If your kids really love this stuff, be sure they're eating only one serving at the most, and add some wholesome foods to their breakfast, such as whole grain toast with peanut butter and a small glass of 100% fruit juice. Make sure you take a close look at the serving sizes on the Nutrition Facts labels; they tend to be smaller for some types of cereal - usually 3/4 cup compared to one cup of grownup, less sugary, non-neon colored cereal.
Actually, I think the most interesting thing about General Mills' announcement page is a side by side comparison of Cheerios and Lucky Charms. They make the point that one serving of Cheerios has 100 calories and the Lucky Charms has only a few more - 110! Sounds good, right? But what they don't tell you (look at the labels there on the page) is that one serving of Lucky Charms is only 3/4 cup, while one serving of Cheerios is a full cup. So really, one cup of Lucky Charms has about 135 calories, not 110.
Maybe it's not a huge deal (and only 25 calories difference) ... but just the way that comparison between the two cereals is presented on the webpage really bugs me - I feel like General Mills is trying to mislead the reader a little bit. What do you think?
It’s deceptive indeed. I don’t buy any cereal which lists its serving size as 3/4 cup. I’m just not going to eat 3/4ths of a cup. It probably does have enough calories (and thus the odd serving size) but it’s also a question of volume, feeling full, and just practical use. Exactly who do they expect eats in multiples of 2/3 cups and 3/4 cups!? And who is going to be satisfied by eating only that much?
Nutrition labels are a joke, and serving sizes are the PRIMO way they are manipulated. A can of beans is 2 1/2 servings?
A 6-pack or Oreos from a vending machine is 2 servings? No only do they bear no relation to the amount of food people eat, but who can figure out the calories in a 2 1/2 serving container in their head any more? But as long as the companies making the food “advise” the FDA on labeling requirements, this is what we are going to get.
Hi,I am the Director of Consumer Services at General Mills and I am compelled to comment on what you have written. Your blog about General Mills’ sugar reduction announcement suggests – inaccurately – that companies can choose how serving sizes are represented. That is incorrect.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations and guidance detail required methods for measuring and weighing products with which companies must comply.
Companies must first determine the weight of one cup of cereal to ascertain which one of three FDA-established serving sizes applies to that cereal. If one cup of cereal weighs less than 20 grams, the reference serving size, or “Reference Amount Commonly Consumed” (RACC), is 15 grams. If one cup of cereal weighs more than 20 grams, but less than 43 grams, then the RACC is 30 grams. If one cup weighs 43 grams or more, then the RACC is 55 grams.
That is not the only step. FDA regulations then require that the RACC amount of cereal be converted to the nearest common household measure, which the regulations require to be stated in ¼ or 1/3 cup increments. It is that household measure, and the weight of the cereal in that household measure, that appears on the Nutrition Facts Panel. Because that closest household measure may actually hold more or less cereal than the RACC, the gram weight of a cereal is often above or below the RACC.
Comparing Lucky Charms and Cheerios, in the example you reference, Lucky Charms contains 27 grams of cereal in the nearest household measure to the RACC, which is ¾ cup. Cheerios contains 28 grams of cereal in the nearest household measure, which is 1 cup. If you look further, at a cereal such as Trix for example, you would find Trix contains 32 grams of cereal in one cup, and 120 calories per serving. None of these measures are arbitrarily set by the company. The amount in grams and the household measure noted on the Nutrition Facts Panel is a function of the weight and the volume of the cereal using the method established by the federal government.
Hopefully, this explanation helps your readers understand that serving sizes are not arbitrarily determined by manufacturers – and that facts detailed in the Nutrition Facts Panel demonstrate no attempt to “mislead” consumers whatsoever.
Thank you.
Hi Jeff. Thanks for your response, I’m sure readers will find it helpful to understand how serving sizes are determined. I know there are regulations about those determinations.
My concern with using a cereal with a one-cup serving size in comparison to one with a 3/4 cup size is because I doubt many people choose their cereal servings based on weight, but rather by the amount of cereal they see in the bowl. I would be come comfortable had General Mills used Trix compared to Cheerios.
I appreciate General Mills’ effort to reduce sugar…now if we could just convince kids to not want weird colors in their foods.
Al, I look at one serving of cereal as only one part of a breakfast, not too many people will feel full with just one serving. Some people will consume two or three servings of cereal as their whole breakfast meal and others will serve their cereal with other items like toast, eggs, fruit, waffles, yogurt, juice, etc. Personally, I think a breakfast with a little cereal, some fruit and whole grain with peanut butter is a great breakfast, but I prefer non-sugary cereals over the sugary stuff.
Thanks for the suggestion. We’ll consider it. Using Trix as a comparison, the serving size for both Cheerios and Trix would be one cup. Trix would actually be heavier – at 32 grams compared to 28 for Cheerios. Trix would have more calories – 120 compared to 100, largely because of those additional four grams of cereal in that same one cup serving. Trix would be at 11 grams of sugar, while Cheerios would be at one.
We selected Lucky Charms for this comparison because – at 28 and 27 grams respectively – the two cereals were closer in weight. But the point of the comparison would be the same using Trix. Both cereals would be lower calorie, nutrient dense breakfast choices. Both would be made with whole grains (whole grain oats for Cheerios, whole grain corn for Trix), and provide at least 8 grams of whole grain in each serving. Both are low in fat, and both deliver 14 vitamins and minerals.
Jeff Hagen…can you answer this….
Sugar always gets all the attention, but I would like to see more about the chemicals being added to children’s food and all of our food in general.
BHT is used to treat cereal boxes to keep the contents fresh for eternity. It has been shown to cause sterility in male rats…so why expose our little sons to it?
The additives and preservatives that add the color and keep it fresh for 10 years are superfluous flummery!
The kids will eat the cereal in a week if it tastes good, so why bother with preservatives? They don’t need to have pink and green and blue dyes to make it taste better!
Yellow #5 has been shown to trigger asthma attacks in asthmatic children (and I’m 59 and have to avoid it for the same reason)….so why do we (meaning the FDA and food producers) allow these toxins in the food we feed the next generation of leaders????????????????
I guess people shouldn’t make too big a fuss out of sugar in cereals. it’s only 3-4 calories a gram. Much, much less than fat (9 calories a gram). What really helps is not reducing the ammount of sugar in your breakfast but reducing the ammount of sugar in your drinks. After all, you need some fuel to get through the day (which you should take at breakfast) and carbs are the best fuel. Now sugar in drinks, that’s bad. It just makes you want to eat a lot. Drink tea, not lemonade, drink water, not cola. I’ve found that a lot of sugar in drink just gives you sore teeth and a bad feeling.
I should also say something about food that contains both fat and sugar. The sugar makes you want to eat more and the fat makes you eat a lot. perfect way to gain weight. So this means avoiding fries and crisps especially, because those contain starch (which is bacically sugar without the sweetness factor), as well as ice cream, chocolate bars, energy bars of most kinds and meals containing for example, potatoes and meat (except for low-fat meat), also avoid sauces and if you make them, avoid the fat. water based sauces are much better. I’m lucky with this, because my mum never uses a lot of fat when she cooks and being a veggie also helps. So now i’m doing my own cooking, I really know what to avoid. Even if my cooking is a bit unusual, it’s healthy and that’s what matters most to a young adult.
Healthy eating is your decision, not some companies decision. You are all adults and soceity expect you to take responsibility. Even if you’re no adult, you can still make your own decisions.