Which Cereals are the

Healthiest?

Michaela Todd, Halley White, Kalli Rasmussen, Ellie Hagen

● Fiber (more than 3 grams)● Sodium (less than 240 grams)● Sugar (less than 7 grams)

*If a cereal meets two of these factors, it is considered moderately healthy.*-For this study, moderately healthy will be considered healthy.

http://www.eatingwell.com/nutrition_health

What makes a Cereal Healthy

● We used www.ranker.com to pick 30 of the most popular cereals.

● This is a good representation of the cereal population because any brand or type of cereal can be voted for on this website.

● We got our nutrition facts from caloriecount.about.com

Our data

Quantitative:● Serving Size● Calories● Fat (grams)● Sodium (grams)● Sugar Content (grams)● Fiber

Qualitative:● Is the cereal healthy?● Kid friendly

Variables of Interest

● Brightly colored box- attracts kids’ attention.● Animals or characters (ex. Froot Loop’s toucan)-

Most kids like animated characters so they like to eat cereals with their favorite characters on them.

● Games on the back of the box- gives kids something to do while they eat their cereal in the morning.

*At least two of the criteria has to be met for the cereal to be considered “kid friendly”.

Criteria of Kid Friendly Cereal

● Out of our 30 cereal sample, we determined that 21 were targeted towards kids.

● Out of the 21 kid targeted cereals, only 6 were considered moderately healthy or healthy.

● All 9 cereals that we determined were not marketed towards kids were considered moderately healthy or healthy.

● According to our data, 6/21 or 29% of kid marketed cereals are healthy while 9/9 or 100% of non-kid marketed cereals are healthy.

● Based on the results of our study, we can conclude that cereals that are targeted towards children are generally less healthy than cereals that are not targeted towards children.

*In this study moderately healthy and healthy are considered healthy.

Are Cereals targeted for young kids more or less healthy than ones not marketed as heavy for young kids?

Raw DataCereal SS(cups) Calories Fat (g) Sodium(g) Sugar(g) Fiber(g) Healthy? Kid Ad?

Raisin Bran 1 190 1 210 18 7 Moderate No

Froot Loops 1 110 1 135 12 3 Moderate Yes

LuckyCharms 0.75 110 1 170 10 2 No Yes

Frosted Mini Wheats

1 190 1 0 11 6 Moderate Yes

Special K 1 120 0.5 220 4 0 Moderate No

Cinnamon Toast Crunch

0.75 130 2.8 210 9.9 2 No Yes

Cheerios 1 110 1.8 200 1.2 3 Yes No

Honey Bunches of Oats

1.75 120 1.5 140 6 2 Moderate No

Frosted Flakes

0.75 110 0 150 10 1 No Yes

Honey Nut Cheerios

0.75 110 1.5 160 9 No Yes

Apple Jacks 1 110 1 130 12 Moderate Yes

Cap’n Crunch

0.75 109 1.6 202 11.8 No Yes

Rice Krispies

1.25 130 0 190 4 Moderate Yes

Cocoa Puffs

0.75 110 1.5 150 12 No Yes

Corn Pops 1 120 0 105 9 Moderate Yes

Golden Grahams

0.75 120 1 270 10 No Yes

Honey Comb

1.5 130 1 180 10 No Yes

Cookie Crisp

0.75 100 1 120 9 No Yes

Trix 1 120 1.5 180 10 No Yes

Reeses Puffs

075 120 3 160 10 No Yes

Life 1 150 1.9 200 7.5 2 Moderate No

Cocoa Krispies

0.75 120 1 130 12 0.5 No Yes

Corn Flakes 1 100 0 200 3 1 Moderate No

Honey Smacks

0.75 100 0.5 40 15 1 No Yes

Count Chocula

0.75 110 1 160 12 1 No Yes

Fruity Pebbles

0.75 110 1 190 9 0 Moderate Yes

Wheaties 0.75 100 0.5 190 4 3 Yes No

Chex 1 120 0.5 220 3 2 Moderate No

Kix 1.25 110 1 180 3 3 Yes No

Waffle Crisp 1 120 2.5 115 12 1 No Yes

Serving Size (cup)

Calories Fat (grams) Sodium (grams) Sugar Content (grams)

Fiber (grams)

Mean 0.94 120.3 1.12 163.57 8.98 1.92

Median 1 115 1 175 10 2

Mode 0.75 110 1 190 10 1

Max. 1.75 190 3 270 18 7

Min. 0.75 100 0 0 1.2 0

Range 1 90 3 270 16.8 7

IQR 0.25 10 1 65 6 2

Q1 0.75 110 0.5 135 6 1

Q3 1 120 1.5 200 12 3

Standard Deviation

0.24 21.75 0.76 53.87 3.92 1.57

Outliers 0.375 &1.3751.75(Honey Bunches of oats)

95 &135190(Raisin Bran, Frosted mini Wheats)150(Life)

-1 & 33 grams (Reese’s Puffs)

37.5 & 297.50 grams (Frosted Mini Wheats)

3 & 213 grams (Corn Flakes, Chex, Kix)

-2 & 67(Raisin Bran)

NDUAMTEARIC

Serving Size

● Shape- We can see from the histogram and the scatterplot that our data is skewed right.● Outliers- 1.75 cups (Honey Bunches of oats)● Center- Slide 10 shows the measures of center for Serving Size. We can see from the data that our

values are concentrated in the .75 -1 cup range but measures of center, like the mean, are skewed right.

● Spread- By looking at the Graphs we can see that the data is heavily concentrated between 0 and 1 cups.

● From this data we can see that most cereals lie between the 0-1 cup range for Serving Size.

Calories

● Shape- This data is skewed right. ● Outliers- 190 Calories (Raisin Bran, Frosted mini Wheats)

150 Calories (Life)● Center- The measures of center on slide 10 also show that the data is skewed right. ● Spread- The data is concentrated on the left side of the graph.● We can see from this data that most cereals lie in the 0-122.5 calorie range.

Fat Grams

● Shape- The data is skewed to the right.● Outliers- 3 grams (Reese’s Puffs)● Center- The mean is skewed right as well. ● Spread- The data is concentrated on the left side of the graph.● By looking at these graphs, we can determine that most cereals lie

between 0-1.5 grams of fat.

Sodium

● Shape- This data is skewed left.● Outliers- 0 grams (Frosted Mini Wheats)● Center- The measures of center show that the data is skewed left.● Spread- The data is concentrated on the right side of this graph.● By looking at these graphs we can determine that most cereals have between

75-225 grams of sodium. Most of our cereals meet the healthy criterion for Sodium more than 75% (Q3= 200).

Sugar Content

● Shape- This data is bimodal. ● Outliers- 3 grams (Corn Flakes, Chex, Kix)● Center- The measures of center seem to be accurate. They may be

skewed a little bit to the left because of the outlier.● Spread- There is a higher concentration of data on the right side of the

graph.● By looking at these graphs we can determine that most cereals fit within

the middle values for Sugar Content (6-15 grams). A little more than 25% of our cereals meet the healthy criterion for Sugar Content (Q1= 6g).

Fiber

● Shape- The data is skewed right.● Outliers- 7 grams (Raisin Bran)● Center- The measures of center are skewed right as well because of the

outlier.● Spread- The data is concentrated on the right side.● From this data we can see that most cereals lie in the 0-3.5 gram range for

fiber. This shows us that the majority of our sample does not meet the 3 gram or higher criterion that needs to be met for a cereal to be considered healthy. More than 50% of our cereals do not meet this requirement. (Median= 2g).

Serving Size v. Calories

● x-axis: Calories● y-axis: Serving Size (cups).● Correlation: 0.227● Coefficient of determination: 0.052 ● 5.2% of data variation can be explained by

the LSRL.● LSRL: y=0.003x+0.64 The LSRL does not

make sense for this set of data because the relationship is not linear and has an extremely weak correlation.

● The residual graph also shows that the LSRL is not reliable because all of the data falls in one section which is a pattern.

Scatter Plot

Residual Plot

● x-axis: Fat (grams) ● y-axis: Serving Size (cups)● Correlation: -0.089● Coefficient of Determination: 0.01● 1% of the variation of the data can be

explained by the LSRL.● LSRL: y=-0.03x+0.989● The LSRL is not reliable for this data

set because the data has an extremely weak correlation. There are also a lot of outliers on the residual plot.

Serving Size v. Fat

Scatter Plot

Residual Plot

● x-axis: Serving Size (cups)● y-axis: Sodium (g)● correlation: -0.018● coefficient of determination: .0003● 0.03% of the variation of the data

can be explained by the LSRL.● LSRL: y=-3.956+166.05● The LSRL is not reliable for this data

set because the correlation is extremely weak and the residual plot shows a pattern.

Sodium v. Serving Size

Scatter Plot Residual Plot

● x-axis: Sugar Content (g)● y-axis: Serving Size (cups)● correlation: -0.215● coefficient of determination:

0.046● 4.6% of the variation of the data

can be explained by the LSRL.● LSRL: y=-0.014x+1.08● The LSRL is not reliable

because the data has a very weak correlation and the residual plot has a lot of outliers.

Serving Size v. Sugar Content

Scatter Plot Residual Plot

Calories vs. Fat grams

x= Calories y= Fat gramsr=0.618Coefficient of Determination:0.3891-This means that 38.91% can be predicted by the LSRLEquations for LSRL: y= 3.659x +114.414-The line does make sense for this data but the relationship is not very linear but the correlation is moderately strong -The Residual plot is a good fit for all the points but it does have some pattern to its form.Scatter Plot Residual Plot

Calories vs. Sodium x= Sodium (grams) y= Calories r= -0.131Coefficient of determination: 0.017-1.7% of the data can be predicted by the LSRL Equation for LSRL: y=-0.053x +128.937-The LSRL does not make sense for this data set because the relationship is nonlinear and a very weak correlation.-The Residual plot is not good because it is too high for most of the points on the graph. Scatter Plot Residual Plot

Calories vs. Sugar content x= sugar content (grams) y=calories r=0.308Coefficient of determination:0.09499.49% of the data can be predicted by the LSRLEquation for LSRL: y=1.712x+104.926-The LSRL does not make sense because of the nonlinear relationship and the weak correlation-The residual plot looks like a good fit for all the points but there are outliers Scatter Plot Residual Plot

Calories vs. Fiberx= Fiber (grams) y=Calories r= 0.659 Coefficient of determination:0.43443.4% of the data can be predicted by the LSRLEquation for LSRL: y= 9.156x+ 102.72-The LSRL does make sense for this data. The relationship is nonlinear but the correlation is moderately strong.-Residual plot is good but it does have a few outliers.Scatter Plot Residual Plot

●

Fat Grams VS Sodium

jhjhr=-0.087y=-5.05x+167.492

The line of regression doesn’t make sense for this plot because it has a correlation of -0.087 and the graph isn’t linear.

X Axis: Fat gramsY Axis: SodiumCoefficient of determination: 0.007570.757% of the data can be predicted by this graphThe residual plot seems to be a good fit but there are a few outliers.

Scatter Plot Residual Plot

Fat Grams VS Sugar Content

r=0.163y=0.851x+7.839

The line of regression doesn’t make sense for this plot because it has a correlation of 0.163 and the graph isn’t linear.

X axis=Fat GramsY axis= Sugar ContentCoefficient of determination: 0.02662.66% of the data can be predicted by the LSRL The residual plot shows no patterns or outliers.

Residual Plot Scatter Plot

Sodium VS Sugar Content

r=-0.288y=-0.021x+12.208

The line of regression doesn’t make sense for this plot because it has a correlation of -0.288 and the graph isn’t linear.

X axis=SodiumY axis= sugar contentCoefficient of determination:0.08298.29% of the data can be predicted by the LSRLThe residual plot shows a slight pattern in the area above the lineScatter Plot Residual Plot

www.shodor.comwww.ranker.comcaloriecount.about.com http://www.eatingwell.com/nutrition_health

Sources