Apparently eating Cheerios for breakfast every morning doesn’t warrant the “pat on the back” I’ve been giving myself for the past few years. The FDA recently sent General Mills, the makers of Cheerios, a sternly worded letter warning them about the health claims on Cheerios boxes. In the letter, the FDA notes Cheerios is “misbranded” in a way that makes the cereal sound like a drug to prevent, mitigate, and treat high cholesterol and heart disease.
The Fitness Insider blog, over at Men’s Health, did a good job of breaking down the health claims made by Cheerios and separating the fact from the fiction. Here’s what they had to say:
The sell: ”You can lower your cholesterol 4 percent in 6 weeks.”
The science: This claim is based on a 1998 study in which people who ate 3 cups of Cheerios a day lowered their LDL (bad) cholesterol by 7 points. The box says this makes Cheerios “the only leading cold cereal proven to lower cholesterol.”
The fine print: The University of Minnesota researchers who conducted this study credit this LDL reduction to the cereal’s content of soluble fiber (1 g per cup). So any cereal that provides the same amount of soluble fiber should have the same effect. But here’s a more important point: Is lowering your LDL by 7 points really that signficant? I’m a bit of a cholesterol skeptic, so I don’t believe so. Beyond that, though, if you eat the cereal, but don’t control your overall calorie intake—thinking simply that Cheerio’s has the magical power to lower your cholesterol—what happens to your triglycerides? How about your good HDL cholesterol? In the study, the Cheerio eaters, 65% of whom were men, consumed about 1900 calories a day, so they weren’t overeating. And remember, to experience this reduction, you have to eat 3 cups of Cheerio’s every day—and that means you’ll be going through boxes pretty fast.
Does this mean you should stop eating Cheerios for breakfast? Not exactly. The truth is, you could be doing much worse with regard to your cereal choices. The real issue here seems to be that the claims on Cheerios boxes may go a little to far (possibly so far as to bring it into the realm of a “drug” under FDA regulations). So, if it’s between Cheerios and Lucky Charms in the morning – I’d go with the Cheerios.
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Recent government guidelines suggest we eat at least five portions of fruit ad vegetables every day. If you’re anything like me, however, you are lucky to get five portions per week. It just seems like life is moving too quickly to squeeze in fruits and vegetables, with the result being that we consume less healthy foods that seem more convenient.
Well, it’s time to stop that. The benefits of eating more fruits and vegetables is clear: they make you look and feel better and cause to have more energy throughout the day. Here are a few tips to easily add fruits and vegetables into your daily routine:
Smoothies
Drinking a smoothie is one of the easiest and most enjoyable methods of consuming more fruit. As anyone who has ever been to Smoothie King can attest, they’re pretty darn tasty. If you don’t want to take the time or spend the money on store-made smoothies, here’s a few recipes that will have you whipping up delicious smoothies in your kitchen in no time:
- Top 20 Smoothie Recipes
- Recipezaar’s Smoothie Recipes (2,256 recipes)
- Smoothie Web
Substitute Vegetables for Snacks
By substituting raw carrots or celery for your mid-morning coffee break, you will avoid the drop in energy that high-sugar snacks cause. Here is a site that offers suggestions for healthy snacks.
Add Fruit to Your Breakfast
Try adding some blueberries or raspberries to your cereal in the mornings. Also, try drinking fruit juice with your breakfast. Make sure the juice is 100% fruit juice.
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The New York Times breaks down a recent study of red meat’s effect on your health. In short, red meat is bad for your health and your longevity. Here’s their description of the results:
Now a new study of more than 500,000 Americans has provided the best evidence yet that our affinity for red meat has exacted a hefty price on our health and limited our longevity.
The study found that, other things being equal, the men and women who consumed the most red and processed meat were likely to die sooner, especially from one of our two leading killers, heart disease and cancer, than people who consumed much smaller amounts of these foods.
While nothing can replace a mouth-watering steak or a juicy burger, there are plenty of tasty alternatives. Here a few examples:
- Pork
- Buffalo (Bison)
- Chicken
- Turkey
- Fish (Tuna and salmon are the best.)
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