|
COPYRIGHT 2002 Consumers Union of the United States, Inc.
If you glimpsed certain cereal boxes or TV ads earlier this year, you may have thought that the road to a sleek physique is paved with flakes and puffs. To lose up to six pounds, promotions for Special K and Smart Start advised, follow the "Kick-Start Diet" for two weeks: For breakfast and one other meal each day, eat Special K or Smart Start with skim milk and fruit; for the third meal, eat your usual fare. It's "healthy" and "proven to work!" the boxes noted, citing research done at "a leading university" (Purdue, it turns out).
Kick-Start was certainly healthy for Kellogg's, which makes the two cereals and spent more than $12 million promoting the diet. Sales of Special K and Smart Start rose 22 and 72 percent, respectively, over the first few months of this year--no small feat, given that overall cereal sales have been as limp as a wet corn flake for several years.
Kick-Start isn't the only recent attempt to link cereal to a slim waistline. Kashi (also owned by Kellogg's) promotes its GoLEAN! cereals as part of a "natural slimming system." And other studies, funded in part by cereal makers, have shown that cereal can be part of a successful weight-loss program.
A flakes-and-puffs diet may indeed work, if only because any cereal is likely to have fewer calories than the meal it replaces. If you're looking beyond weight loss to overall nutrition, however, all cereals are not created equal. In fact, if you assume that the ideal cereal would be low in fat, low in sugar, and high in fiber, both Special K and Smart Start fall a bit short. Special K has little fiber, and Smart Start has the equivalent of 3 3/4 teaspoons of sugar per serving--as much as kiddie favorites Froot Loops and Smacks.
Those kinds of facts are easy to miss unless you compare nutrition labels--a daunting task, considering that there are hundreds of cereals on the market. So we've done the label reading for you. "Nutrition at a glance," on page 30, lists 65 cereals by fiber, fat, and sugars per serving to help you zero in on healthful choices. And because even the most nutritious product is useless if you (or your kids) refuse to eat it, our sensory panelists tasted 33 healthful cereals--oatmeals, raisin brans, and a mixed group of classics and newcomers. To qualify for our taste tests, a cereal had to have at least 3 grams of fiber per serving and no more than 3 grams of fat. Ratings are on pages 32 and 33. Among our findings:
* Barbara's Bakery Organic Soy-Essence, one of an increasing number of organic cereals migrating from natural-foods stores to supermarkets, was one of two products rated excellent. It's also A CR Best Buy.
* You can spend 8 cents for a very good bowl of oatmeal or $1.34 for a merely good bowl.
* Some instant oat-meals taste starchy and bland, but one was as good as those you have to cook longer.
* A wholesome-sounding name may not mean much. Heartland Granola Original, for one, provides fiber but has more fat and sugars than almost any other cereal whose label we analyzed.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR, AND WHY
Plain flakes or puffs have become superfood. Cereal makers are adding not only vitamins and minerals but soy, flax, grape-seed extract, even green tea. When choosing a healthful cereal, though, the figures for fiber, fat, and sugars are still the first to focus on. Here's how they and some of the other additions can affect your health.
Fiber. Fiber may be the most important asset cereal brings to the table. It not only promotes regularity, it may also help ward off heart disease, diabetes, and some types of cancer. And research has shown that soluble fiber like that found in oat-based cereals can help lower blood cholesterol and glucose as part of a low-fat diet.
Experts recommend that most adults eat 20...
Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.
|
Bookmark this article
Print this article
Link to this article
Email this article
Digg It!
Add to del.icio.us
RSS
