The cereal aisle at any supermarket can be a daunting place.
You’ve got hundreds of bright coloured boxes all vying for your attention and for you to take them home.
In our case, we often head straight to the granola section and pick the best sounding combination of fruit, nuts and oats that takes our fancy.
In doing so, we regularly see out of the corner of our eye, the muesli looking on in disbelief that we would ignore them and pick their next-door neighbour so confidently.
We’ve never actually stopped to think about what muesli actually is and how granola is different from muesli.
So, we’ve taken the time to do just that.
We’ve taken a deep dive into all things muesli and granola. We explore the actual difference between muesli and granola, the health benefits of both, the calories difference and more.
So get your bowel, spoon and dairy of choice, we’re about to dive in to a bowl of muesli and granola.
What Is Granola?
We will start with our personal favourite, Granola. Granola is a combination of rolled oats, dried fruits & nuts that have been baked together often with a binder so crunchy clumps can form.
In most cases, the binder used is either brown sugar, maple syrup or honey, however, you could use other binding agents like molasses or agave syrup if you’d prefer.
The oats, fruits and nuts are baked until they are golden brown and a perfect crunch is developed. It’s important to keep stirring the granola as it bakes in order to keep the loose, cereal like consistency. Otherwise, you’ve got a tray of flapjacks on your hands!
What Does Granola mean?
The words Granula & Granola were actually trademarked in the US in the late 19th century. The trademarks were for foods consisting of whole grain products that were crumbled and then baked until crispy.
Granula was invented in 1863 by a man named Dr James Caleb Jackson. A man by the name of John Harvey Kellogg (sound familiar?) also developed a cereal similar to Dr Jackson’s granulu, but used a different name, granola, so as to avoid any lawsuit from the Doctor.
What Is Muesli
Muesli is a raw mix of rolled oats, grains, dried fruit and nuts. Due to the fact that Muesli is raw, it is often left to soak in some kind of liquid, most commonly milk or yoghurt, for a short term before consuming so that the oats can soften.
Think of Muesli as raw porridge. You can enjoy muesli both hot or cold. We perfect them cold and often use muesli to make overnight oats.
What Does Muesli mean?
Muesli was invented in the late 1800s, around the year 1900, by a Swiss doctor named Maximilian Bricher-Benner. It was originally intended to feed the patients at the physician’s 19th century hospital as it provided a perfect combination of nutrition for their therapies.
Originally, Muesli was not intended to be a breakfast food but as an appetiser.
The word Muesli derives from a Swiss-German word which means “Mush” or “Puree”.
What is the difference between granola and Muesli
The primary difference between granola and muesli is that granola is mixed with a binding agent and then baked. Muesli is served raw whilst granola is baked.
Both use the same core ingredients, oats, dried fruits, grains and nuts, but granola uses either honey, maple syrup, brown sugar or some other sweetener to help bind the ingredients together when baked.
Muesli is often left to soak in milk before being consumed as the liquid will help soften the oats.
Granola Vs Muesli for Weight Loss
Given that both granola and muesli use the same core ingredients, it comes down to the difference between the two which decided which food is best for weight loss.
As granola contains the addition of a binding agent such as honey, maple syrup, etc, this is unfortunately, the worse out of the two to help aid weight loss.
The addition of brown sugar, maple syrup, honey, etc will increase the total number of calories per granola serving. Muesli on the other hand doesn’t contain any sweetener or binding agent, so you only have to worry about the calories of the oats, nuts, grains & fruits.
If you can’t be dealing with the raw, unflavoured taste of Muesli, then we’d recommend making homemade granola, using maple syrup as the binding agent.
There is nothing more delightful than freshly made granola with a cup of coffee made from the finest coffee beans money can buy!
Granola and Muesli Calories
Standard Calories per serving in Granola
Per 50g, the standard amount of calories in granola is 210 kcal.
Standard Macros In Granola
Fat – 7.1g
Saturates – 2.5g
Sugars – 8.1g
Salt – 0.1g
Standard Calories per serving in Muesli
Per 50g, the standard amount of calories in muesli is 183 kcal.
Standard Macros In Muesli
Fat – 3.1g
Saturates – 0.5g
Sugars – 6.8g
Salt – 0.1g
Andy
Ever since I started cooking I’ve been fascinated by how different people’s techniques are and how they best utilise the ingredients around them. Even the person living next door will have their own unique way of frying an egg or cooking a salmon fillet.
This fascination led me on a journey across the globe to discover the countless practices and traditions the world of cooking has to offer. I thought you’d enjoy and find value in sharing that journey with me so I created Cooked Best!