The Truth Behind Cereal and Breakfast Options
Daniel Zhu / Charles Wang
Project 15
About Our Project
Cereal has always been touted as the most nutritionally filling and balanced breakfasts one can have in the morning. This site seeks to answer the age old question: Is cereal really the healthiest option out there? Could there in fact be a better option for one to start one's day? Find out more about the secrets behind the cereal box and explore the rabbit hole that is the truth about cereal and breakfast foods.
Our Project Questions
- Question 1: What is the healthiest cereal for every age?
- Question 2: What is the healthiest breakfast food for every age?
- Question 3: Which age group benefits the most from good nutrition?
- Question 4: Is cereal the most nutritionally dense breakfast food?
- Question 5: What is the most important nutrients for breakfast?
- Question 6: What are the pros and cons of having breakfast?
- Question 7: Do females have different breakfast needs than males and vice versa?
Our Data Journey
Cereals
In our data analysis, we analyzed roughly 100 different cereal products to find any potential correlations and insights between them. We discovered that most cereals tend to have high levels of sodium, sugars, and carbohydrates while a certain select few cereals brands were much higher in fiber and potassium compared to the norm. Even more shocking, when compared to a selection of breakfast foods, we discovered that cereal held a crucial benefit not found elsewhere. Namely that cereals have much higher dietary fiber values that eclipse the dietary fibers that can be found in common breakfast items.
Nutrition
For nutrition, we investigated overall levels of nutrition and compared nutrition values across sexes. One of our mindblowing discoveries was that the recommended daily value for carbohydrates does not change over sex or age! We also uncovered valuable insight that different age groups and sexes have vastly different needs for macronutrients like protein and dietary fibers, while mineral needs like in potassium and sodium were much more close across different ages and sexes. From our comparison across sexes, we found out that males on average required higher protein, caloric, and dietary fiber intake compared to females of the same age. When comparing across sexes in aggregate; however, we found that females tend to require roughly the same percentage of minerals, vitamins, and macronutrients as males, albeit in smaller amounts.
Breakfasts
For breakfast products, we gathered a sample of commonplace breakfast foods and wanted to see if there were any correlations among them and how they compared to cereals. While there were not many strong correlations between the different breakfast foods, we were happy to discover that breakfast foods that were lower in calories tended to also have lower amounts of protein in them. This tracked with our observations of cereals, where most cereals had low calories and low protein values.
A small caveat. While we did gather data on many different types of breakfast foods, we were unable to capture the entire breakfast food pyramid in our dataset, leaving room for improvement in future studies.
Summary
Overall, We are proud of what we have accomplished in our pursuit of the truth of cereal and breakfast foods. We discovered that cereals held a key advantage over breakfast foods as a source of dietary fiber, while breakfast foods tended to have the upper hand in grams of protein. In our nutritional analysis, both of these nutrients are paramount for both males and females from all ages, making it a draw between cereals and other breakfast foods. While there was no clear winner, this study into cereal and breakfast foods makes it all the more clear that a varied and diverse breakfast is the best option for one's health and wellbeing.