How to Pick a Breakfast Cereal

By Alan S. Peterson, M.D.

This topic was prompted by my seeing an article on a Web site which is authored by a professional friend of mine, Dr. Gabe Mirkin. His Web site is available free of charge at www.drmirkin.com. It is full of very helpful medical information.

Once you have done the above, check for added sugars. You obviously want little or none of this. Raisins or other dried fruits will add a lot of grams of sugars to the listing on the nutrition panel also. They are not distinguished from added sugars so you can only estimate those amounts. 

Cereals made from bran (the outer covering removed from whole grains) will have higher fiber content than cereals made from whole grains (which have the germ and starchy parts of the grains as well as the fiber), but they can be hard to digest. Obviously, although fiber is very good for the digestive tract, if you overdue a good thing you can end up with lots of gas and sometimes even diarrhea. But for those with constipation, obviously fiber is usually a good thing.

Most of the popular General Mills, Post and Quaker cereal brands no longer have partially hydrogenated oils or trans fats. Kelloggs is the one major cereal maker that has not yet removed them from many of their leading products; hopefully they will respond to consumer pressures soon.

For those of you looking for whole grains, you may need to do some detective work to see what you are getting. “One-ingredient” whole grain cereals (ie:  Shredded Wheat, Puffed Wheat, and Oatmeal) are sure bets to be true whole grains. If you see milled corn, cornmeal, wheat flour, or rice in the list of ingredients, you are getting a mixture of whole and refined grains. It’s not that this is bad, but the more whole grains you get the more healthy the breakfast cereal.

Lists of recommended cereals are quite long, so I am just going to outline the two lists of cereals that are not recommended in Dr. Mirkin’s most recent article.

The following are cereals that contain partially hydrogenated oils (trans fats). Many of these in the list below also are primarily refined grains and high in added sugars. Please check the ingredients, however, often as they change frequently.

Not recommended cereals:

• Basic Four – General Mills
• Cocoa Krispies – Kelloggs
• Corn Pops – Kelloggs
• Fruit Loops – Kelloggs
• Golden Crisp – Post
• Granola With Raisins, Low-Fat – Kelloggs
• Healthy Choice Mueslix – Kelloggs
• Healthy Choice Almond Crunch with Raisins – Kelloggs
• Healthy Choice Low-Fat Granola with Raisins – Kelloggs
• Mini-Swirlz – Kelloggs
• Smacks – Kelloggs
• Smart Start – Kelloggs
• Special K – Kelloggs

The following cereals are also not recommended. These below are cereals primarily made from refined grains. Once again, it is preferable to look for a cereal that has whole grains. Many of those listed below also contain a lot of added sugar. Once again, you need to look at the ingredients frequently to see if they have changed.

Not recommended cereals:

• Apple Jacks – Kelloggs
• Cap’n Crunch, all varieties – Quaker
• Chex, Rice or Corn – General Mills
• Cocoa Frosted Flakes – Kelloggs
• Cocoa Blasts – Quaker
• Cocoa Pebbles – Post
• Cocoa Puffs – General Mills
• Cookie Crisp/chocolate chip – General Mills
• Corn Pops – Kelloggs
• Corn Flakes – Kelloggs and others
• Count Chocula – General Mills
• Crispix – Kelloggs
• Frosted Flakes – Kelloggs
• Fruity Pebbles – Post
• Honey Bunches of Oats – Post
• Honeycomb – Post
• Honeynut Clusters – General Mills
• Kix – General Mills
• Lucky Charms – General Mills
• Product 19 – Kelloggs
• Puffed Rice – Quaker
• Reese’s Peanut Butter Puffs – General Mills
• Rice Krispies, all varieties – Kelloggs
• Total Corn Flakes – General Mills