% whole
grain or is first
ingredient
whole grain?
calories
per
serving
Fiber
(g)/
100/cal¹
Primarily
intact fiber or
isolated fiber?²
Sugar
(g)³
Saturated
fat
Definitions:
¹High fiber: > 3g/100 calories
²Isolated fiber =inulin, chicory root extract, oat fiber, soy fiber, gums, and similar
ingredients; intact fiber=whole or the bran from oats, wheat, barley, rye, corn, and
similar grains (see page 1 for more information)
³Daily recommendation for sugar intake: no more than 40 g/day (10 tsp) for a 2000
calorie diet
<1g/serving
Cost/serving
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Questions
1. Based on the chart you filled out on page 2, list the cereals from most nutritious
to least nutritious. (Explain how you made your nutrition choices.)
2. Which cereal would give you the most nutrition for the lowest cost? (Explain
how you arrived at your conclusion.)
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Teacher’s Notes
1. Cereal suggestions: granola, Cheerios, Kashi Go Lean, Corn Flakes, Grape Nuts,
Count Chocula, Fiber 1, Special K, Raisin Bran (or poll your students for their favorites).
You’ll need to know the cost of each of the cereals so the cost per serving can be
calculated.
2. Isolated fibers are either extracted from foods or chemically synthesized. They
include inulin (from chicory root), pectin, polydextrose, methylcellulose and
maltodextrin. If you see a highly refined food, such as white bread, or a food that
normally contains no fiber at all, such as yogurt, that lists a fair amount of fiber on the
nutrition label, chances are you’ll find one or more of these isolated fibers in the
ingredients list. In contrast, if you see wheat bran, corn bran or oats on the ingredients
list, for instance, you’re getting natural intact fiber.
Food companies also use small amounts of isolated fibers for a variety of reasons other
than their fiber—for instance, to replace fat and sugar in salad dressings, dairy foods
and frozen desserts; thicken puddings; prevent separation in chocolate milk or add
crispness to pizza crust.
Isolated fibers may have health benefits on their own (see the info at the links below).
But there’s not much evidence that adding fiber to food has the same effects as eating
foods that are naturally high in fiber. The research on isolated fibers is inconsistent, and
much of it is funded by manufacturers. Often, the amount of fiber added is too little to
matter.
Moreover, different dietary fibers have different physiological effects, and many fiberfortified foods contain only one type of fiber, not the range found in naturally high-fiber
foods. Keep in mind, too, that it’s not even clear whether all or most of the benefits of a
high-fiber diet, such as decreased risk of heart disease, come from the fiber itself or from
the vitamins, minerals and other plant compounds that accompany the fiber. (Source:
Berkeley Wellness Letter)
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3. Harvard researchers have come up with an easy way to identify foods that contain
more whole grain (other than looking for “100% whole grain” on the label). Look for
less than a 10-to-1 ratio of “total carbohydrates” to “fiber” on the Nutrition Facts label.
That’s the ratio found naturally in whole wheat flour. The ratio identifies whole grain
foods that are high in fiber and lower in refined carbohydrates (CHO) and added sugars
(both listed under “total carbohydrates”). For example, a cereal listing 36 gram of total
CHO and 4 grams of fiber (a 9-to-1 ratio) would be a better choice than one listing 42
grams of total CHO and 3 gram of fiber (14-to-1). To make the math simpler—multiply
the fiber grams by 10; the result should be more than the grams of “total CHO.” (This
ratio could be incorporated into the table on page 2.)
4. An additional activity is to weigh out 1 oz of each of the cereals and put them on a
labeled paper plate (you could also put the number calories/oz on the plate). This could
be the basis of a discussion about serving size and calorie intake.
5. For additional information on fiber go to these links:
Whole Grains | The Nutrition Source | Harvard School of Public Health
Functional Fibers — Research Shows They Provide Health Benefits Similar to Intact
Fibers in Whole Foods
Fiber Facts About Cereal