Decide Model on Cereal

Writing Assignment: DECIDE Model on Cereal

        Cereal plays a huge part in the average American's diet. It is one of the most common foods that people often eat for breakfast. There are all different types of cereal available to eat. The different types of cereal have very different levels of nutrition. Today, we are going to analyze breakfast cereals with the DECIDE model to determine how healthy cereal is!

        The first step in the DECIDE model is determining the question. First, we must determine the question we will be asking about cereal! I have one main question, as well as a smaller, related question about cereal. My main question is how healthy can cereal be? My smaller, related question is how does simple sugar found in some cereals affect a person's health?

        Next step in the DECIDE model is to examine the choices. There are quite a few different choices that we can choose to examine among breakfast cereal. There are countless amounts of different types of breakfast cereal that are available for consumers. For the purpose of using the DECIDE model, I will be examining two cereals. I will be examining both Quaker's Oatmeal and Froot Loops.  They are very different! One is a hot cereal that is fairly healthy for the person that eats it. The other cereal, Froot Loops, is a cold cereal meant to be served with milk and is not very healthy for you due to all the sugars.

        The third step in the DECIDE model is to collect information and identify influences. The main source of information used will be the nutrition facts of the two cereals. First up will be the Quaker's Oatmeal. It was surprisingly healthy, with fairly low amounts of unhealthy aspects of the nutrition facts. It contained 195 calories, 4 grams of total fat, 1.8 grams of saturated fat, 0.6 grams of polyunsaturated fat, 1 gram of monounsaturated fat, 262 mg of sodium, 109 mg of potassium, 38 grams of carbohydrates, 20 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of dietary fiber. The Froot Loops will have their nutrition facts calculated with one half of a cup of skim milk. The bowl of Froot Loops contained 150 calories, 1 gram of total fat, 0.5 grams of saturated fat, 135 mg of sodium 35 mg of potassium, 25 grams of total carbohydrates, 3 grams of dietary fiber, 12 grams of sugar, and 1 gram of protein.