Kashi vs. Fiber One Cereal

I just happened to come across the cereal aisle when I was searching for some dark chocolate at CVS. I'm more of an oatmeal and granola type person than I am a cereal person, but I figured I'd grab a few boxes since they were on sale.

I went with two popular "healthy" cereal brands, Kashi and Fiber One, because I oftentimes see them on commercials and websites, so I decided to entertain myself with a cereal nutrition feud. They're actually quite interesting...

Fiber One

Wait, is that dog food? No, it's Fiber One with its brown crunchy twigs. This is your basic yogurt parfait using plain Greek yogurt. I chose to pair the Fiber One cereal with Greek yogurt because it compensates for the lack of protein in the cereal. Likewise, the Fiber One cereal, with a whopping 14g of fiber per 1/2 cup, makes up for the lack of fiber in Greek yogurt. This makes for a nice fiber protein balance.

Yogurt Parfait w/ Berries

1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt 

1/2 cup blueberries

4 strawberries, chopped

1/4 cup cereal or granola

4 toasted walnut halves, chopped

2 dashes of cinnamon

Kashi GoLean

Kashi's GoLean offers more variety in appearance and texture. I had this cereal with almond milk because Kashi has a bit more protein in it than Fiber One after converting the serving sizes...and I was in that milky mood. Actually, Fiber One holds up to milk a lot better than Kashi, which tended to get soggy after a few minutes.

Notice difference in serving size. Tricky tricky

If I had to choose a winner, I would go with Kashi. Why? Primarily because Fiber One ruined it with Aspartame. I'd rather have honey, agave nectar and the like...or even plain ole brown sugar. IMO, there's just too much controversy and potential "side effects" over this ingredient that I prefer to avoid it as much as possible. 

Kashi also offers a great balance between fiber and protein and also contains more potassium. It has 9 grams of insoluble fiber, which is what it sounds like--it doesn't dissolve in water, so it simply passes through your body. Yep, it basically helps you poop due to its laxative effect. The list of ingredients are also easier to understand, which is definitely a good sign.

Don't be offended if you love Fiber One. The thing I actually like about Fiber One is the fact that it contains a wide variety of vitamins and minerals as you can see in the picture. But really, aspartame killed it for me.

Fiber One...Aspartame?? Whyyy

 
Strange Ingredients:

*Guar Gum: Fiber from the seed of the guar plant. It's used as a laxative and may help in weight loss by making you feel fuller as it expands in your intestine.

*Cellulose Gum: Thickening agent. Apparently it's safe because it just passes through the body with no nutritional value.

*Aspartame: Controversial artificial sweetener which I try to avoid due to its potentially harmful side effects. If an ingredient has this much debate over it, there's got to be something going on.

*Evaporated Cane Juice: Healthier alternative to refined sugar (although still from the same source) mainly because it undergoes a smaller degree of processing, thus, retaining more nutrients

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