Sodium in One Bowl of Ready-to-Eat Cereal Versus a Snack Bag of Chips

Quote of the Day

If you don't know where you are going, you might not get there.

- Yogi Berra


Figure 1: My Reference Bag of Potato Chips.

Figure 1: My Reference Bag of Potato Chips.

I have decided to start watching my sodium intake and this means that I now track the sodium content of all the food I eat. I'm starting to look a lot more into my nutrition and paying attention to what I'm putting in my body at the moment, and even considering something like these Private label Elderberry supplements to give myself that little bit of extra support when I need it and to help maintain my health. When it came to sodium, I was floored when I saw that my breakfast bowl of multi-grain cereal with milk has 448 mg of sodium, which has more sodium than a bag of potato chips (Ruffles, 1.5 oz bag, Figure 1) with 270 milligrams (mg) of sodium ? and my cereal choice is far from the worst out there. I need to find a low-sodium, breakfast alternative.

To make this comparison, I chose not to use the manufacturer's serving size for cereal because they use serving sizes (about 30 grams) that are smaller than I use. I looked at my serving sizes and saw that I usually eat about 50 grams of Multi-Grain Cheerios cereal, which has 345 mg of sodium. The skim milk I use has 103 mg, which makes my morning consumption of sodium 448 mg and nearly 20% of the US government's Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of 2300 mg.

Figure 2 shows the nutrition label from the bag of potato chips shown in Figure 1.

Figure 2: Nutrition Label for Ruffles Cheddar and Sour Cream Potato Chips (1.5 oz).

Figure 2: Nutrition Label for Ruffles Cheddar and Sour Cream Potato Chips (1.5 oz).

To understand how pervasive the sodium issue is with breakfast cereal, I went out to this web site and downloaded a table of cereal nutrition data. I then sorted this data in order of sodium content (highest to lowest) and put the top 65 into Table 1. There are some very popular cereals on this list. We all know that we have to make sure our nutrition is a priority, especially as fast food has become everyday occurences and obesity levels keep rising. We may look to the advice of professionals like dr amy lee to help us make some changes, but there are a few things we can do ourselves. For starters, we could keep a food journal and note exactly what we eat, so we can see where perhaps we could make some adjustments for the better. Taking stock of what we are putting in our bodies, as well as supplementing lost nutrients and vitamins with products like activatedyou, can help us live healthier lives, however, this is an ongoing issue and this table does not do it justice.

The original table gave the sodium content per 100 grams of cereal. I then added a column that scaled this data to 50 grams. I have not added the sodium content of the milk that normally is included with ready-to-eat breakfast cereal.

Table 1: High Sodium Content, Ready-to-Eat, Breakfast Cereals.
Manufacturer Cereal Name Sodium Per 100 gm Sodium Per 50 gm
Quaker Instant Grits Product--Ham 'N' Cheese 1930 965
Ralston Corn Biscuits 1070 535
Malt-O-Meal Corn Flakes 1020 510
Quaker Toasted Oats/Oatmmm'S 953 477
Kraft Toasties Corn Flakes 949 475
General Mills Corn Chex 933 467
Malt-O-Meal Honey Graham Cereal 909 455
Kellogg Rice Krispies 907 454
General Mills Golden Grahams 900 450
General Mills Country Corn Flakes 900 450
Malt-O-Meal Crispy Rice 899 450
General Mills Rice Chex 889 445
Quaker Crunchy Bran 872 436
Quaker Mother'S Groovy Grahams 869 435
Quaker Honey Crisp Corn Flakes 869 435
Quaker Frosted Oats 864 432
Ralston Tasteeos 853 427
Kellogg Tiger Power 843 422
General Mills Wheat Chex 840 420
Quaker King Vitaman 837 419
Malt-O-Meal Honey Nut Toasty O'S Cereal 836 418
Quaker Honey Graham Bagged Cereal 825 413
Malt-O-Meal Berry Colossal Crunch 823 412
Ralston Crispy Hexagons 816 408
Ralston Enriched Bran Flakes 813 407
Quaker Mother'S Peanut Butter Bumpers Cereal 806 403
Quaker Honey Nut Oats 805 403
Quaker Crispy Corn Puffs Cereal 801 401
General Mills Cinnamon Grahams 789 395
Quaker Cinnamon Crunch Bagged Cereal 777 389
Kellogg Crispix 764 382
Ralston Crispy Rice 763 382
Quaker Cap'N Crunch 748 374
Kraft Honeycomb Cereal 743 372
Quaker Cap'N Crunch'S Peanut Butter Crunch 742 371
Quaker Sweet Crunch/Quisp 740 370
Malt-O-Meal Marshmallow Mateys 735 368
General Mills Honey Nut Chex 733 367
Kraft Bran Flakes 732 366
Kellogg Berry Rice Krispies 726 363
Kellogg Corn Flakes 723 362
Kellogg Special K 721 361
General Mills French Toast Crunch 719 360
Kellogg All-Bran Complete Wheat Flakes 715 358
General Mills Frosted Cheerios 714 357
Malt-O-Meal Honey Buzzers 711 356
Kraft Marshmallow Alpha-Bits Cereal 711 356
Kellogg Special K Red Berries 710 355
Ralston Corn Flakes 710 355
Quaker Christmas Crunch 709 355
Kellogg Scooby-Doo! Berry Bones 706 353
General Mills Cinnamon Toast Crunch 701 351
General Mills Wheaties 700 350
Kellogg Honey Crunch Corn Flakes 700 350
Kellogg Complete Oat Bran Flakes 699 350
Quaker Cap'N Crunch With Crunchberries 699 350
General Mills Total Corn Flakes 698 349
General Mills Multi-Grain Cheerios 690 345
Kellogg Product 19 690 345
General Mills Honey Nut Cheerios 679 340
General Mills Lucky Charms 679 340
General Mills Team Cheerios 667 334
General Mills Reese'S Puffs 667 334
Kellogg Mini Swirlz Peanut Butter Cereal 667 334
General Mills Kix 662 331

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3 Responses to Sodium in One Bowl of Ready-to-Eat Cereal Versus a Snack Bag of Chips

  1. CC says:

    Sodium is sneaky. So is sugar and fat, for that matter. All three are added in places you wouldn't expect.

  2. Pingback: Quick Look at Low Sodium Cereals | Math Encounters Blog

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