cereal killer

A marketing company has been emailing me, asking me to review their cereal on my blog (i.e. can we haz free advertizes?). I was going to review the taste but since they didn’t offer a free sample, I just went by the available company info.

Here’s the ingredients list:

Ingredients: CORN, WHOLE GRAIN WHEAT, SUGAR, WHOLE GRAIN ROLLED OATS, BROWN SUGAR, HIGH OLEIC VEGETABLE OIL (CANOLA OR SUNFLOWER OIL), SEMI-SWEET CHOCOLATE (CHOCOLATE PROCESSED WITH ALKALI, SUGAR, COCOA BUTTER, SOY LECITHIN, NATURAL FLAVOR), RICE FLOUR, WHEAT FLOUR, MALTED BARLEY FLOUR, SALT, RICE, CORN SYRUP, COCOA PROCESSED WITH ALKALI, WHEY (FROM MILK+), HONEY, MALTED CORN AND BARLEY SYRUP, CARAMEL COLOR, NATURAL FLAVOR, ANNATTO EXTRACT (COLOR), BHT ADDED TO PACKAGING MATERIAL TO PRESERVE PRODUCT FRESHNESS.; VITAMINS AND MINERALS: REDUCED IRON, NIACINAMIDE, VITAMIN B6, ZINC OXIDE (SOURCE OF ZINC), VITAMIN A PALMITATE, RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), THIAMIN MONONITRATE (VITAMIN B1), FOLIC ACID, VITAMIN B12, VITAMIN D. CONTAINS: WHEAT, SOY, MILK.

The thing I find interesting is that these are called honey bunches of oats, yet honey is waaaay down in the list, and oats are third after corn, wheat and sugar. Shouldn’t these be called Sugared bunches of Corn and Wheat? What about Sugary Corned Wheat? Sweet Corny Wheat? Oh! Sweet Wheat the Sugary Treat!

No matter.

I moved on to the nutritional information. I have to retype this so please bear with me:

In a 30 g serving:
120 calories (15 from fat)
2 grams of fat (no saturated or trans)
Cholesterol 0 g
Sodium 150 mg
Total carbs 25 g
fiber 2 g
Sugars 7 g
Protein 2 g
Vit. A 15%
Vit. C 0%
Calcium 0%
Iron 45%

Interesting, huh? I’d say the cereal is lacking a bit in the nutritional department. 2 whole grams of fiber? Wow. Despite all the added vitamins, the only one that shows up is vitamin A. By the way, half a carrot can give you 100% of the USRDA of vitamin A. I’m not sure you even need to supplement it in your cereal.

At least they put some iron in it.

Here’s something interesting about “reduced iron”. This is elemental iron added to food to boost its iron level. Elemental. As in iron powder. A fun experiment I used to do when teaching about chemistry was to take a blender full of “iron fortified” cereal and blend it good with water. Then I took a magnet wrapped in plastic and ran it through the mush. Wiping the wrapped magnet on a paper towel reveals a black residue, which is the reduced iron powder added to the cereal. Cool stuff.

The thing is that people often confuse good-tasting food, with good-for-you food. That’s the problem with highly processed foods like this. Manufacturers spend enormous amounts of time and money making something that tastes good, because that’s what sells (who wants to buy yucky food?). However, do not assume for a minute that, just because it tastes good on your tongue, it is good for your body. Sugar tastes wonderful, but you can’t make it the basis of your meals.

In summary, while it may be sweet and tasty (I really have no idea), I wouldn’t recommend eating it as a main meal (like breakfast) since the nutrional value is pretty low. You might try sprinkling it on ice cream or something.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 at 9:11 am and is filed under Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.