Pantry Raid

Today's Raid: Breakfast Cereal for Kids



Malt O'Meal's Coco Roos (knock off of Coco Puffs) vs. Barbara's Puffins

Of course the Coco Roos will win any day over the Puffins on looks alone. Hello! They are made with Chocolate! But as a parent, when your child goes screaming down the cereal isle "Moooooooooooom I waaaaaaaaant this one!" You check out the bag and notice that it is made by Malt O'Meal and you know they make healthy hot cereal. You see that it is full of vitamins and minerals and the packaging boasts wholesome goodness so you toss it in your cart. Those Puffins don't stand a chance!

Now let's take a closer look, shall we?

Notice how they use words like Wholesome & Nutritious?
Naturally Cholesterol free & no trans fat...



Just the Facts:




OK so the Coco Roos have 120 calories, 1.5 grams of fat, and less than 1 gram Dietary Fiber per 3/4 cup serving. They do have a large assortment of Vitamins and Minerals ranging from 10% to 50% per serving. 50% being Iron which is great for kids. So far we are looking good.

Now for the Ingredients: The first ingredient is always what the item is mostly consisting of. In this case the first ingredient is Sugar. So this cereal is mostly made of sugar - ahead of any grains. Next up is corn flour, then whole grain oat flour (oat bran). Now if sugar being the main ingredient is not enough they also add the 4th ingredient corn syrup, then Modified corn starch (modified why?) Cocoa (processed with Alkali), Soybean and/or partially hydrogenated soybean oil (I love how they insinuate and/or as in it may be in here but it may not be) fructose (isn't that more sugar?) salt, calcium carbonate, natural and artificial flavor, (what is natural flavor? Does it come in a bottle?) The rest of the ingredients are processed vitamins.

Ok so what does the bold mean?

You are feeding your kids sugar. You might as well just give them sugar cubes for breakfast because that is the main ingredient in the Coco Roos.

I read that Corn Starch is modified to help thicken things. There is no harm in modification. But the fact that it is modified means it has been altered from it's natural state.

Cocoa powder is processed with Alkali such as potassium carbonate. This helps to lower the natural acidity that cocoa powder has. To some people this change helps make the taste of the cocoa richer than untreated cocoa.

This is the big gun right here: Partially Hydrogenated Oil this stuff is like grey sludge blocking up your arteries. It is dangerous and it is in virtually everything. It will kill you over time with each bite you consume but to those of us that are vain - *GASP* it will also make you fat. The question is why is this product allowed to advertise that it has Zero Trans Fat and yet contains Partially Hydrogenated Oil in it's ingredients. That is because our friends over at the government run FDA has a loophole that allows food manufacturers to claim Zero Trans Fat as long as they have no more than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving. That is a whole 1/2 gram! So what you are reading when they say Zero Trans Fat really means if they have partially hydrogenated oils in the ingredients that it should read in truth (A little bit of trans fat but who's telling!) I was so disgusted when I found this out. Our own government is allowing this deception to occur. Well....I guess I shouldn't be so surprised...

Fructose is a monosaccharide or simple sugar that the body can use as energy but it can be dangerous if consumed in large amounts. The reason for concern is that consuming too much can overwhelm the body's ability to process it. Fructose is processed in the liver and making the liver work overtime by over consumption of fructose can cause the liver to send it as fats into the blood stream most commonly known as triglycerides. There are alot more dangers to this which we will delve into in the near future...

Now let's take a look at Puffins Cereal:



The side panel talks about how it is 100% natural, high in fiber, low in fat, wheat free, Kosher, etc. Nothing is really boasting about it and nothing really catches a consumer's eye from the Grocer's shelf. Especially children, they know what to look for because all those cool commercials teach them what they want in the cereal isle. I have never seen an advertisement for this type of cereal. The only reason I saw it was because it was on sale and because I have made an effort to read ingredients. I really liked what I saw.

The Puffins have 90 calories, 1 gram of fat, and a whopping 5 grams of Fiber per serving. Great! They do not boast a great amount of vitamins but remember the ingredients are all natural unlike the Coco Roos who have added manufactured ingredients in order to provide a high vitamin content.

Looking at the ingredients:

We see the first ingredient is Yellow corn flour...hmmm not sugar - that is a plus! Corn bran flour, unsulphured molasses, oat flour, expeller pressed high oleic oil, (canola or sunflower) salt, baking soda, natural Vitamin E (mixed tocopherols - soy) Vitamin C.

Hmm that was much easier to read now let's see what the few technical words mean:

Unsulphured Molasses is the finest quality of pure molasses.

Expellar Pressed High Oleic Oil is found in many organic food stores. It is completely natural and has no trans fats. It is high in monosaturates even more so than Olive Oil!

Vitamin E with mixed tocopherols is truly a natural form of vitamin E - simple as that!

WHEW! That was a lot to delve into today!

So now that you have seen these two neck in neck - which would you rather buy for your children???