How Healthy is Your Cereal

Consumer Reports just published its findings on 27 breakfast cereals and the results were startling. They found some cereals with the nutritional content equivalent to a donut. Here is a breakdown of the cereals they evaluated from worst to best.

Okay. So let’s start with the worst offenders:

1. Golden Crisps (Kellogg’s): Each serving contains more sugar than a Dunkin’ Donuts glazed doughnut. 15 grams of sugar to be exact.

2. Honey Smacks (Kellogg’s): This one was no better. It had 14 grams of sugar per ¾ cup serving.

3. Apple Jacks (Kellogg’s) had 12 grams of sugar, < 1 gram of fiber, and 135mg of sodium per 1 cup serving.

4. Froot Loops (Kellogg’s) had 12 grams of sugar, < 1 gram of fiber, and 135mg of sodium per 1 cup serving.

5. Corn Pops (Kellogg’s) had 12 grams of sugar, < 1 gram of fiber, and 135mg of sodium per 1 cup serving

6. Cap’n Crunch (Quaker Oats) had 12 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fiber and 200mg of sodium per ¾ cup serving

7. Cap’n Crunch’s Peanut Butter Crunch (Quaker Oats) had 9 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fiber, 200mg of sodium per ¾ cup serving

Now there is something very interesting in the above list; 5 out of the 7 cereals are made by Kellogg’s. In response to this report, Kellogg’s released the statement that the company had recently reformulated five of its cereals (Froot Loops, Corn Pops, Rice Krispies, Cocoa Krispies, and Apple Jacks) to make them healthier choices. However, Consumer Reports article states that even with this reformulation, the five cereals would still score poorly in nutrition rating compared to other choices.

Before we decide to give up cereal forever, there is some good news. 4 of the 27 tested cereals were labeled as “Very Good” breakfast choices due to their low sugar (< 9 grams) and sodium (<210 mg) content. In addition, all 4 cereals had greater than 2 grams of fiber. Alright, drum roll please.

1. Cheerios (General Mills) had ONLY 1 gram of sugar, 3 grams of fiber and 190mg of sodium. This also happened to be my favorite in college.

2. Kix (General Mills) had 3 grams of sugar, 3 grams of fiber, and 210 mg of sodium.

3. Life (Quaker Oats) had 6 grams of sugar, 2 grams of fiber, and 160mg of sodium.

4. Honey Nut Cheerios (General Mills) had 9 grams of sugar, 2 grams of fiber, and 190 mg of sodium.

The bottom line behind this article is that you do have some healthy choices when it comes to cereal for both you and your children. So the next time you are in the grocery store, put the Kellogg’s cereal down and reach for some good old plain Cheerios. Your body will thank you for it.