Whether you’re a new vegan, buy groceries for a vegan loved one, or are simply looking for a way to lower your cholesterol, navigating the cereal aisle can be tricky. Most cereal seems vegan at first glance — after all, no one is adding meat, seafood, or eggs to cereal.
Upon closer look, however, commercial breakfast cereals often contain surprisingly non-vegan ingredients, and this is definitely the case for most major cereal brands.
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Cheerios are one of the most popular breakfast cereals on the market today. But are Cheerios vegan? How can we tell?
As a vegan registered dietitian, I’ll explain whether Cheerios are vegan-friendly and point out which ingredients to pay attention to.
Are Cheerios vegan?
To be considered vegan, processed foods like Cheerios must be made entirely from plant-based ingredients. Unfortunately, despite having 100% whole grain oats as the primary ingredient, Cheerios are not vegan-friendly.
This is because all flavors of Cheerios are made with Vitamin D3 and refined cane sugar. This includes the following flavors:
- Original Cheerios
- Multigrain Cheerios
- Cinnamon Cheerios
- Frosted Cheerios
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios
- Chocolate Cheerios
- Blueberry Cheerios
- Apple Cinnamon Cheerios
- Hearty Nut Medley Cheerios
Since these ingredients are either derived from animal-based ingredients or processed with animal-based ingredients, most vegans would agree that Cheerios aren’t appropriate for a vegan diet.
Are Honey Nut Cheerios vegan?
Honey Nut Cheerios contain real honey, an animal product, in addition to vitamin D3 and refined sugar. Due to these three ingredients, Honey Nut Cheerios are not vegan.
Non-vegan ingredients in Cheerios
Let’s dive a little deeper into the non-vegan ingredients used in Cheerios to understand why vegans prefer to avoid them.
Vitamin D3
Cheerios are fortified with vitamin D to make them more nutritious. Vitamin D3 is the most commonly used form of vitamin D for fortifying foods. Unfortunately, vitamin D3 is often sourced from lanolin, a fatty substance extracted from sheep’s wool.
Vegans have concerns about the ethical issues within the wool industry, so vitamin D3 is typically avoided.
Vitamin D2, on the other hand, isn’t sourced from animal ingredients and is safe for vegans.
Refined sugar
As mentioned above, refined sugar in the United States is almost always filtered through animal bone char to remove discoloration and other impurities, leaving the sugar snow-white. It’s often hard to tell whether sugar has been processed in this way, as production processes can vary based on the manufacturer and product.
Types of sugar commonly processed with bone char include:
- Refined cane sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Brown sugar
- Powdered (confectioner’s) sugar
- Non-organic molasses
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Fortunately, not all sugar is processed with bone char. Vegan-friendly types of sugar include:
- Turbinado sugar
- Raw sugar
- Organic sugar
- Organic molasses
- Beet sugar
- Date sugar
- Coconut sugar
Not all vegans feel strongly about avoiding sugar processed with bone char, but many do. It’s worth noting that PETA itself doesn’t suggest stressing yourself out if you can’t tell how the sugar in a certain product was produced. In a blog post on their website, they provide the following advice:
“Don’t stress too hard about sugar if you’re unsure about how it was produced. You’re saving more than 100 animals per year by following a vegan lifestyle, and the effect will snowball as people around you, inspired by your choices, may start trying vegan meals once you’ve shown them how easy it can be.”
In other words: try your best to find vegan alternatives, but don’t place undue pressure on yourself to be perfect or “pure”.
Honey
Honey Nut Cheerios, in addition to vitamin D3 and refined sugar, also contain honey. Since honey is considered an animal product, most vegans avoid it.
Vegan alternatives to Cheerios
Fortunately, there are plenty of vegan-friendly Cheerios alternatives available in grocery stores and online. Try any of the following:
- Cascadian Farm Organic Purely O’s
- 365 by Whole Foods Market Organic Morning O’s Cereal
- Nature’s Path Organic Gluten-Free Whole O’s Cereal
- Three Wishes Cereal – Honey (honey-flavored but does not contain real honey)
Summary
Unfortunately, Cheerios aren’t vegan since they contain vitamin D3 and refined cane sugar. Honey Nut Cheerios also contain honey, which is avoided by most vegans as well.
However, other brands offer similar cereals that are vegan-certified or labeled vegan by the company. Give these a shot — who knows, you may like one of them better!
Nguồn: https://vuihoctienghan.edu.vn
Danh mục: Info
