
Are Honey Nut Cheerios Healthy? - tysone
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/business/honey-nut-cheerios-sugar.html
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protonfish
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
> 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.

~~~
AstralStorm
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.

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r00fus
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.

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bluedino
Did you try alternatives like soy or almond milk?

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r00fus
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.

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tass
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...](http://www.arnotts.com.au/wp-
content/uploads/2015/02/Nutrition_375w.v1.jpg) 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
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!

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

~~~
0x445442
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.

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

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0x445442
What do you think sugar/corn syrup is... Carbs.

It wouldn't matter if I stop drinking Gatoraide and replaced it with rice or
Wheaties.

~~~
vilmosi
Well yeah, but you can easily have sugar added to salad dressings, dips,
tomato sauces...

Also, carbs and pure sugars are not really comparable. A lot of carb heavy
cultures live very healthy lives.

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0x445442
I have no scientific basis for this idea but I believe, from personal,
practical experience that there are different body types and metabolisms and
that carbs effect certain folks more adversely than others.

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hnlurker
carbs AFFECT certain folks more adversely

or

carbs have an EFFECT on certain folks more adversely

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jasode
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...](https://www.amazon.com/Salt-Sugar-Fat-Giants-
Hooked/dp/0812982193/)

~~~
dredmorbius
Former FDA administrator David Kessler also.

[https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/your-food-is-fooling-you-
how-y...](https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/your-food-is-fooling-you-how-your-
brain-is-hijacked-by-sugar-fat-and-salt_david-a-kessler/796447/)

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finkin1
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?

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nxsynonym
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".

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wallace_f
>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.

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Lendal
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.

~~~
sp332
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...](http://abcnews.go.com/US/cheerios-protein-smidgen-
protein-original-17-times-sugar/story?id=35088641)

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victor106
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.

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

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ibotty
> Honey Not Cheerios

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_arvin
> Honey, I Can't Believe It's Not Cheerios

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nscalf
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.

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

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

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45h34jh53k4j
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?

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johnward
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.

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dicroce
no.

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mathattack
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!

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onion2k
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.

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

