It is easy to assume that something is healthier if it has ‘"sugar free," "all natural,” or “high protein” on the package. However, it is easy for marketers to make anything sound healthy. This is a two part article on ways you can control your health, and not fall for the marketing hype! There are a lot of food companies that want to market their foods as being healthy, while making them tasty and as cheap to process as possible. Although, they are not allowed to lie outright, they can avoid some of the downsides of their product.
For example, Cheerios has launched a new cereal with 7 grams of protein, called Protein Cheerios. It says it has 11 grams of protein per serving on the package, but 5 grams comes from milk. Although increasing protein in our breakfast cereals is a step in the right direction, its still not a great breakfast choice. Cheerios markets it as a high protein cereal that will fuel your body. In comparison, two large eggs have 12 grams of protein, one glass of milk has eight grams of protein, a single serving of Kay's Naturals has 12 grams of protein, and 1/2 cup of almonds has 15 grams of protein. It no longer sounds like a high-protein food, does it?
The real deal breaker is the amount of sugar in Protein Cheerios. Each serving has 17 grams of sugar- that's 7 more grams than a Krispy Kreme Glazed Doughnut and 14 more grams than a serving of Kay's! The World Health Organization recommends that only 5% of our calories come from sugar. For most women that is about 25 grams a day. Eating Protein Cheerios would allot only seven additional grams of sugar for the day, something that will be exceedingly difficult to achieve!
Reading nutritional labels will help assist in discovering out what foods are healthy, as well as what foods are more nutritional. Protein Cheerios are indeed better than a lot of the cereals in grocery stores today. Nonetheless, it still cannot compare to Kay's Naturals for a number of reasons: 1) it has 45% less protein 2) it will cause your sugar to spike 3) it contains gluten, a problem if you have celiac disease of a gluten sensitivity. Although we are happy that more and people are becoming health conscious- we urge everyone to read labels to make sure they are making healthy food choices and not just believing the marketing hype!
If you would like to learn more about how to read nutritional label visit this article published by the Food and Drug Administration. If you would like to learn more about Kay’s Naturals, visit our website!