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Breakfast or dessert? Your fave cereals ranked by sugar content

April 18, 2012
By Melissa Valliant

If you’re a serial cereal-eater, you might be knocking out half of your day’s allowance of added sugars at breakfast. We spent some time in the cereal aisle recording the sugar content per serving of 44 of the most popular cereals and were surprised by what we found.

For example, we never would have guessed that Post Raisin Bran contains almost twice as much sugar as Reese’s Puffs. And Kellogg’s Rice Krispies surprised us by clocking in at only 4 g, while the healthy-sounding Kellogg’s Smart Start ranked fifth in highest sugar content with 14 g.

The American Heart Association recommends no more than 24 g of added sugar a day for women and no more than 36 g of added sugar a day for men. To add perspective, one serving of Ben & Jerry’s chocolate ice cream contains 21 g of sugar, which makes us wonder if Raisin Bran should be considered breakfast or dessert.

 

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Comments are closed.

Comments (7)
Eric B
April 19th, 2012 at 11:23 am

You listed Wheaties twice, and where is my Total?

Interesting information!

Melissa Valliant
April 19th, 2012 at 3:17 pm

Thanks for pointing that out, Eric! Total’s Raisin Bran cereal was No. 3 on the list, but when I got rid of the extra Wheaties listing, I also added Total Honey Almond Flax and Total Whole Grain. Hope that helps!

Calvin
April 19th, 2012 at 3:33 pm

What about my Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs?

Mere
April 19th, 2012 at 3:50 pm

I think I need to print this out and bring it to the store with me! Gotta wonder what a Weetabix is…

Jay Gerken
April 19th, 2012 at 11:16 pm

One problem is that the food label for sugar does not distinguish between added sugars and natural sugar like fructose in raisns.

Melissa Valliant
April 20th, 2012 at 10:16 am

Good point! Although we should also watch our total daily sugar intake, whether natural sugar or added sugar, as well. Thanks for the feedback, Jay!

sue
April 20th, 2012 at 10:53 am

Thank you so much for this study. My husband is diabetic but insists on cereal AND a donut for breakfast. I like my oatmeal (scant 1/4 cup) and a yogurt with a glass of 2% white milk and a cup of coffee.

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