An American invention, breakfast cereal began as a digestive aid, acquired religious overtones, became a sugary snack and now toggles between health food and sweet indulgence. Throughout that history, it has mirrored changes in the world beyond the breakfast table. Cold cereals are an easy, convenient food for busy people. Many boast impressive health claims, or try to promote the latest nutrition trend.
But are these cereals really as healthy as they claim to be?
These products are NOT always healthy just because they have small amounts of whole grains in them. These are highly processed foods that are loaded with added sugars. Small amounts of whole grains do not negate the harmful effects of the other ingredients. If you must eat breakfast cereal, make sure to read the ingredients list and be wary of front label health claims. Choose cereals that are high in fiber and low in sugar.
Data show that consuming commercial breakfast cereals can increase overall nutrient intake and lead to a healthier weight – when compared to those who skip breakfast. It’s hard to conclude much from studies on eating cereal and body weight, due to the multitude of other factors. Most of us can acknowledge that a majority of cereals are edible entertainment. Cereal consumption usually has little to do with nutrition and a lot to do with advertising, characters, images, and convenience. A look at this visualization can help us make better decisions next time we are shopping for breakfast cereals.
https://public.tableau.com/profile/mike.pullen#!/vizhome/Cerealdata_0/Dashboard1
What I like about the visualization
Visualization is simply and functional: Represents the key nutrition criteria you should pay attention to, based on the big three—sugar, salt and fiber. Healthy cereal is the one with high fiber (4g or more) and low sugar (10 g or less) and low sodium (140mg or less).
Visualization makes it easy to contrast and compare the various options available: Cereal is big business. Each new cereal production technique is a marketing strategy. This visualization make it easy to compare the various options and make a wise decision based on the ingredients the contain.
What I did not like about it
The visualization is not very insightful: There are many cereal brands making lots of types of cereal. Today cereals contain everything from sugary morsels to healthy flakes, to Frosted Flakes and so on. You get to be the one to who decides which one to choose among the various options available. The visualization could accommodate more factors into consideration rather than just the considering the sugar salt and fiber contents. Details regarding calories, proteins, fat, carbohydrate etc. could be provided to make it more detailed.
The visualization lacks the Aesthetics: The choice of colors to represent the cross mark and the tick mark on the graph is appropriate and well understood but the visualization is not eye catchy or does not stand out.
Audience consideration: Companies use bright colors, cartoon characters and action figures to attract children’s attention. Not surprisingly, this causes children to associate breakfast cereals with entertainment and fun, making them the major consumers of breakfast cereals. It is necessary that the graph be understandable and interpretable by children to help them make wise decision when they would be shopping for breakfast cereals.
Choosing the right graph: The Graph represent 3 major factors against which the visualization is based. Sodium content is associated with X axis and Fiber with the Y axis. It is not clear how the 3rd component is mapped into the graph. Choice of any other form of graph would be better representation for the data in hand.
How it can be made better
Designing the visualization with consideration to other components: The following visualization shows the various components for every breakfast cereal under consideration.Increase the aesthetic component by incorporating different colors: And increase the usability of the visualization by using the right form of graphs.
Redesigning :
https://us-east-1.online.tableau.com/#/site/sapthami/workbooks/67835/views
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A9_QY_VtbbJtOC-9mJurN7QbMcUlfOygA3WamkSdinU/edit
references:
http://andrewmartineau.com/whats-the-best-breakfast-cereal
http://www.precisionnutrition.com/all-about-breakfast-cereals
https://authoritynutrition.com/are-breakfast-cereals-healthy/