For some reason I remember a time when Dunkin Donuts started offering oat bran blueberry muffins for their heart healthy benefits. I think this may have been in the late 80's. This was long before I changed my diet and I was a fan of their blueberry muffins. I think I may have switched to their oat bran enhanced muffins for a time and as far as I know my heart is healthy. It must have worked .

Yummmm…Dunkin' Donuts muffins. Like cake, but with more sugar Loved them, when I was not dieting with a bagel and low fat cream cheese.

I'm trying to find an image of the most recent version of cheerios boxes to see how they're wording it now, but some of the labels I'm finding say things like these:











At 0.75 g of soluble fiber per serving, if you chow down on 4 servings of Honey Nut Cheerios every single day of your life, while eating a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, you MIGHTreduce your risk of heart disease.



In other words, they aren't about to guarantee that you won't get heart disease, and only suggest you MAY be able to reduce your risk of heart disease, IF you eat enough cheerios to meet the minimum amount of cheerios every day, AND make sure everything else you eat is low in sat fat and cholestrol.



How reassuring... NOT!

Somewhat of a veer in topic, but back in the day growing up on the South Shore of Boston, there were competing doughnut franchises, Duncan Donuts and Mister Donut. Both were big and people always had a preference for one over the other. In addition, many towns having a typical small New England downtown, had their own doughnut shops. My town had Nichols Doughnut Shop, where people would go to eat fresh doughnuts and drink coffee in the morning sitting at the counter before work. Getting there at the right time would nab you warm doughnuts freshly made with all the goodness a doughnut can provide in all flavors. Funny, not many who frequented these places were obese or even overweight. Just doughnut eating, coffee drinking and some cigarette smoking people getting started with their days. The muffin shops would emerge around that time as well, Pewter Pot & Mug 'n' Muffin, but the doughnut shops were always a staple of New England life and still are today.

Here you go:

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/...jpg?format=750w

My comment, hopefully my sarcasm was evident, was feigned surprise that Cheerios in any form were heart healthy. Hardly! Amazing for what passes with the "heart healthy" label nowadays. Honey Nut Cheerios are not even close, and the sugar and carbs alone will move you more rapidly down the path to T2D. Hey, but that's today's marketing that convinces so many people that the cardboard foods that taste good (sweet) are also good for you!

Growing up on Boston's North Shore as a teenager I frequented both Dunkin Donuts and Pewter Pot. I especially liked Dunkin Donut's honey dipped donuts and Pewter Pots blueberry muffins. Dunkin's muffins came later I believe. This was all in my still thin nutritionally ignorant days.

Not to worry - the sarcasm was very evident!



I knew they didn't actually have any nuts in them, just "the goodness of whole grain oats" . And lots of sugar.



When my kids were little in the 80's, plain cheerios were routinely expected to be one of the first finger-foods for a baby, and were touted as healthy because they had no sugar added to them. Actually, when my little sister was a toddler (back in the late 50's) she was being given plain cheerios to eat too.



No sugar added wasn't even mentioned back then though, because cereals that had sugar added to them made it obvious in the name of the cereal: Frosted Flakes, Sugar Pops, Honey Smacks, etc. My mother rarely ever bought cereal that had sugar added, because it wasn't good for you. Instead we added a spoonful of sugar to our cereal before pouring on the milk.



This was long before the "may lower cholesterol" "part of a heart healthy diet" campaigns though.



Then they came out with all the different sugary flavors of Cheerios, which are also labeled as "may lower cholesterol", based purely on the minuscule amount of soluble fiber in them. (Ignore the man behind the curtain... I mean ignore the amount of sugar and carbs in them)



Cheerios have a long history of doing one thing and then another to try to make everyone believe they're a health promoting food.

Lots of added vitamins and minerals. I guess that grinding up a multi-vitamin into the oats and sugar makes it healthier!