Acesulfame

It was only a matter of time.

With claims about heart disease, weight control, whole grains, antioxidants, fiber, omega-3s, and more invading other sections of the supermarket, it was inevitable that they would make an appearance in the already-health-conscious hot-cereal aisle.

If you're eating the same bowl of Wheatena or ordinary Quaker Oats that you ate as a child, don't stop. Unadorned whole-grain hot cereals are among the healthiest foods. They're rich in fiber but not in bad fats, salt, or sugar. Toss in a handful of berries, bananas, peaches, or other fruit and you'll make them even better.

But if you're bewildered by whether and how to pick a cereal that's (supposedly) good for your heart, your waist, your bones, or your gender, read on.

Weight a Minute

The back of the Quaker Weight Control Instant Oatmeal box admits that "maintaining a healthy weight depends on balancing calories consumed and calories used" (thanks a lot). But the front touts the cereal's "7 grams of protein" and "6 grams of fiber." Do they help control your weight?

First, keep in mind that a packet of Weight Control weighs 45 grams (1 1/2 ounces), net the modest 28 grams (1 ounce) you'll find in Quaker Regular Flavor Instant Oatmeal. That's why "each packet contains 2 servings of whole grains." (Many food companies have decided that a "serving" of whole grains is 16 grams, but there are no official regs.) It's also why a packet of Weight Control delivers 160 calories, vs. 100 calories for a packet of Quaker Regular Flavor.

A serving of Weight Control has 6 grams of fiber, 3 more than Quaker Regular Instant. One of the extra 3 grams of fiber comes from Weight Control's extra oatmeal. The rest comes from maltodextrin, a carbohydrate (made from cornstarch) that counts as fiber because it's poorly digested and absorbed.

Quaker claims that "research shows that people who eat a diet higher in fiber tend to weigh less." Whether that includes a "functional" fiber like maltodextrin--rather than, say, the fiber in oatmeal and fruits and vegetables--is anyone's guess.

As for protein: maybe it "helps you feel full and promotes lean muscle mass," as the box notes. But the 7 grams of protein in Weight Control beat regular oatmeal by only 3 grams--half of it from Weight Control's extra oats and half from its added whey protein isolate. In contrast, a small (3 oz.) chicken breast has 27 grams of protein.

While no one needs the sugar that's in most sweetened instant oatmeals, Weight Control replaces it with the artificial sweeteners sucralose (safe) and acesulfame potassium (poorly tested and possibly unsafe).

And, of course, Weight Control's Banana Bread variety hasn't been anywhere near a banana. That's what the words "Naturally & Artificially Flavored" on the label really mean.

Bottom line: any unsweetened oatmeal may help dieters stay full. The extra bells and whistles (a few grams of protein and fiber) in Weight Control aren't worth the potentially harmful artificial sweetener. Maybe Quaker needs some claim control.

Power Play

Nature's Path Optimum Power Organic Instant Oatmeal is a decent cereal. But the name Optimum Power implies that it's far superior to other hot cereals. It isn't.

Each serving has 300 mg of omega-3 fat, says the box. But Optimum Power's omega-3 comes from flaxseed, and it's not clear that the omega-3 in plants is as good as the omega-3 fats in fish oil at reducing the risk of heart disease. (Most people get plenty of omega-3 from plant sources anyway, since canola oil has 1,300 milligrams per tablespoon and soybean oil has 925 milligrams.) A serving of Optimum Power also contains 140 mg of omega-6 fats, says the label, which doesn't mention that some experts believe that we already get too much omega-6.

Optimum Power's evaporated cane juice is no better than sugar. It's also not clear that the cereal's soy isoflavones curb hot flashes or prevent cancer or lower cholesterol. Like many other "natural foods" brands, Nature's Path doesn't bother adding extra vitamins or minerals, as Quaker, Kashi, and some other big brands do. And Optimium Power isn't even optimum when it comes to omega-3 from flaxseed. A packet of (Best Bite) Uncle Sam Instant Oatmeal has 50 percent more (460 mg, vs 300 mg).

What's more, the label claims that "eating oats may also have a positive effect on the immune system" and "may lower systolic blood pressure," even though the evidence is skimpy.

Okay cereal. Runaway claims.

Sweet'N Lower

"50% Less Sugar," says the label on Quaker Lower Sugar Instant Oatmeal. If you like flavored cereals, go for it.

Quaker replaces about 1 1/2 teaspoons of sugars per packet with the safe artificial sweetener sucralose (Splenda). That leaves each packet with just 4 to 6 grams of sugars. In contrast, Quaker's popular flavored oatmeals have 9 to 16 grams (2 to 4 teaspoons) of sugars.

Erewhon's flavored Organic Instant Oatmeals have around 5 grams of sugars per packet (some of it comes from the apples, raisins, and dates in two of its flavors). And they don't use artificial sweeteners. Just don't be too impressed with the "no cane sweeteners" declaration on the label. While Erewhon's dehydrated maple syrup may not be ordinary table sugar (that's what "cane sweetener" is), it isn't any better for you.

It's also no better than the evaporated cane juice in Fantastic Big Cereal or the organic unbleached cane sugar in Dr. McDougall's.

Heart to Believe

Heart to Heart Oatmeal ("More For Your Heart") is Kashi's answer to Quaker's Take Heart Oatmeal ("Advanced Nutrition for your Heart"). Make that Kellogg's answer, since the cereal giant bought Kashi several years ago.

Both cereals make essentially the same three claims. Here's how the Heart to Heart box puts them:

* Helps Reduce Cholesterol. Take Heart has slightly more soluble fiber from oats (1 1/2 grams per serving) than Heart to Heart (1 gram). Three grams a day of the soluble fiber in oats lowers your cholesterol modestly--about 5 percent--according to the Food and Drug Administration. Quaker exaggerates by using words like "removes cholesterol" (on the box) or "hunts down and helps kick out excess cholesterol" (in ads).

* Helps Support Healthy Arteries. It's not clear that extra vitamins (E, B-6, B-12, and folic acid) do anything for your arteries. But claims that use the word "support" need no government approval, so anything goes. Kashi also tosses in grape seed extract ("you're getting the antioxidant benefits of eating nearly a pound of grapes!"), along with two "potent antioxidants": green tea extract and lycopene ("equal to the amount in a medium size tomato"). The evidence that those extracts matter is shaky, but they give Kashi license to boast that it has "more heart healthy ingredients than any national instant oatmeal."

* Helps Manage Hypertension. With about 100 milligrams of sodium per serving, both Heart to Heart and Take Heart are low enough to be able to make this claim. (Plain, quick-cooking or old fashioned oatmeal has no sodium.) Take Heart adds more potassium than Heart to Heart, and potassium can keep a lid on blood pressure.

A Spoonful of Sterols ...

It's more like a bowlful of sterols that makes the cholesterol go down. Health Valley HeartWise is the only hot cereal that has added plant sterols--compounds that occur naturally in tiny amounts in fruits, vegetables, nuts, and beans.

At higher levels (0.8 grams a day), sterols can lower LDL ("bad") cholesterol by about 10 percent by keeping some of the cholesterol in the gut from being absorbed into the bloodstream. HeartWise has 0.4 grams per serving, so you'd need two pouches a day to get that drop. (You can also get 0.4 grams of sterols from a serving of other foods, like Minute Maid Heart Wise orange juice, Yoplait Healthy Heart yogurt, and Take Control margarine.)

Like other companies competing for heart-conscious oatmeal eaters, Health Valley pumps up the B-vitamins and adds a few antioxidants (vitamin C and selenium) for good measure. They don't matter if you take a multivitamin. Exception: if your multi has no selenium, HeartWise is an easy way to get half a day's worth.

May Multiply

"Bigger Size," says the label on Dr. McDougall's Cranberry Muesli, which comes in a convenient, just-add-hot-water cup that you can take to the office. The catch: The serving listed on the Nutrition Facts panel is only half the container. Eat the whole thing (who wouldn't?) and, instead of 160 calories, you get 320.

That's about as many calories as you'd get in a Fantastic Big Cereal. But the Big Cereal label helpfully lists a serving as the entire container.

What's Hot

Best Bites are 100 percent whole grain, are free of the questionable artificial sweetener acesulfame potassium, and have no added sugar and no more than 250 milligrams of sodium per serving. Honorable Mentions can have up to 6 grams (1 1/2 teaspoons) of sugar or, if they're single-serve containers (which are larger), 12 grams of sugar (and 350 mg of sodium). (We counted bran cereals as whole grain because they provide the nutrients that have been milled out of refined-grain cereals.) Within each section, cereals are ranked from most to least fiber, then least to most sugar, calories, and sodium. The weight (in grams) of each serving, single-serve packet, or container is in parentheses following its name.

The information for this article was compiled by Danielle Weinberg, with help from Heather Jones.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Center for Science in the Public Interest
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group