6 ms·
Are Honey Nut Cheerios Healthy?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- aeharding 9y agoI'd argue cereal isn't healthy. Fry or hard boil an egg or two in the morning instead.
- sabujp 9y agounless its oats and you need carbs
- megaman22 9y agoIt's really not much harder to just make oatmeal on the stove. Toss in a couple of spoonfuls of full-fat Greek yogurt and you'll have a breakfast that will actually hold you over until lunch time. When I was a kid and ate cereal for breakfast, I'd be murderously hungry before 9am
- markstos 9y agoI also could not stay full for long eating processed cereal for breakfast. Breakfasts including whole-grain oats sustain me much longer.
- vintageseltzer 9y agoOatmeal is a savior. I can’t think of a breakfast food that is more satisfying and filling. 1/3 cup of instant oats, 2/3 cup water. Microwave for three minutes on half power. Add cinnamon, a dash of salt and berries. Tasty and full till lunch.
- rhinoceraptor 9y agoYou don’t “need” carbs. There’s no such thing.
- sabujp 9y agohttps://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/loseweight/Pages/the-truth-about-carbs.aspx https://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/loseweight/Pages/the-truth-about...
- 0x445442 9y agoYep. I've lost 75 lbs in the last 18 months doing nothing other than severely restricting my carb intake. A generation of Americans were sold a bill of goods on the food pyramid which subsidized big Ag, lead to an obesity epidemic and masked the effects of inflation.
- thisisit 9y ago> severely restricting my carb intake. By how much? And with or without exercise?
- 0x445442 9y agoSo I tried to limit carbs to whatever was included in fruits, vegetables and nuts. And I really have limited my intake of fruit and nuts. So my target was about 30 grams a day, which if you start reading labels is extremely difficult to pull off. I say its hard to pull off because almost everything in easily available food supply is full of carbs. So my diet was pretty much restricted to meat, dairy, fruit and vegetables. If you go this route you'll quickly discover how much more expensive it is to eat healthy; which was the reason for my inflation comment. Here's another fun fact. I have to get blood drawn every year to get a break on my company's health insurance. My doctor's jaw dropped when I went for my yearly physical. Not only did my weight drop, my cholesterol went down drastically. My doctor asked me how I did it and I told him lots of bacon, eggs and cheese.
- vilmosi 9y agoI don't think carbs had anything to do with that. The added sugar/corn syrup in everything did it.
- 0x445442 9y agoWhat do you think sugar/corn syrup is... Carbs. It wouldn't matter if I stop drinking Gatoraide and replaced it with rice or Wheaties.
- 9y ago
- markstos 9y agoAccording to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, egg consumption can cause heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Reference: http://www.pcrm.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/health/Nutrition-Fact-Sheets/Eggs-fact-sheet.pdf http://www.pcrm.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/health/Nutritio... The movie "What the Health" covers similar research results
- rhinoceraptor 9y agoDo you really need to have correlation vs. causation explained to you? You cannot say eggs cause cancer. You can say eggs are correlated with cancer. This is not surprising due to the fact that eggs have been slandered by pseudoscientists for the past 50 years. The epidemiological data are easily explained by the healthy user bias, in reverse.
- dicroce 9y agono.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- akeck 9y agoNo? I used to eat bowl after bowl as kid because they tasted close to candy, but were "breakfast food".
- mathattack 9y agoI didn’t pretend cereal was healthy. Went straight for Crunchberries instead!
- mathattack 9y agotl;dr - No “You mentioned that three of the top six ingredients in Honey Nut Cheerios are sugar, brown sugar and honey,” Mike Siemienas, a spokesman for the company, wrote in a statement. “What you didn’t mention is that the number one ingredient is oats. To be so singularly focused on one ingredient — sugar — is irresponsible and doesn’t help consumers look at the total nutrition offered.” This PR flack could work for the Government with indignation skills like this!
- sametmax 9y agoGod damn it Bob ! You only focused on the venom in the shot I gave you. But you didn't consider that the seringe contained mainly water. You are really trying make me look bad.
- onion2k 9y agoNot to be an apologist for the sugary cereals industry, but I don't think ingredients scale proportionately to their position in the list. A food could be 99.99% oats and still have sugar in the next three positions in it's ingredients list. The list doesn't have enough information for you to make an informed decision.
- mathattack 9y agoSure. Everything in the article (and details on the label) suggests otherwise.
- 45h34jh53k4j 9y agoI just dont get Cheerios. The regular ones are flavourless cardboard and the honey nut one are so full of sugar. Why do people buy this junk?
- johnward 9y agoAll cereals are just loaded with carbs. Some are still marketed as "healthy" though. I think people just like the taste and some of the marketing makes them think it's good for them.
- nscalf 9y agoAre a blast of sugar and carbs generally eaten for breakfast healthy? No, of course not. All of the research in the past 10 years screams no.
- finkin1 9y agoI read the article, and I'm very confused as to why this is the top post on HN. Can anyone comment as to what is interesting about this article?
- wil421 9y agoIt’s Friday what else will we argue about?
- nxsynonym 9y agoThe only interesting thing I found was this: 'Serving sizes are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, and can change if a cereal’s density changes. It appears that at some point in the last 10 or 15 years, General Mills tweaked the ingredients of Honey Nut Cheerios in a way that lowered the overall weight per serving, which had the effect of helping lower the stated sugar content.' I wasn't aware that the FDA regulated serving sizes, or that they could change based on a recipe change. Will make me double check before and after stats on any product that claims "now X% less sugar/fat/etc".
- _arvin 9y agobecause you know damn well 99% of hackers rely on cereal for breakfast.
- douglaswlance 9y agoCereal in general is not healthy. You are a victim of marketing if you eat cereal.
- victor106 9y agoIt might be healthier to have honey and eat nuts seperately than to eat Honey Nut Cheerios. Any food that appears healthy but is not is more dangerous than foods that appear unhealthy in plain sight.
- Lendal 9y agoThe serving size for Cheerios is 1 cup. The serving size for Honey Nut Cheerios is 3/4 cup, in order to make it look like the sugar content is "only" 9 grams. It's actually 11 grams, which is amongst the highest of all cereals. So, yeah I was fooled by that trick. Won't happen again though. Gotta start checking serving size now, dammit.
- DigitalJack 9y agoThis is extremely common, btw. When looking for foods and comparing i often want to maximize protein and always have to double check when I find one fungible item has more than another. I'd say more than half the time it's a serving size difference.
- hammock 9y agoIf you are preparing food for meals based on how much space it takes up in the plate or bowl, you're doing it wrong. Portion sizes should be based on calories. Which is what Cheerios has done (and as recommended by the FDA in their serving size guidance, I might add)
- sp332 9y agoYou should see Cheerios Protein. They doubled the serving size and presto, twice as much protein per serving! http://abcnews.go.com/US/cheerios-protein-smidgen-protein-original-17-times-sugar/story?id=35088641 http://abcnews.go.com/US/cheerios-protein-smidgen-protein-or...
- protonfish 9y agoFirst we should define what "healthy" is. I think it is like "love" - left deliberately ambiguous and everyone imagines a slightly different meaning. Think of a "healthy" food. Now, imagine that is the only thing a person eats for years. Do you think this will make them healthy? Doubtful. We need a variety of foods for good health. Is a pure-sugar lollipop healthy? Most would agree that it isn't, but if you only ate one a couple times a year, I doubt there would be any ill-effects. My point is slapping the term "healthy" or "unhealthy" on foods is meaningless without also including the concept of dosage and in relation to a healthy overall diet.
- daxorid 9y ago> Now, imagine that is the only thing a person eats for years. Anecdata, but Zooko (creator of ZCash, Tahoe-LAFS, and i2p contributor) has been eating nothing but meat for something like 6 years now and reportedly has incredibly good health as measured by standard and extended blood panels.
- nicolashahn 9y agoGot a link or more details on this?
- AstralStorm 9y agoPretty reasonable, especially if he ate organ meats too. After all, human body is meat. Of course he would have to forgo cooking or heart treatment for some parts to prevent nutrient loss.
- r00fus 9y agoI stopped eating breakfast cereal a while back (had been eating with kids just to share the activity). What I found out was that the milk (even a small amount) was upsetting my digestive system. Cutting milk out of my morning breakfast/coffee really improved my morning responsiveness. So it's not just the sugar and carbs for some of us.
- bluedino 9y agoDid you try alternatives like soy or almond milk?
- r00fus 9y agoYes, though I'd forget to buy almond milk (wife is allergic to soy) some weeks so I'd just drink coffee straight and have toast/etc instead of cereal.
- frabert 9y agoMany people cannot digest lactose properly. Most people will even "lose" the ability to digest it if it is not drunk/eaten regularly enough
- onion2k 9y agoI stopped eating cereal when I realised that I could choose to eat bacon as often as I like.
- tass 9y agoThe US should adopt nutrition labels with easily comparable units - force all items to include a "per 4oz" column in addition to the per serving. See http://www.arnotts.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Nutrition_375w.v1.jpg http://www.arnotts.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Nutriti... for an example - everything includes the "per 100g" no matter what the serving size. You can easily compare across food items without having to carry a calculator.
- xellisx 9y agoThe need stop giving like "2.5 servings" for a can of soup, which we all know, we are going to eat that whole can!
- jasode 9y agoThe Michael Moss book "Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us"[1] really opened my eyes to how the cereal giants hooked kids and their parents on sugar. It's eerily similar to the tobacco companies manipulation of nicotine. It explains how manufacturers make clever misdirections away from sugar such as adding verbiage about "fortified with 20 essential vitamins" on the box. It's insidious because the companies are preying on parents' intentions to feed their kids something nutritious when in fact, the very opposite happens. Excess sugar is causing obesity, early diabetes, and cavities. A healthy alternative for breakfast is slow (not instant) cooked oatmeal with no sugar added. (If the kids absolutely have to have something sweet, cutting a few slices of fruit is better than dumping sugar into it.) I've been eating that every morning for decades with no weight gain. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Salt-Sugar-Fat-Giants-Hooked/dp/0812982193/ https://www.amazon.com/Salt-Sugar-Fat-Giants-Hooked/dp/08129...
- dredmorbius 9y agoFormer FDA administrator David Kessler also. https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/your-food-is-fooling-you-how-your-brain-is-hijacked-by-sugar-fat-and-salt_david-a-kessler/796447/ https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/your-food-is-fooling-you-how-y...
- wallace_f 9y ago>The company has capitalized on the good name of the original,” Ms. Liebman said. Making a cereal that is superior to name brand products is stupidly easy. I encourage you to try making your own mix. You save money and end up with a better product. Just buy oats, then go to the bakery aisle and relax and buy whatever you see that you think you would enjoy: nuts, dried fruits, coconut, seeds, dark chocolate, sweeteners (w/e you want: sugar, m&m's, chocolate, vanilla, w/e). Compare your mix with how much sugar+corn syrup+etc is in brand name cereals and you will be shocked. Adjust as your taste desires. After a few weeks you will have a recipe you love. I buy a big bag of frozen berries and toss a few in as well. If you want to make a "soylent" product you can live on indefinitely, then just add milk, whey or soy(+B12) powders or liquids. You can also eat this when you go hiking and camping. Plus I get to tell myself I'm sticking it to the man... Or at least to stuffy office suits that build a product on dubious advertising claims.