Honey, I shrunk the oats

Honey Bunches of Oats is one of the five top-selling brand-name cereals (along with Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios, Frosted Flakes, and Frosted Mini-Wheats).

The "Good Source of Whole Grain" on the package probably doesn't hurt sales. Yet the cereal industry has decided that to qualify for that claim, a cereal needs just eight grams of whole grain per serving. (Don't confuse that with eight grams of fiber. Eight grams of whole wheat, for example, contains less than one gram of fiber.) The Food and Drug Administration has asked cereal manufacturers to stop making "good source" claims, but companies needn't comply.

Honey Bunches' claim means that it could be as little as 25 percent whole grain. Its first ingredient is (refined) corn, and each 3/4-cup serving has just 2 grams of fiber.

A word to the wise: Ignore "good" or "excellent source of whole grain" claims. Instead, make sure that at least the first grain in the ingredient list is whole.

COPYRIGHT 2006 Center for Science in the Public Interest
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning