Reduced-Sugar Cereals — Are They Really Worth It?
I was in the cereal aisle of the grocery store this morning, preparing to replenish my dwindling supply of cereal, when I took a moment to look at the various different versions of my favorite cereals. I have been trying to be more careful with what I eat lately, and so when I saw the Reduced Sugar version of Frosted Flakes, I had to take a second look. Is it worth it?
Difficult to Compare
When trying to figure these things out, I normally would simply search the internet (and that is, of course, what I did when I got home), but since I was already at the grocery store and hadn’t known to research ahead of time, I decided to try to make a quick judgment on the spot.
The first thing I noticed, though, was how difficult it was to compare the two – undeniably the result of a deliberate move on the part of cereal makers. For starters, the two different kinds seem to come in different box sizes, which means different prices. Thankfully, the grocery store provides the unit cost per weight of the cereal, but this is somewhat unreliable of an indicator given that, as a general rule, the price per ounce goes down the larger the box you buy. Furthermore, as an extension of the different sized boxes, the serving sizes on the nutritional facts are slightly different between the two, making it even more difficult to compare the two.
Thankfully, it is nice to know that I’m not crazy. A Washington Post article, Are Reduced-Sugar Cereals Worth It?, from Feb. 23, 2005 had a similar observation:
“The cereals we tested cost more per ounce than their original versions, although that fact is not obvious. Watchful shoppers will notice that original and reduced-sugar cereals come in the same-size boxes, but those boxes can differ in total weight by as much as six ounces. And reduced-sugar cereals don’t seem to go on sale.”
Not Quite A Good Deal
Thankfully, I was eventually able to find a box of the regular and a box of the reduced-sugar that had weights that were close enough to compare:
- Regular 17.5 ounce box of Frosted Flakes: $3.79, or $3.57/pound
- Reduced-Sugar 17 ounce box of Frosted Flakes: $4.29 or $3.92/pound
Obviously, the reduced-sugar cereal costs notably more – but while annoying, that might be acceptable if the health benefits were significant enough. Are they?
Turns out, not really. An Associated Press article, Experts say no advantage to reduced-sugar cereals, that appeared, among other places, in the USA Today on March 12, 2005 noted that reduced-sugar cereals offered:
“… no significant nutritional advantages over their full-sugar counterparts. Nutrition scientists at five universities found that while the new cereals do have less sugar, the calories, carbohydrates, fat, fiber and other nutrients are almost identical to the full-sugar cereals.”
My favorite line from that article, though, has to be:
“Officials at General Mills, Kellogg’s and Post were unable to explain why the new cereals are a better choice… Company officials said they were responding to parents’ demands for products with less sugar and that they aren’t claiming these cereals are any healthier than the originals.”
Unbelievable.
Given that there is no way the reduced-sugar version tastes the same as the original, combined with the increase in price and the marginal, if any, health benefits, I think I am going to continue sticking to the regular version!
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and to think….how many people would see “reduced sugar” and buy it simply without taking the time to research whether or not it really IS worth it? this is what the companies count on! they are making a higher margin of profit for essentially the same product just marketed differently. amazing.