As many of you may know, Cheerios have been a staple of 90+% of my breakfasts for probably 5-6 years now. Sure, I'll rotate a box of Grape-Nuts or Honeycomb every now and again, but I always bring it back home to Cheerios.
Well, recently on 1 of those change-of-pace benders, I mixed in a box of Honey Nut Cheerios. Not only did they taste delightful, but since I hadn't had them in about 18 years, they brought back memories of sleepovers at my friend Justin's house (where Honey Nut Cheerios was just 1 of the everyday pleasantries I got at his house & not mine, like watching Cops & playing Sega Genesis).
Well, this change evolved from temporary to permanent because I was enjoying Cheerios of the Honey Nut variety so much. And who cares anyway--I had glanced at the nutrition summary, and it was pretty much the same at the regular. But after a few weeks of Honey Nut bliss, I started to get suspicious. So I re-checked the nutrition info, and here's what I got:
Regular Cheerios, 1 serving:
- 100 calories
- 2g fat
- 1g sugar
Honey Nut Cheerios, 1 serving:
- 110 calories
- 1.5g fat
- 9g sugar
OK, so the calories & fat are basically a wash, and Honey Nut's got way more sugar. But I barely eat any sugar as it is, so a little extra in the AM to kick start my day won't hurt, right?
Then, I take a closer look, and I find something so shocking, that my confidence in Cheerios, General Mills, and the entire breakfast food industry has been shaken to its core:
Serving size:
- Regular - 1 cup
- Honey Nut - 3/4 cup
What?!?!
I'm beside myself. How can a cereal maker I've trusted so much with my health be so deceitful? I calm myself down and calculate the nutrition stats of Honey Nut for a 1 cup serving size. Here are the restated numbers:
- 145 calories
- 2g fat
- 12g sugar
So it's easy to see, rather than being pretty much the same, these 2 Cheerios flavors have vastly different levels of healthiness. And since 3/4 of a cup of Honey Nut will get you about 3/4 full as a full cup of regular, I can only assume that General Mills is intentionally trying to mislead its customers.
(So it comes as no surprise, that they were recently busted for fabricating cholesterol-lowering benefits of their products.)
Conclusion: I love Cheerios and will not stop eating the regular or Honey Nut variety.
5 comments:
So that's why you were my friend? To play Genesis and eat Honey Nut Cheerios? [By the way, the Cops reference is one I don't remember and quite frankly makes the Reed house sound quite trailer-trashy. Thanks.] Remember the elephant call on the french horn? I bet you could still hammer out a good one if only you had the instrument.
HN Cheerios, Sega, & Cops were by far NOT my most vivid memories of my time spent at the Reed house. But rather they are examples of things we didn't have at the Ross house. Cops, by the way, I think we only watched at your house 1x or 2x, and I only remember b/c I had not heard of it before.
Dare I say that we didn't have Honey Nut Cheerios at our house because you never asked for them? I know when you were very young, you never got sugar cereals, but as you got older and voiced requests, I did not realize that I was such a tyrant!
again, I apologize...plz don't misinterpret. I never said I wanted HNC at our house. it was just a nice change of pace to have them at the Reeds. no tyranny accusations here!
I do not remember Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast at The Reeds, but I do remember Damon and CoCo Wheats.
Post a Comment