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NOT YOUR MOTHER’S RICE KRISPIES By Bonnie Liebman & Jayne Hurley Natural Food Store Brands The cereal aisle is changing. Sure, you can still find Kellogg, General Mills, and Post. shredded wheat, bran cereals, muesli, and other For decades, the Big Three cereal healthy standbys. You still have to wade beyond the companies kept most smaller competitors out of the super- Froot Loops, Trix, and other multi-colored near-can- market cereal aisles. Now some natural food store brands—like dies. And you still have to watch out for cereals like Barbara’s Bakery, Health Valley, Basic 4, Smart Start, and Special K, which sound like Kashi, and Nature’s Path—have managed to get a foot in the they belong in the healthy group, but don’t. door. (Kashi had the easiest time. Just when you think you’ve got it all sorted out, It was purchased by Kellogg in 2000.) cereal companies come up with new ingredients, Now several companies are The new arrivals are often adding real freeze-dried berries. packed with fiber-rich whole claims, spin-offs, or other shtick. Some of the inno- Pour in your milk and the fruit grains. Tired of raisin bran and springs to life. (Not a bad trick vations are good, some are scams, and some are in shredded wheat? Now you can if you’re trying to lure kids choose from mixtures of whole between. Here’s how to tell which are which. away from Apple Jacks or barley, buckwheat, triticale, Fruity Pebbles.) amaranth, rye, kamut, and more. The information for this article was compiled by Sarah Wade. Of course, you’re still better Another plus: Most brands are off tossing in your own berries, lighter on added sugars (which sliced bananas, or whatever. are often disguised as evaporated After all, the cereals aren’t exactly brimming with fruit. We 1 cane juice, molasses, honey, and found only about 1 /2 (reconstituted) strawberries in each serv- brown rice syrup). ing of Berry Burst Strawberry Cheerios, for example. The downside to the new And the fruit is often added to mediocre cereals. A bowl arrivals: Most are not fortified of Special K Red Berries has only one gram of fiber. And with 10 to 25 percent of a day’s Berry Burst Cheerios has more sugar—and less fiber—than worth of about a dozen vitamins the original Cheerios. But even a piddly amount of fruit is and minerals, like nearly all cere- better than no fruit or fake fruit. als made by the Big Three. If you take a multivitamin-and-mineral Weight Loss Claims every day, you don’t need a forti- How can a cereal help you lose fied cereal. But if you (or your weight? Once you get past the kids) don’t take a multi, you may sometimes grandiose claims on lose needed nutrients by switch- the front of the box, the answer ing to a natural food store brand. is rather mundane: The cereal is simply part of a (often ordinary) Real Fruit lower-calorie diet. “Bursting with Real Berries!” gushes the label of (what else?) Take Special K (suggested Berry Burst Cheerios. You’ll also find fruit in Special K Red motto: “Nothing Special About Berries, Kellogg’s Fruit Harvest, and Post Honey Bunches of It”). The front of the box says, Oats with Real Strawberries. “lose up to 6 lbs. in 2 weeks.” It wasn’t long ago that cereal companies tried to pass off But the back explains that artificially colored and flavored blobs of fat and sugar as real Kellogg’s Kick-Start Diet consists of having Special K with strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. (The raisins and skim milk and fruit for two of your three daily meals—not other dried fruit were always genuine.) The ingredient lists exactly magical. The small print also notes that the average gave the blobs clever names like “blueberry bits,” but they weight loss was only 4.2 pounds. And it neglects to mention were essentially fake fruit. that people who ate Special K twice a day lost no more Photos: StockFood/Ruggieri (top), Nick Waring (bottom and right). 12 NUTRITION ACTION HEALTHLETTER ■ NOVEMBER 2003 BRAND-NAME RATING weight than people who ate other cereals twice Breakfast Bars a day. Kashi GoLEAN is even bolder. The cereal is “All the nutrition of a bowl of part of a “Natural Slimming System” that instant oatmeal,” says the label of includes a GoLEAN Shake for lunch, a GoLEAN Quaker Oatmeal Breakfast Squares. Bar for a snack, and “a healthy meal of your For years, cereal companies have choice” for dinner. The recipes and meal plans been trying to convince people who on the Web site (www.kashi.com) are reasonably healthful. eat breakfast on the run that they can get their cereal in a And GoLEAN cereal gets a Best Bite. (GoLEAN Crunch gets portable rectangle. Some (like Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Cereal an Honorable Mention because it’s got more sugar.) Bars) are the nutritional equivalent of white bread and jam. But Kashi gets carried away. According to the box, Others (like Nutri-Grain Muffin Bars) are essentially low-fat GoLEAN’s “combination of high protein and high fiber is a cookies. proven formula that curbs cravings and, with exercise, helps Milk-and-cereal bars by Kellogg and General Mills are the you build muscle so you burn more fat.” Extra protein may most deceptive, because they imply that each bar delivers a curb muscle loss and fiber may lessen hunger. But “proven” serving of milk. In fact, the “milk filling” consists largely of is a bit strong. And it’s unclear that a GoLEAN shake or bar sugar, non-fat milk, and enough hydrogenated palm or palm helps people curb calories better than any mini-meal of foods kernel oil to supply two or three grams of heart-damaging with protein or fiber. saturated-plus-trans fat. All have 10 to 20 grams (about three to five teaspoons) of sugar and little or no fiber. Heart Disease In contrast, Quaker Oatmeal Breakfast Squares have a nice shot of fiber (three grams for most flavors), though their You needn’t look far to find a calories (220) and sugar (20 grams) are higher than what cereal with a heart disease claim you’ll find in most bars. And if you eat one without milk, these days. The FDA has you’re getting only four grams of protein (out of your 50- approved several that cereals gram daily target). can use. Among them: So far, there’s no substitute for the healthiest (high-fiber, ■ Whole grains. Post Shredded low-sugar) cereals in a bowl of cold milk. Wheat’n Bran “helps reduce the risk of heart disease because it is Soy rich in whole grain,” according Soy has hit the mainstream. to the box. General Mills’s Harmony cereal ■ Oats. Cheerios notes that juxtaposes “with soy” and “proud “three grams of soluble fiber to support The Breast Cancer daily from whole-grain oat Research Foundation” on its box. foods, like Cheerios, in a diet low in saturated fat and In fact, the evidence that soy pro- cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease. Cheerios tects against breast cancer is still has 1 gram per cup.” inconclusive. What’s more, Har- mony has only two grams of soy ■ Low-fat. Total Corn Flakes boasts that “while many fac- protein per serving. tors affect heart disease, diets low in saturated fat and So far, the only well-established cholesterol may reduce the risk of this disease.” claim for soy is that it helps lower Low-fat cereals may qualify for a heart disease claim, but cholesterol. For example, Health Valley Soy Flakes notes they’re not as good as their (low-fat) whole-grain cousins. that “after many years of research, the FDA has concluded (Cocoa Puffs, Lucky Charms, and other sugary cereals are that 25 grams of soy protein per day, as part of a diet low in also low-fat.) So look for cereals (like Shredded Wheat’n saturated fats and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart Bran) with heart disease claims that mention whole grains or disease.” fiber. Cereals like Harmony cannot carry the FDA-approved Kashi Heart to Heart goes further. It’s a “Healthy Heart heart disease claim because they don’t have enough soy. 1 System” that “includes a carefully selected balance of soluble Foods need at least 6 /4 grams of soy protein per serving—a fiber from natural whole grains, herbs, antioxidant vitamins, quarter of the 25-gram daily target—to qualify. and plant-derived nutrients to help maintain a strong, Other cereals can’t make the approved claim because they healthy heart and blood vessels.” contain soy isoflavones instead of soy protein. Barbara’s The soluble fiber from whole-grain oats is a legitimate Bakery SoyEssence, which has no soy protein and 21 mg of claim. But it’s not clear that Heart to Heart’s green tea, grape isoflavones per serving, points out that “in cultures where seed extract, vitamins E and C, beta-carotene, and lycopene soy has been a staple for thousands of years, there are lower will make a difference. The B-vitamins (folic acid, B-6, and rates of obesity, heart disease and many types of cancers.” B-12) may cut the risk of heart disease by lowering homocys- But so far, the evidence is shaky that the estrogen-like teine in the blood, but you’d get as much from almost any isoflavones can curb menopausal hot flashes, protect bones, multivitamin (or highly fortified cereal like Total).

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