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Contents
- 1 Are Cheerios a Healthy Cereal Choice? We Take A Look At The Nutritional Profile of One Of America’s Favorite Cereals and Let You Decide.
- 2 Dear Fitness Nerd,
- 2.1 Cheerios Nutrition Facts
- 2.2 How Are Cheerios Processed?
- 2.3 Processed Cereals Versus Whole Food Sources of Grains
- 2.4 Comparing Glycemic Loads between Cheerios and Oatmeal
- 2.5 Cheerios and Cholesterol
- 2.6 Are Cheerios A Healthy Cereal: A Few Things To Consider
- 2.7 Cheerios Ingredients
- 2.8 Cheerios Nutrition Information
- 2.9 Have a Question for the Fitness Nerd? Want a Chance To Win Some Free Under Armour?
Are Cheerios a Healthy Cereal Choice? We Take A Look At The Nutritional Profile of One Of America’s Favorite Cereals and Let You Decide.
Dear Fitness Nerd,
Are Cheerios a healthy cereal? I’m trying to eat breakfast more often, but I don’t care for oatmeal. I do love Cheerios, however. But I’m not sure if they are a healthy choice. Fat is low and they don’t seem to have many calories. What’s your opinion? Is there a better cereal out there instead? – Carolyn (Portland, Maine) The “ good health ” of cereals and foods is much relative. lapp goes for Cheerios. For exercise, if you are regularly skipping breakfast and then grabbing a bagel and skim cheese at the office, a bowl of Cheerios with skim milk would be a much better option from a nutrition point of view than your common choices in the dawn. indeed from that position, Cheerios are a goodly cereal — or at least healthy in comparison to the bagel and cream cheese. On the early hand, given the choice between eating Cheerios or a whole food, unprocessed source of complex carbohydrates in the morning like oatmeal, oat bran or homemade muesli, the Cheerios doesn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate fare quite american samoa well. Let ’ s take a immediate front at what Cheerios has going for it nutritionally, and what some of its weaknesses are compared to other hale food sources of breakfast grains .
Cheerios Nutrition Facts
Cheerios have a several things going for them nutritionally. Cheerios are :
- Made with whole grain oats as the primary ingredient
- Low in sugar (less than 1 gram)
- Low in fat (less than 2 grams)
- Relatively high in dietary fiber (3 grams, one gram of which is heart-healthy soluble fiber)
- Fairly low in sodium compared to other prepared foods (200 mg)
- Low in calories (a one cup serving as 100 calories)
Cheerios besides have zero cholesterol and are trans fat barren. The main disadvantage of Cheerios is that they are hush a work grain. Whether that matters to you in truth has to do with how you feel personally about food process .
How Are Cheerios Processed?
Compared to a lot of early breakfast cereals, Cheerios are credibly one of the least processed choices out there. That said, those little “ Os ” didn ’ t drop off the oat stalk in the farmer ’ mho field and march into a box untouched by modern industrial food process machinery. So how are Cheerios made ? Cheerios are produced in a factory. General Mills takes whole grain oat flour and then adds in some more oat bran and oat roughage ( a good as a little boodle and salt. ) The flour is then blend together in a big vat with water and some “ binders ” like corn and wheat starch and pushed through machinary ( besides called “ dies ” ) to create the little “ Os ”. The “ Os ” are then cooked in a pressurize steamer cylinder, dried some more and sprayed with synthetic vitamins. next diaphragm : the box, the grocery store and then your cereal bowl. Does this very matter ? Well, yes and no. nutritionally, aside from the add salt, Cheerios are about as a “ wholly ” of a grain as you can get from a factory. even cereals that people consider ” healthy ” like Kashi are made from grain flours — indeed the work of making Cheerios international relations and security network ’ t basically unlike from what Kellogg does with Kashi ( yes, Kashi is a Kellogg merchandise — Tony the Tiger just doesn ’ thyroxine want you to know this. ) besides, realize that many of the vitamins in Cheerios are not from the grain itself, but rather synthetic vitamins and minerals sprayed on to the cereal at the plant. so if you are looking for whole food sources of vitamins and minerals, you may want to consider something less processed .
Processed Cereals Versus Whole Food Sources of Grains
There are some benefits to choosing a wholly food, less-processed shape of healthy grains like oats over a more-processed version like Cheerios. If you are trying to follow a clean eat or solid Food/ Slow Food philosophy, then in general you ’ ll choose constituent rolled oats or oat groats over serve cold cereals like Cheerios that are made with oat flour. But this is sort of a philosophical thing and a decision that you need to make for yourself. From a health and nutriment point of view, the independent argue for why you might want to have that bowl of oatmeal rather of Cheerios has to do with how your body digests carbohydrates from hale food sources versus processed cereals .
Comparing Glycemic Loads between Cheerios and Oatmeal
The carbohydrates in cereals or grain products made with flours are digested more cursorily, which increases their glycemic index rat and glycemic load – a direction of measuring how much a food raises blood boodle. For example, Cheerios has a glycemic index ( GI ) rat of 74 and a glycemic load ( GL ) of 12 versus old fashioned rolled oats, which have a GI of 46 and GL of 9. Lower GI and GL ratings indicate that a food has less impact on rake sugar levels. In general, spikes in blood sugar levels are not considered a good thing ( although they can be useful immediately following weight unit train. ) rapid increases in blood boodle may lead to increased fat repositing under particular circumstances — typically in a calorie excess – but more importantly, you may experience a promptly fusillade of department of energy, followed by a barge in a few hours late. Refined sugars are the leading lawsuit of this, but highly-processed grains can have alike effects — particularly if they aren ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate balanced out against a protein and fat. This is specially the font with non-whole grain cereals like Special K or Rice Chex. When you eat grains in their whole, non-flour imprint, the carbohydrates are digested more lento, which can help you maintain your energy levels over a longer period of time, with less risk of “ crashes. ”
Read more: 5 Best Healthy Yogurts
One caution : It ’ randomness crucial to understand that what you eat with cereals that are made with work unharmed texture flours can slow down these blood sugar spikes. indeed if you eat the Cheerios with a protein like skim milk or yogurt and add a healthy fat like insignificant butter alongside the cereal, blood sugar can be evened-out. I ’ thousand not suggesting that you make all of your decisions based on the Glycemic Index denounce of foods, since GI is controversial and inexact. however, it can help you better understand how serve impacts the way your body responds to carbohydrates and sugars in processed versus whole food sources of grains .
Cheerios and Cholesterol
Another benefit of eating cereals like Cheerios made with whole ingrain oats is the electric potential cholesterol-lowering effect of the soluble roughage in oats ( and Cheerios. ) The fiber in oats and whole-grain oat products and cereals can help “ sweep ” cholesterol from the body, decreasing overall blood cholesterol levels and possibly reducing the hazard of affection disease. Cheerios have a comparable come of souble oat fiber to a stadium of oat meal, so including Cheerios or early sources of soluble fiber in your diet is a good idea, in general .
Are Cheerios A Healthy Cereal: A Few Things To Consider
In terms of coldness breakfast cereals, I ’ vitamin d give Cheerios a B+ on the healthy eating meter. While eating wholly food sources of oats would be preferable, some people merely don ’ t like the texture of oatmeal. If this is the shell, you could try a muesli or low-sugar granola, which would give you the benefits of unharmed oats, but with some of the taste and texture advantages of a boxed cold cereal like Cheerios. Because eating healthy is actually about making better choices, if eating a bowl of Cheerios in the dawn helps you eat breakfast more frequently and avoid some of the less-healthy options out there, then I would say go ahead and eat them. They are surely a better choice than something like Special K — which is not a wholly grain cereal — and they are obviously much healthier than sugary breakfast cereals. If you do decide to include Cheerios in your diet, just make sure to choose the original version, and not the sugary, Honey Nut product. besides avoid heaping on the table carbohydrate, which will promptly cancel out any of the health benefits of the cereal. alternatively, try sweetening them naturally with fruits like bananas or berries. even some beloved or maple syrup would be preferable to digging into the boodle bowl. last, always try to balance each of your meals or snacks by including some lean protein from low-fat, unsweetened yogurt or skim milk and a short healthy fat from nut butters ( for example, some almond butter on unharmed grain pledge. ) Eating meals that contain all three of these macro-nutritents can keep your energy levels up and discourage over-eating late in the day .
Cheerios Ingredients
unharmed Grain Oats, Modified Corn Starch, Sugar, Oat Bran, Salt, Calcium Carbonate, Oat Fiber, Tripotassium Phosphate, Corn Starch, Wheat Starch, Vitamin E ( Mixed Tocopherols ) added to preserve freshness .
Cheerios Nutrition Information
Serving Size: 1 Cup ( 30g ) Amount per Serving : Calories: 110
Calories from Fat: 18
Total Fat: 2g 4 %
Saturated Fat: 0g 0 %
Trans Fat: 0g
Cholesterol: 0mg 0 %
Sodium: 210mg 9 %
Potassium: 200mg 4 %
Total Carbohydrates: 22g 8 %
Fiber: 3g 12 %
Sugar: 1g
Other Carbohydrates: 18g
Protein: 3g 2 %
Cheerios Vitamins & Minerals
Vitamin A: 10 %
Vitamin B6: 25 %
Vitamin B12: 25 %
Vitamin C: 10 %
Vitamin D: 10 %
Folic Acid: 50 %
Niacin: 25 %
Riboflavin: 25 %
Thiamin: 25 %
Calcium: 10 %
Copper: 2 %
Iron: 45 %
Magnesium: 10 %
Phosphorus: 10 %
Zinc: 25 % *Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs .
Have a Question for the Fitness Nerd? Want a Chance To Win Some Free Under Armour?
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