We've all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day,
yet the average American eats breakfast just three times a week. Cereal is an easy option,
but there are so many choices. Here are eight cereals you should absolutely never eat.
Unlike plain Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios contain a notable amount of sugar, enhanced with honey
and brown sugar syrup. Just one cup of the cereal has more sugar than three of Chips Ahoy! cookies.
Honey Nut Cheerios have 10 more grams of sugar than plain Cheerios, which makes these a treat
version of the original. The New York Times reports that Honey Nut Cheerios is also the
variety that some parents might buy for their kids while they buy the plain version for themselves,
figuring that at least there are added vitamins and minerals in the sugary honey version.
Despite being the most popular breakfast cereal in the US,
an Environmental Working Group analysis found that a serving of the cereal contains 20 grams
of sugar. The report states that eating excess sugar can increase your likelihood of obesity,
Type 2 diabetes, cancer, and heart disease, and that:
"Breakfast cereals are the fifth-highest source of added sugar in the diets of children under 8."
That falls behind only ice cream, candy, and cookies.
While Kellogg's Special K is marketed as a healthy breakfast cereal, its refined grains and lack of
fiber makes it a not so great choice. The total added sugar is 4 grams and the amount of protein
is 7 grams, which doesn't sound terrible. But according to The Naked Label, the health claim
of this cereal is mostly marketing. Without fiber, those refined carbs could spike your blood sugar
levels. Even though 4 grams of sugar might not seem like a lot, there are 29 total grams of
carbohydrates in Special K, and most people probably eat more than a suggested serving.
Special K is low in fat, which might be where all that health-related marketing comes from,
but all those excess sugars in the form of empty calories can turn into fat. If you're looking for
a truly healthy cereal, it's better to choose one with lots of whole grains and a low added
sugar content. But if Special K is your favorite, maybe try adding it in moderation to lower-sugar
options, or at least know that it's a treat and maybe not a healthy start to the day.
It's easy to see why organic products appeal to parents who want to give their kids the cereals
they're begging for, but want to make sure they're not negatively affecting their health.
"Many parents may believe their children prefer a certain cereal because of its taste.
After all, some have added sugars."
And the claim on the Nature's Path website is that their cereals are made with:
"Only natural ingredients that parents can feel good about."
But despite being organic and non-GMO, their Panda Puffs cereal is packed with whole grain cornmeal,
cane sugar, peanut butter, soy oil, and sea salt. It seems like this cereal is
made with just sweetened corn and soy oil. Nutritiously dense? Maybe not.
The rest of the EnviroKidz line also seems to offer lower-sugar and lower-preservative
variations on some of the popular breakfast cereals below, but it's also equally
questionable. The Leapin' Lemurs have chocolate, chocolate flavor, and molasses, with 8 grams of
sugar for a 3/4 cup serving, and the Koala Crisp swaps brown rice flour for the corn.
A better choice would be Nature's Path's Mesa Sunrise, which adds flax seeds, buckwheat flour,
quinoa, and amaranth to the corn base, with just 4 grams of sugar per 3/4 cup serving,
though the low protein and fiber counts leave something to be desired.
It's probably no surprise that Reese’s Puffs are not the epitome of healthiness.
You should probably only grab a box of Reese’s Puffs off the shelf of
the grocery store when you're planning to eat them as a high-sugar snack or dessert.
They are not what a nutritionist would call a healthy breakfast.
We've all had mornings when all we're craving is a bowl full of chocolatey,
peanut buttery sugar that crunches, but you can't pretend that's good for you,
whatever your body is telling you and whatever you drank the night before.
The General Mills website paints the nutrition as a pretty picture by mentioning that they
contain added vitamins and 11 grams of whole grains, while containing no artificial colors,
preservatives, or high-fructose corn syrup. However, there's still corn syrup
and Hershey's chocolate in the mix, and the web experience leaves you feeling as
though the nutritional label is masquerading as healthy, making the product seem even less so.
"Woah you have candy for breakfast? She says,”
“‘It's not candy, Reese's Puffs cereal.’"
What? Raisin Bran's not healthy? The cereal does have a healthy reputation, but Raisin Bran
actually has more sugar per serving than Froot Loops, with a whopping 17 grams. There's slightly
less added sugar than the popular kids cereal, but that's for a smaller serving of Raisin Bran.
Some of that sugar comes from raisins, but there's also regular white sugar, brown sugar syrup,
and malt flavor in the cereal itself, most likely to mask that not-so-naturally-delicious bran.
With 5 grams of protein and 0 grams of saturated fat,
Raisin Bran isn't all bad but it's not a particularly healthy breakfast option either.
The best way to eat Raisin Bran, if you truly love it, might be to combine a small portion
with one of the low-sugar breakfast cereals mentioned later in this list. Or just add a
handful of unsweetened raisins to any of the alternatives, and that should do the trick.
If you think those colors are all natural, think again. In addition
to the fact that these multi-colored rings all actually taste the same,
they're packed with Red 40, Yellow 5, blue 1, and yellow 6, which aren't there to be
healthy or even delicious. The name is actually Froot Loops, with the double O, because there's
no actual fruit in them and they've been sued several times because of this fact.
Other ingredients in Froot Loops include BT, a controversial preservative that's been added,
quote, "for freshness" and the hydrogenated oils, also known as trans fats, and 12g of added
sugar per serving. According to Spoon University, Froot Loops are 44 percent sugar by weight. Kind
of seems like they should be grouped with the candy bars in your local grocery store.
So why are Froot Loops so popular? They're iconic, colorful, and are pretty delicious.
And as with Reese’s Puffs, there's added vitamins, along with some great marketing,
to make up for what's lacking in the rest of the product. But still,
probably not the most nutritious option for a morning routine.
Cinnamon Toast Crunch is absolutely delicious,
but like actual French toast that you douse in cinnamon sugar, this is more of a treat than a
nutritionally dense breakfast food that could get you through your morning without a sugar crash.
Sugar is the source of 28 percent of the calories in each serving, and there are just 2 grams
of protein and 2 grams of fiber per serving, meaning that the sugar is going to shoot right
through you with nothing to slow it down. Simple sugars like those in Cinnamon Toast Crunch rank
high on the glycemic index, and according to the National Institutes of Health, you shouldn't eat
too much of them in a single sitting, since they can push your blood sugar up too high.
All of this sugar makes Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal seem more like a candy than a food. Despite
the added vitamins and minerals, which, like the other poorly ranking cereals on this list,
seem to be there as a solution to the lack of nutrition included,
this is not a breakfast option you should be eating regularly, especially considering that
there are so many other quality, healthy, and tasty breakfast cereal options to choose from.
"It's really sweet, really sweet, and...”
“Yeah, you might not necessarily have something like that for breakfast every morning though."
You know the crazy-sweet milk that's leftover after your Corn Pops have sat
in your bowl for a while? You know how you look forward to that milk after crunching
through those sugary corn balls? Yeah, that should be called dessert. That milk
is like something that Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar would create and
everyone would appropriately eat as a nostalgic, childlike treat, not as a healthy breakfast.
Along with the other high-sugar cereals on this list, Corn Pops
are the kind of treat your parents probably shouldn't have bought you,
but that you were probably always begging them to put in the grocery cart.
If you think the reason kids love them so much is probably evidence that Corn Pops are nowhere near
healthy, you would be right. The cereal clocks in with 0 grams of fiber and 15 grams of added sugar,
which includes both sugar and corn syrup, and only 2 grams of protein. In other words,
Corn Pops could spike your blood sugar while also possibly leaving you more hungry later.
So if those cereals are the ones to avoid,
which ones should you be putting in your bowl? Here are a few to try:
These oat-free, gluten-free clusters are at the top of their class for crunchy bites.
They're also definitely not as bone-dry as some of the other
health options on this list. Because let's be honest, healthy eating can be tough.
It gets a respectable B on Fooducate, despite having less fiber than other healthy cereal
options. So for a granola, it's really not bad. You get tons of crunch from the blend of nuts,
corn, brown rice, beans, millet, teff, and seeds, and the sweeteners are cane
sugar combined with maple and caramelized pear juice. There's only 7 g of sugar in a
1/3 cup serving of the Cranberry Almond Maple flavor, which tastes plenty sweet and juicy.
It also makes a perfect topping for a quick dessert yogurt parfait,
in case you prefer to save your sweetened crunchy foods for snacks and treats.
Kellogg's All-Bran Buds are definitely not as delicious as any of the beloved sugary cereals
on this list. But they probably weren't meant to be because they do a heck of a job of keeping you,
quote, "regular", thanks to wheat bran being the first ingredient, according to Kellogg's.
There are 11 grams of fiber in one serving of All-Bran Buds, which is just under half
of your daily needs if you're a woman. Keep in mind that a serving is 1/3 cup,
so if you eat an entire cup, you will most likely meet your fiber needs for the day. But
eating a whole cup also means you'd be eating the daily recommended sugar limit for women,
which is 24 grams. This pushes All-Bran Buds way above more nostalgic options
like Froot Loops and Reese's Puffs when it comes to sugar content.
Another downside of these Buds is that there's not much protein per
serving — 3 grams, to be exact — to keep you feeling full. So our suggestion is
to combine a serving of this with a low-sugar cereal or lots of berries,
nuts and seeds for texture, flavor and joy. Because who would eat bran for fun.
This Kashi 7 Whole Grain Puffs cereal gets a decent score on the Environmental Working Group's
website. It's not organic-certified but it has a decent amount of protein and fiber. It's also
made with non-GMO hard red wheat, brown rice, oats, barley, rye, buckwheat, and sesame seeds,
and is completely unsweetened, unlike a lot of other Kashi products, including the company's
GOLEAN Honey Almond Flax Crunch cereal with its 12g of sugar per a 3/4 cup serving.
So it may mean that the 7 Whole Grain Puffs cereal is kind of bland on its own. But it
seems good for you, so you can eat a whole 1 ½ cup serving, which is much larger than
most other commercial cereals, without the worry that you’ll go overboard on sugar.
But if flavor is what you're after, you may want to add some fruit,
yogurt, or a bit of another cereal if you want some sugar. Just remember that
while the cereal is crunchy on its own, it could soften up and turns mushy in milk.
So eat quickly unless you like your cereal soft! And if you want a sweet treat,
the 7 Whole Grain Puffs cereal is also great for baking into whole-grain rice krispie treats.
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