Regular Wheaties is a pretty simple cereal with only five ingredients: Whole grain wheat, sugar, salt, corn syrup and trisodium phosphate. One serving (3/4 cup) has 100 calories, .5 grams of fat, 4 grams of sugar, 15 grams of other carbs, 3 grams of fiber and 3 grams of protein, along with some added vitamins.  Wheaties Fuel, in contrast, loads up on the sugar, with some added fat.

One serving of Wheaties Fuel (1 cup, which is more than the serving size on the regular Wheaties nutritional panel) has 210 calories, 3 grams of fat, 14 grams of sugar, 26 grams of other carbs, 5 grams of fiber and 3 grams of protein along with more added vitamins than the regular cereal. It also has a lot more ingredients: Whole grain wheat, rice flour, sugar, whole grain oats, corn bran, honey, canola oil, maltodextrin, wheat bran, brown sugar syrup, corn starch, salt, corn syrup, cinnamon, barley malt syrup, barley malt extract, color add, guar gum, cellulose gum, soy lecithin, artificial flavor, baking soda, trisodium phosphate, corn oil and vitamin E.

Fourteen grams of sugar per serving is a lot for anyone who cares about their nutrition. Basically, General Mills added a  lot of sugar and more fat while trying to pitch the cereal as some sort of breakthrough — “Engineered to deliver long-lasting energy to help fuel your needs.” Americans already consume too much sugar in their diets, so why buy a cereal that just adds more? If regular Wheaties are too bland, just add some sliced fruit or some nuts.

The marketing campaign hit the jock angle hard:

By Champions. For Champions. The new Wheaties FUEL was co-created with a team of today’s elite champions including Peyton Manning, Albert Pujols, Kevin Garnett, Bryan Clay, and Hunter Kemper. Working with Dr. John Ivy, a performance nutrition expert, the Co-Creation Team designed Wheaties FUEL for the active individual; whether that activity is due to participation in athletics, work related activities or leisure time physical pursuits.

The Fuel ads stress the cinnamon-honey taste, complex carbs and B-vitamins, so it’s really a sweeter, allegedly tastier cereal they’re pitching since regular Wheaties also has the complex carbs and vitamins. As for the price, a 16-oz. box of regular Wheaties costs $4.49 at my local L.A. Ralph’s, while a 17.1-oz. box of Wheaties Fuel also costs $4.49.

I saw one dopey ad with Peyton Manning where he is throwing footballs in a pasture. I guess the image is supposed to convey the wholesomeness of the farm or something. All I kept wondering is why is he throwing footballs in a field with no receivers? How does that help any quarterback prepare?

Wheaties Fuel is more about marketing than nutrition. The New York Times reported that sales of Wheaties have lagged and that Fuel is marketed exclusively to men, who I guess want a lot more sugar with their cereal. Eating a bowl of Wheaties Fuel occasionally is no big diet no-no, but don’t buy the stuff thinking you’re getting some nutritional advancement.

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For those looking for nutrition and exercise tips from the two men who engineered a 400+ pound weight loss, they have a program called “Reshape The Nation“. While there’s a fee for access to their whole program, the site has a lot of great free information. Chris (left) has made an industry out of his success with David; As well he should, given the amazing transformation he got out of David!

Video and some tips from Chris after the jump.

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What’s going on here? Church calls it compensation, but you and I might know it as the lip-licking anticipation of perfectly salted, golden-brown French fries after a hard trip to the gym. Whether because exercise made them hungry or because they wanted to reward themselves (or both), most of the women who exercised ate more than they did before they started the experiment. Or they compensated in another way, by moving around a lot less than usual after they got home.

So if you’re looking to lose those pounds, focus on changing your diet. And if you stay conscious of not “compensating,” hit the gym, too.

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Baskin Robbins Large Chocolate Oreo Shake
2,600 calories
135 g fat (59 g saturated fat, 2.5 g trans fats)
263 g sugars
1,700 mg sodium

… It’s soiled with more than a day’s worth of calories and three days worth of saturated fat, and, worst of all, usually takes less than 10 minutes to sip through a straw.

Also pretty gag-inducing was the worst burger:

Chili’s Smokehouse Bacon Triple-The-Cheese Big Mouth Burger with Jalapeno Ranch Dressing
2,040 calories
150 g fat (53 g saturated)
110 g protein
4,900 mg sodium

… You’ll be face to face with two-and-a-half day’s worth of fat-a full third of which is saturated. To do that much damage with roasted sirloin, you’d have to eat about eight 6-ounce steaks. It’s nearly three days’ worth of saturated fat.

I am curious as to what is the worst food you eat on a regular basis. I eat healthy almost all the time, but still can’t resist a great pizza (cheese and sauce, no other toppings) once in a while.

Hat tip to Consumerist.

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Boeving was among the athletes featured in the sensational documentary “Bigger, Faster, Stronger” that looks at America’s win-at-all-costs culture and the role played by performance-enhancing drugs such as steroids. Boeving was filmed two years ago, but the film was not shown for the first time until this winter at Sundance.

Mr. Boeving said he had nearly forgotten about the interview until he heard from the film’s representatives just before it was shown in January at the Sundance Film Festival. “They said, ‘Look, we’re just letting you know you mentioned the word steroids in it,’ ” Mr. Boeving said. “But I didn’t think I would get into that much trouble, because I thought it was pretty apparent that the top people in the industry use steroids to look like we do.”

A company whose products he endorsed, Iovate Health Sciences, apparently did not think so, and promptly severed Mr. Boeving’s contract. Iovate Health Sciences did not return calls for comment last week.

Mr. Boeving had represented over-the-counter dietary supplements in Iovate’s MuscleTech division, including Hydroxycut, which is meant to burn fat, and Nitro-Tech, which is meant to build muscle.

Boeving had worked for the company for nine years and said he made enough to live on. He does not regret making his admission.

“Even in the film, I said, ‘look, I do take the products I said I take — I do take Hydroxycut, I do take Nitro-Tech, but I take other things as well,’ ” he said. “They felt like people were going to walk away feeling like steroids, not MuscleTech products, made my physique what it is, and they have built this industry on telling people, ‘This is what I did to build my physique,’ ” Mr. Boeving said.

This is rank hypocrisy on Iovate’s part. I doubt that they perform regular and rigorous steroid testing of their models, and if they did they would have a small pool from which to choose from. Bodies like those shown on the cover of fitness magazines, while the product of a lot of hard work, are also built through the use of drugs, as Boeving admits; he is being punished for telling the truth.

The magazines and the supplement makers are selling the illusion that physiques that are big and ripped can be built simply by exercise and using their products (in the film there is a terrific segment showing “before and after” photos being shot the same day). Very few people have the genetics to achieve such bodies naturally, but that does not stop the spin and hypocrisy evident in the fitness industry. They don’t care if you use steroids, just don’t be honest about it. –Jim Buzinski

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Baskin Robbin’s Large Heath Bar Shake (32 oz)
2,310 calories
266 g sugar
108 g fat (64 g saturated)

73: The number of ingredients that go into this milkshake.
66: The number of teaspoons of sugar this drink contains.
11: The number of Heath Bars you would have to eat to equal the number of calories found in one Baskin Robbins Large Heath Bar Shake.
8-12: The average number of minutes it takes to consume this drink.
240: The number of minutes you’d need to spend on a treadmill burning it off, running at a moderate pace.

The piece lists several other bad beverages, including the worst “healthy drink.” I got nauseous just reading the list. –Jim Buzinski

Hat tip to Consumerist

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