Life, Oat Bran, and Uncle Sam (Jim Carson) March 17, 2003

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Life, Oat Bran, and Uncle Sam


Quaker Oat Life	vs.	Quaker Oat Bran	vs.	Uncle Sam Cereal

After I turned 7, I stopped eating frosted sugar bombs artificially-flavored breakfast cereal made with non-terrestial foodstuffs for breakfast. My preferred cereal was Quaker Oat Life, which not only tasted good, but had seemingly benign ingredients. It had become a staple though even my college years.

In 1997, the Marketing Geniuses at Quaker wanted to replace Mikey (who I assume was now in his 40s). While they were at it, they were going to improve upon the flavor. You know where this is going: the "new and improved" cereal had an awful malt flavor. I actually took the time to write in a complaint. Apparently a lot of other people felt the same way as Quaker quietly reintroduced the original flavor a year afterwards.

Fast forward to 2003. My kids like Quaker Oat Life, and I am thirtysomething deliberately looking for cereals with more fiber. While sitting at the table, I had both Life and Oat Bran boxes next to each other and wondered what the differences were between the cereals. Since I was after fiber, I thought it would be worthwhile looking at a cereal reknowned for its fiber content... Uncle Sam.

So, in the spirit of Rob Cockerham, here is a comparison of what's inside:

	Skim milk	Life Cereal	Oat Bran	Uncle Sam Cereal
Familiar Tagline	"Got Milk?"	"Mikey Likes It!"	"Oat-bran cereal lowers serum total and LDL cholesterol in hypercholesterolemic men."	"A Natural Laxative."
Shape	Whitish fluid	Square biscuit	Hexagonal biscuit	Flakes and seeds
Sample				Photo unavailable
Color	White	Yellow-brown	Pale brown	yellow brown; seeds dark brown
Made
Price*	$3.19	$4.28	$4.89	$2.59
Package size	1 gallon	425g	439g	284g
Taste	Prefer 2%	Slightly pasty	Good	Good

*Safeway, added for Rob's benefit. Albertson's is cheaper. Also, taste is highly subjective.

It's interesting to note that the serving size for Life is very small. Giving Quaker the benefit of the doubt, we'll conjecture it's because kids, the primary demographic of Life, would eat less. For ease of comparison, we'll adjust the serving size of Life to be the same size as that of Oat Bran. Based on experience, this is not unreasonable. All units are in grams(*) unless otherwise specified.

I've deliberately left off the vitamins and minerals because I feel that unless you're eating a really terrible diet or have a medical condition (like being pregnant), you probably don't need additional vitamin supplementation. Furthermore, too much of some vitamins can have bad effects on the body. For example, excess iron (essential for hemoglobin production) is linked to heart disease, and is added because the grains are usually stripped of the bran. (Go figure)

			Oat Bran	Life (Adjusted serving size)	Uncle Sam Cereal	The winner...
Box size (g)			439		284
Serving Size (g)			57	57	55
Servings/Container			8		5
Price/serving			$0.61	$0.58	$0.52	Uncle Sam
Per serving		RDA
Calories		2,000	210	214	190	Uncle Sam
Fat	<	65g	2.5	4.5	5	Uncle Sam(*)
Saturated	<	20g	0.5	2.7	0.5
Unsaturated			1.0	0.9	4.5
Monosaturated			1.0	0.9	0.0
Cholesterol	<	0.300	-		-	Tie!
Sodium	<	2.400	0.160	0.285	0.135	Uncle Sam
Potassium		3.500	0.090	0.160	0.000
Total Carbohydrates			43	45	38
Sugars			9	11	1	Uncle Sam!
Dietary Fiber			6	4	10	Uncle Sam!
Soluble Fiber			2.000	0	2	Tie
Other			28.000	30.281		Uncle Sam
Protein			4.000	5.344	4.000	Tie

And now we come to the brass tacks, what's inside. Uncle Sam goes for simplicity, and delivers, very well, on the fiber promise -- almost 20% by weight! Oat Bran has more fiber and less sugar than Life. Uncle Sam "loses" in the fat department, but only if you're looking at total fat and not the composition.

	Life	Oat Bran	Uncle Sam
Key:	Whole Oat Flour	Oat Bran	Whole Wheat Kernels
Coloring	Sugar	Whole wheat flour	Whole Flaxseed
Preservative	Corn flour	Sugar	Barley Malt
Vitamin	Whole wheat flour	Corn flour	Salt
Good	Rice flour	Baking soda	Niacin
Not Good	Salt	Calcium carbonate	Thiamin
	Calcium carbonate	Salt	Riboflavin
	Sodium phosphate (dough conditioner)	Caramel color
	Reduced iron	Reduced iron
	Niacinamide	Sodium ascorbate (vitamin C)
	Zinc oxide	Niacinamide
	BHT(Link)	Zinc oxide
	Yellow 5	Vitamin E acetate
	Yellow 6	Vitamin A palmitate
	Thiamin mononitrate	Thiamin mononitrate
	Pyridoxine hydrochloride	Pyridoxine hydrochloride
	Riboflavin	Riboflavin
	Folic acid	Folic acid

Conclusions: I was surprised how much I liked Uncle Sam Cereal. It wins on value, fiber, and pronouncable ingredients. Oat Bran has a slight edge to Life in nutrition, but is slightly more expensive per serving. My kids still prefer Life having identified it as a brand they know. (That's a scary thought.)

(*) Jimmy Carter made me do this ;)

Tags:

recipes

Posted by Jim on March 17, 2003 | Permalink

14 Comments:

carson wrote on (February 9, 2004 10:35 AM)

BTW, I mostly eat Kashi Crunch (not the other variant) and Uncle Sam cereal these days.

penny wrote on (March 9, 2004 6:54 AM)

i bought my first box of uncle sam cereal this week and i'm addicted to it. i LOVE it!

JP. Timmerman wrote on (May 1, 2004 2:19 PM)

Thanks for the great comparison. Do you have one for Uncle Sam & Apple Cinnamon Cheerios?

Dad just introduced me to Uncle Sam & I really like it. Unfortunately, it's going to be expensive to have it shipped to S. Korea.

Connie wrote on (May 3, 2004 12:20 PM)

Yo! I live in Canada and just discovered your site while searching for a purchasing source for Uncle Sam cereal, as mentioned in the South Beach Diet book. Following some rather extensive research, I have not been able to discover where to purchase said cereal. I know for a fact that it is not commonly available in Canada. I am told that there an online site where we can purchase. The very company that produces this products appears to not be selling across the border... Can someone help!!!

Many thanks

Connie D.

carson wrote on (May 3, 2004 1:50 PM)

General Mills' web site doesn't show anything in Canada; and I didn't see any Safeway stores. (I didn't search the entire country, but assumed that if it wasn't in Toronto or Calgary, there was not likely one at all.)

Since the cereal has few ingredients, you could theoretically make your own. Bobs Red Mill carries both rolled wheat flakes, flax seed, and even Barley Malt Extract.

Bev wrote on (July 27, 2004 11:30 AM)

It is difficult to find grain products (cereals, breads, etc) that are not fortified nor contain enriched flour. I've been searching for low folic acid cereals because my daughter is folic acid restricted two days a week (and folic acid supplemented the remaining seven days). It is complex, but has to do with weekly chemotherapy treatments.

Thanks for creating this easy to read comparison. Uncle Sam cereal has just been added to our family's grocery list!

Bev

Adelina wrote on (August 12, 2004 6:31 PM)

What is the iron content of life cinnamon for a serving?
Also, need recipes.
Please send.
Thanks

jim wrote on (August 12, 2004 7:30 PM)

Adelina: Cinnamon life has about 12mg of iron, compared to 16mg for regular life. As I mentioned earlier, most added vitamins and minerals are unnecessary if you eat a healthy diet.

I don't have any recipes with breakfast cereals, per se, though you could probably substitute Uncle Sam cereal for the flax seed in my banana bread recipe.

em wrote on (October 26, 2004 1:50 PM)

I have the same problem as Connie. I'm on the South Beach Diet and can't find Uncle Sam or anything comparable. I was looking at bran cereals today too, but even the bran buds are just full of sugar!

Ernest wrote on (January 28, 2005 9:38 PM)

I bought my first box of Uncle Sam Cereal tonight and just had a bowl. It's a very nice cereal and the taste is far from offensive. I notice on the box that there are several products that my store doesn't carry, an instant oatmeal and a cereal with berries. Then I went to General Mills web site and found that there are also several other products by Uncle Sam that I don't have a source for.

Someone needs to get on the ball and put this product in all it's variations on the web...please.

(I'm recovering from colon surgery and this is a recommended product to keep me regular...)

Leah wrote on (April 6, 2005 12:49 AM)

can anyone tell me where or how i can obtain general mills total cornflakes in canada?? i used to live in the states, and ate them all the time. i love that they have 100% of days calcium and b12. i can't find them anywhere in canada. are they available? why not?

Karri wrote on (November 3, 2005 12:05 PM)

I recently purchased a box of Uncle Sam original, at Super-Walmart. I live in eastern NC, and I don't know if it's available nationwide in Walmart.

Betsy wrote on (December 15, 2005 5:13 AM)

Just read your great comparison on cereal and discovered Uncle Sam's cereal while on ediets.
Question:
Isn't it SOLUBLE fiber you want in your diet more than dietary fiber. It's the sluble fiber which reduces cholesterol.
thanks
Betsy

paula wrote on (March 15, 2006 5:39 AM)

Hi I like many of you am also addicted to Uncle Sam cereal. It is absolutely the best and I eat it everyday for breakfast and sometimes a snack with a little splenda and lite vanilla soymilk. thanks for the info I mostly bought it shopping for price one week and just love the taste supremely. pj

Jim Carson

This is the older blog.

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