The nutrition labels on breakfast cereals are really deceptive

Sometimes there is nothing more satisfying than a bowl of cereal. It has to be up there with the most go-to comfort foods. Kids love cereal. And it never seems that you ever grow out of that love for cereal.

And there has always been a debate on how healthy a bowl of cereal really is.

Well…it’s “120 Nourishing Calories.” That’s what it says on the front of the box of Special K.

But how do you know you are actually eating 120 calories? The calories are PER SERVING! But what is a SERVING?

I took a group of cereal boxes and decided to take a good hard look.

The Special K is 3/4 of a cup. The Kellogg’s Raisin Bran is 1 cup. The Just the Clusters is 2/3 of a cup. The Sunbelt Bakery is 1/2 cup. And if you want Frosted Mini Wheats…it ain’t cups, it is 21 BISCUITS!

And how many people actually measure out their cereal in the morning? Most people just have a “bowl” of cereal. But is a bowl equivalent to a serving size? I guess it depends on the bowl.

But, for this little experiment, let’s take it for granted that a bowl is about a cup.

So, I calculated each cereal out to the equivalent of one cup. And the results are in!

The Special K is 160 calories; the Raisin Bran is 190; Just the Clusters is 375; Sunbelt is 440; and, yes, I counted those freakin’ biscuits and measured them…only 14 fit in a cup so it’s 125 calories. If you want to continue to stuff your face with the entire serving of 21 biscuits…then you increase your intake to 187 ½ calories.

People don’t think to check the calories versus the serving size. And how many people are satisfied with one bowl of cereal? What if there is milk left over? Don’t you get the urge to dump some more into the bowl? And then what if after that you have some more cereal left over? And you throw some more milk in to get you through THAT helping? It’s like a never-ending vicious cycle.

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