European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 30, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Consumer watch the continuing breakfast Cereal Saga by Mary Neth consumer editor if you re not into decision making you better skip  to decide which ready to eat Cereal Loc Hoose 13 enough to make anyone s head spin american food manufacturers May have sheif faults bul Lack of imagination in t one of hem. Not at least when in carries to turning America s waving Fields of Grain Mlo Box after Box of sales gains. They if pull it sugar in color in. They la add null. Raisins and fruit to it. They la process the vitamins out of it and put new ones Back into ii. The result is a surfeit of Crunchy Snappy ready to eats every few years however someone puts out a new study which attempts to ease the decision making by telling just which cereals if any Are Worth their Box lops nutritionally speaking. In 1970. Such a study added up to a real Lap consumer advocate Robert Choate announced that the claims made Lor breakfast cereals were fraud. He contended that the once healthy grains were being so Over processed by the manufacturers three handle 80 percent of the sales that there was practically no nutrition left. There followed the great Vitamin put on. Companies Lort tied their products by painting on vitamins and advertising this As a great new gain in nutrition. Nutritionists however generally choose not to be impressed they say that the cereals Are Little More than Vitamin coated candies. Sure vitamins Are there but that does not cancel out the damage from All that sugar. Consumer advocates also Point out that you pay a hefty Price Tor the Vitamin addition. Latest studies also show no correlation Between Cereal fortification and health or growth. So whal should you be demanding in that breakfast cereal7 flavor and fiber above All. The National cancer Institute recommends the consumption of 20 to 35 Grams of the latter daily and Cereal should be an excellent Choice besides that getting the Best for your Money Means eliminating the cereals from your bowl that have ingredients you Don t want. You Don t want that extra sugar you Don t want extra calories. You Don t want Salt or sodium using the pluses and minuses. Consumer reports Magazine rated the nation s Best known cereals on a 100-Poinl nutrition Index. Top scorers were Nabisco shredded wheat n bran and Nabisco shredded wheat spoon size with 73 Points. At the Bottom of the list came the highly salted highly sugared Cap n crunch with a Mere 22 Points. You can rate your favorite brands on your own. You will find the nutritional information right on the Back of the Cereal boxes under list of ingredients. The food value in cereals includes Complex carbohydrates Starche fiber b vitamins. And protein fat. Sodium and sugar which you do not need Are added by the manufacturers Stales consumer reports. Wheaties has 370 milligrams of Salt per serving. Ounce for ounce that adds up to twice As much sail As found on potato chips. Oits Are added to the Granola Type cereals to keep them from turning hard after baking. Sun country Granola and Cracklin oat bran contain four or More Grams of fal per ounce the equivalent of More than a Pat of butter. Only three cereals in lha major ratings by consumer reports list no sugar Nabisco shredded wheat and Sun flakes crispy wheat and Rice. The commissaries carry 79 ready to eat cereals on their blockage list. The ten top Selling cereals in the commissaries end their consumer reports Point rating Are frosted flakes 29 sweeter than most Raisin bran. 36 Rice Kris pies a2 less Sweet than most tots of sodium froot Loop 31 sweeter than Rostand Corn flakes 44 less Sweet than most High in sodium cheerios 51 Honey nut cheerios 27 sweeter than Moat Lucky Chams 29 grape null 56. And fruit & Fibre 44. None of the commissary cereals was at the top of rating list. The highest was grape null 56. Do Corn Maury Cui Tomen pay attention to the consumer reports ratings in any Case it does t seem that Way. At one commissary customers who said they picked a certain Cereal because in was Light on sugar were choosing one of the most highly sugared ones of All. Obviously they had t made use of the nutrition information on the package. At the commissary in Wiesbaden. Germany col. Garry Moyer said he has no problem at Ell deciding what Cereal to buy. Me explains that on doctor s orders because of worry of kidney stones and gout he can t eat whole wheat bran or oat  what s left he reaches for a Box of Kellogg s Honey nut. Down the aisle Karen Moore hag selected another Honey nut this by cheerios. It s the one the whole family agrees on she says. Lisa Pantoja another customer goes for fruit and fiber. She said she used to read the nutrition Labelling but now just Slicks to this  Labelling lets you know to conduct its evaluation of Reedy to Eal breakfast cereals. Consumer reports found most of the data it needed right on the labels nutritional Labelling has been Standard on Cereal boxes Lor years and our spot checks indicated that the Labelling is generally  it said do you know How to make use of such Labelling information ii s easy. All labels with nutrition Inlo Malton boxes and canned goods follow the same format. The food and drug administration requires Hal any food to which a nutrient is added or which makes a nutrition claim must have a nutrition Label Nuiji it Ion Labelling for other foods is optional. The upper portion of the Label see illustration shows you the number of calories in a serving of the food and lists in Grams the amount of protein carbohydrate and fat these Are the three major nutrients that make up ail the food we eat the Ith portion of the Label cells you the percentage of United states recommended daily allowance  Stoa Lor protein and seven vitamins and minerals provided m one serving add percentages for each nutrient consumed throughout the Day when the daily total approaches 100, you Are getting an ample Supply of that nutrient. Nutrition information per serving nutrients Are listed Lor Tor one serving nutrients in metric weight As Grams 1 ounce 28 Grams swvinflsi�-1cupsvinsupwcontin to ism number of Servings per Container. Tse is percentages of . Recommended daily allowances protein ."7aurli Minvil min labels May show amounts of cholesterol & sodium in 100 Grams of food and in a serving . Do Damiron. Page 16 the stars and stripes Friday. January 30.1967