It’s often said breakfast is the most important meal of the day — and you can bet the cereal industry agrees. It’s a $44 billion market globally.
The diversity of options can be overwhelming; there are hundreds. Many sugar-coated and chocolate-covered varieties are marketed toward kids, while others target health-conscious adults.
Unfortunately, many breakfast cereals you might think are healthy are also overflowing with added sugar — something federal guidelines recommend limiting.
Following are several cereals that have more sugar in a single serving than a plain doughnut, which, according to University Hospitals, contains just over 10 total grams of sugar.
Honey Nut Cheerios
Serving size: 1 cup
Total sugar per serving: 12 grams
Added sugar per serving: 12 grams
Added sugar as a percentage of recommended daily value: 24%
Honey Nut Cheerios are a well-known variety of the popular General Mills cereal. Its recognizable bee mascot went unnamed until 2000, when a fifth-grader came up with the name Buzz.
Apple Cinnamon Cheerios
Serving size: 1 cup
Total sugar per serving: 12 grams
Added sugar per serving: 12 grams
Added sugar as a percentage of recommended daily value: 24%
The apple-cinnamon variety of Cheerios is advertised as a snack for toddlers or quick kids’ breakfast, although also as having benefits for cholesterol — not something kids tend to care about.
Frosted Flakes
Serving size: 1 cup
Total sugar per serving: 12 grams
Added sugar per serving: 12 grams
Added sugar as a percentage of recommended daily value: 24%
These are, in the words of mascot Tony the Tiger, “gr-r-reat!” The secret is a not-small amount of sugar — which didn’t use to be a secret. From their debut in 1952 until 1983, they were actually called “Sugar Frosted Flakes.”
Frosted Mini Wheats
Serving size: 25 biscuits
Total sugar per serving: 12 grams
Added sugar per serving: 12 grams
Added sugar as a percentage of recommended daily value: 24%
For those who prefer their sugar coating generously applied over shredded wheat, Kellogg’s still has you covered. You can get the exact same amount of sugar in these as the first three cereals on this list, even if the mascot (whose name is Mini) isn’t nearly as charming.
Raisin Bran Crunch
Serving size: 1 cup
Total sugar per serving: 19 grams
Added sugar per serving: 13 grams
Added sugar as a percentage of recommended daily value: 26%
Raisin Bran Crunch has among the highest total sugar content on this list, but some of that is attributable to the natural sugar in raisins. While fruits are generally high in sugar, they are a much healthier source that comes paired with fiber and other valuable nutrients in the cereal, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Added sugars, meanwhile, basically just make things taste better. And at 13 grams, this cereal has plenty of those too.
Kellogg’s Special K Red Berries Cereal
Serving size: 1 cup
Total sugar per serving: 11 grams
Added sugar per serving: 10 grams
Added sugar as a percentage of recommended daily value: 20%
Freeze-dried strawberries deliver a tiny bit of the sugar in your bowl of this “crunchy fruity goodness,” but the majority of it is added in. Red Berries is just one of more than a dozen available flavors.
Post Raisin Bran
Serving size: 1 1/4 cup
Total sugar per serving: 16 grams
Added sugar per serving: 8 grams
Added sugar as a percentage of recommended daily value: 17%
This Post “feel-good combination of great taste, whole grains” has been around since World War II. It’s not to be confused with the Kellogg’s version of the exact same name.
There is a third, less-known Raisin Bran, too — the original. Skinner’s held the trademark up until a court decided the name was too generic.
Honey Ohs
Serving size: 1 cup
Total sugar per serving: 18 grams
Added sugar per serving: 18 grams
Added sugar as a percentage of recommended daily value: 36%
“There’s something in the middle of Post Honey Ohs! cereal that’ll make you say, ‘Oh!’,” the cereal’s website boasts.
We’ll give you a hint. It’s white, starts with “s” and ends with “ugar.” Honey is a natural sugar — but counts as an added sugar for nutritional purposes unless it is the sole ingredient, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
Oatmeal Crisp
Serving size: 1 cup
Total sugar per serving: 14 grams
Added sugar per serving: 13 grams
Added sugar as a percentage of recommended daily value: 26%
Oatmeal Crisp has a blend of sugar, brown sugar syrup, corn syrup, honey (a sugar) … oh, and “crispy flakes, oat clusters and crunchy almonds.”
Honeycomb
Serving size: 1 3/4 cup
Total sugar per serving: 13 grams
Added sugar per serving: 12 grams
Added sugar as a percentage of recommended daily value: 25%
Post really skimped on the marketing for Honeycomb; its website simply says, “Honey-Comb cereal’s unique shape, sweet crunch, and catchy jingle have made it a breakfast favorite for nearly half a century!”
Quaker Instant Oatmeal Raisin, Date & Walnut
Serving size: 1 packet
Total sugar per serving: 11 grams
Added sugar per serving: 7 grams
Added sugar as a percentage of recommended daily value: 14%
Most of this hot cereal’s seven ingredients fit right in the prominent flavor name on the front of the box. The missing ones? Sugar, salt and cinnamon.
Corn Pops
Serving size: 1 1/3 cup
Total sugar per serving: 15 grams
Added sugar per serving: 15 grams
Added sugar as a percentage of recommended daily value: 30%
Corn Pops, launched in 1950 after 14 years in development, has been through a bit of an identity crisis over the years. It was Sugar Pops for most of three decades, then Sugar Corn Pops for a few years. It was changed to Corn Pops in 1984, then to Pops in 2006, then very quickly back to Corn Pops.
But Kellogg’s still has a few variations left to try: How about just “Sugar” or perhaps “Corn Sugar”?
Cinnamon Toast Crunch
Serving size: 1 cup
Total sugar per serving: 12 grams
Added sugar per serving: 12 grams
Added sugar as a percentage of recommended daily value: 24%
Even if the box isn’t, Cinnamon Toast Crunch’s website is relatively forthcoming about its sugar content.
“Every crispy square is blasted with CINNADUST, that irresistible mix of real cinnamon and sugar,” it says. And if you have it with milk, “slurp up the CINNAMILK, the sweet and awesomely tasty cereal milk at the bottom of your bowl.”
Add a Comment