Are Honey Nut Cheerios Healthy?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/business/honey-nut-cheerios-sugar.html

by tysone • 9 years ago

29 53 9 years ago

nytimes.com

dicroce• 9 years ago

no.

akeck• 9 years ago

No? I used to eat bowl after bowl as kid because they tasted close to candy, but were "breakfast food".

mathattack3• 9 years ago

I didn’t pretend cereal was healthy. Went straight for Crunchberries instead!

mathattack3• 9 years ago

tl;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• 9 years ago

God 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.

onion2k2• 9 years ago

Not 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.

mathattack3• 9 years ago

Sure. Everything in the article (and details on the label) suggests otherwise.

aeharding• 9 years ago

I'd argue cereal isn't healthy. Fry or hard boil an egg or two in the morning instead.

sabujp2• 9 years ago

unless its oats and you need carbs

megaman22• 9 years ago

It'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

rhinoceraptor2• 9 years ago

You don’t “need” carbs. There’s no such thing.

0x4454424• 9 years ago

Yep. 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• 9 years ago

severely restricting my carb intake.

By how much? And with or without exercise?

vilmosi2• 9 years ago

I don't think carbs had anything to do with that. The added sugar/corn syrup in everything did it.

markstos3• 9 years ago

According 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/Nutritio... The movie "What the Health" covers similar research results

rhinoceraptor2• 9 years ago

Do 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.

45h34jh53k4j• 9 years ago

I 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• 9 years ago

All 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• 9 years ago

Are 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• 9 years ago

I 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• 9 years ago

It’s Friday what else will we argue about?

nxsynonym• 9 years ago

The 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".

_arvin2• 9 years ago

because you know damn well 99% of hackers rely on cereal for breakfast.

victor106• 9 years ago

It 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.

markstos3• 9 years ago

As the article states, there are no nuts in Honey Not Cheerios.

ibotty• 9 years ago

Honey Not Cheerios

Lendal• 9 years ago

The 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• 9 years ago

This 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• 9 years ago

If 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• 9 years ago

You 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-or...

protonfish• 9 years ago

First 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• 9 years 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• 9 years ago

Got a link or more details on this?

AstralStorm• 9 years ago

Pretty 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.

r00fus2• 9 years ago

I 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• 9 years ago

Did you try alternatives like soy or almond milk?

r00fus2• 9 years ago

Yes, 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• 9 years ago

Many people cannot digest lactose properly. Most people will even "lose" the ability to digest it if it is not drunk/eaten regularly enough

onion2k2• 9 years ago

I stopped eating cereal when I realised that I could choose to eat bacon as often as I like.

tass• 9 years ago

The 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/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• 9 years ago

The 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• 9 years ago

The 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/08129...

dredmorbius• 9 years ago

Former FDA administrator David Kessler also.

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/your-food-is-fooling-you-how-y...

wallace_f• 9 years 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.

Are Honey Nut Cheerios Healthy?

Related Stories