Kashi's Heart to Heart Cereal Vs. Cheerios

Cold breakfast cereal is a staple in my life. It's relatively healthy, portable, and easy to prepare.

A few years ago, I decided to reduce the amount of refined sugar in my diet. I wanted to lose a little weight, reduce my cholesterol, and stop that nagging heart-pounding I got after I ate a couple of Pop-Tarts.

Breakfast cereals traditionally have loads of sugar in them, especially kid's cereals. Cheerios seemed like a healthier option, as sugar was not the first ingredient listed on the package. After discovering Kashi's Heart to Heart cereal, which looks similar to the Cheerios brand, I decided to compare the two.

General Mill's Cheerios have been around for a generation, hitting the market in the 1940s. The Cheerios website boasts that it was the "first ready to eat oat cereal". Cheerios has been a staple to parents feeding their toddlers and kids, as the cereal seems healthier than other sugar-laden varieties.

Cheerio ingredients are listed as "Whole Grain Oats, Modified Corn Starch, Corn Starch, Sugar, Salt, Tocopherols, Trisodium Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate, Natural Colour. Contains Wheat Ingredients". Those mothers were right - sugar is listed as the fourth ingredient.

Kashi is a smaller, more "granola-mama" type of company. Emphasizing their health-conscious, wholesome food products, the company was founded in 1984. Found next to the sugar cereals in the cereal aisle at the grocery store, Kashi's products seem to have jumped the "natural foods" stigmata, and have joined the ranks of the cereal big-boys.

Kashi's Heart to Heart ingredients are longer than Cheerios: "Whole Oat Flour, Oat Bran, Evaporated Cane Juice, Yellow Corn Meal, Corn Flour, Kashi Seven Whole Grains & Sesame™ Flour (Whole: Oats, Long Grain Brown Rice, Rye Hard Red Winter Wheat, Triticale, Buckwheat, Barley, Sesame Seeds), Oat Fiber, Wheat Germ, Honey, Salt, Sodium Bicarbonate, Natural Honey Flavor, Decaffeinated Green Tea Extract, Alpha Tocopherol (Natural Vitamin E), Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Activin� Grape Seed Extract, Tomato Extract, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Ferrous Fumarate, Zinc Oxide, Turmeric For Color, Beta Carotene (A Source Of Vitamin A), Folic Acid, Vitamin B12." Wow. That's a lot of ingredients for a healthy breakfast cereal.

According to the Nutrition Facts on each box, the two cereals come out even on calories at 110 each. (It's important to note that Cheerio's single serving nutritional information is 1 cup, and Kashi's is � cup.) Cheerios has 2 grams of fat, while Kashi has 1.5 grams. (Although Kashi has 0 grams of trans fat, while Cheerios has 0.4g.) Both have no cholesterol. Kashi's lower sodium content, at 90mg, is a big plus compared to Cheerio's 250mg. The two cereal's carbohydrates are about the same, with Cheerio's at 21g and Kashi at 25g. Kashi does have 5 grams of fiber compared to Cheerio's 2 grams, although Cheerio's 1g of sugar beats out Kashi's 5g. They also have similar protein amounts, with Cheerio's at 3g and Kashi at 4g.

To be perfectly honest, I love wholesome, nutritious foods. I'm also a lazy cook. If it takes more than a few minutes to prepare something, I'll most likely reach for something more convenient. If I can get more vitamins in my food by pouring a bowl of breakfast cereal each morning, I'll do it.

The high nutritional content is what increases my preference for Kashi's Heart to Heart. I'm getting my 100% daily requirement of vitamins E, B6, Folic Acid, and B12. I'm also getting green tea extract, grape seed extract, and lycopene. (All found to increase overall health.) I also am attracted to the more "natural" form of sugars in the Kashi cereal.

I have fond memories of Cheerio's cereal - I grew up with the bright yellow boxes on our breakfast table. I also gave the cereal to my daughter when she was old enough to push those little circles around her high chair tray. As I age, however, I am becoming more health conscious, and Kashi's Heart to Heart cereal works into this plan of a healthier me.