Thursday, October 9, 2014

Shredded Wheat?


I was talking to a girlfriend recently about my recent constipation problems due to the pregnancy and she suggested shredded wheat.  She said she had similar problems while pregnant but once she started eating shredded wheat for breakfast, she was fine and the problem went away.

Hmmmmmmm.

I haven't eaten cold cereal in a long, long time.  The problem is I love cold cereal and never seem to feel full after eating it... so I can eat bowls and bowls... I don't have that problem with oats, which is why I switched years ago.  Plus commercial cereals are so expensive these days.  What does a box of cereal cost now, $4?  A box of Post Shredded Wheat is 16.4 oz which is a little over a lb.  So 1 lb of this cereal costs $4 whereas I can buy 1 lb of oats for $1 (sometimes less, sometimes more).  That's over 4 times as expensive!

I looked up the nutritional labels for Post Shredded Wheat and also Post Shredded Wheat and Bran.  They have 5 grams and 7 grams of insoluble fiber, respectively, per serving.  Insoluble fiber is the one that helps with constipation.  Oats apparently do not have as much of this: 2g soluble, 2.3g insoluble in a 1/2 cup (dry) serving, which is what I usually eat in the morning.

So I purchased a box of Whole Foods 365 Everyday Value Shredded Wheat and it was surprisingly $2.69 with a $1 coupon, making it $1.69.  The box is 14 oz, which means it cost about 0.12/oz, which is $1.93/lb, a little less than twice the price of dry oats.  I figured I'll try one box and see if (1) I can contain myself to eating 1 bowl and (2) it makes a difference moving my food along better.

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