Compare cereal

Research · Cereal

What our research found about cereal

Boxed cereal is where added sugar hides most often in a breakfast routine. The FDA’s Nutrition Facts label now lists added sugars separately, with a daily reference value of 50 grams, so one bowl of a sweetened cereal can use up a large share of that budget before anything else is eaten. On the shelves we record, sweeteners such as cane sugar, honey, or syrups appear in most cereals that publish a full ingredient list, and several also list oils or natural flavors.

Whole grain, fiber and protein vary just as widely. A cereal whose first ingredient is a whole grain, with short ingredient lists and sugar low on the list, is the easiest pattern to spot. High-protein “keto” style cereals trade grains for protein isolates and sweeteners, so compare those on the ingredient list rather than the front-of-box claims. Serving sizes also differ, which makes per-serving numbers hard to compare across boxes.

Products

489 brands

Full labels recorded

2042% of the shelf

Maker says organic

18maker’s claim

List an added sweetener

18of 20 labels

List a seed oil

6of 20 labels

Typical label length

8ingredients (median)

Counts use complete, current ingredient labels only. Records without a published label stay unknown and are never counted as clean.

What to compare

• Added sugars per serving. Compare the “Added Sugars” line on the Nutrition Facts panel; the daily value is 50 g, so 10–12 g in one serving is roughly a fifth of it.
• Whole grain first. Look for a whole grain (whole oats, whole wheat, brown rice) as the first ingredient rather than a refined flour or sugar.
• Serving size. A “serving” can range from about a half cup to a full cup. Check grams, not just the cup measure.
• Sweetener type. Fruit juice concentrate, cane sugar, honey and syrups all count as added sugars; allulose, monk fruit and stevia are non-sugar sweeteners used in low-sugar styles.

References

1. Added sugars on the Nutrition Facts label U.S. Food and Drug Administration
2. Whole grains Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
3. Fiber Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
4. Whole Grain Stamp and whole-grain labeling Whole Grains Council
5. Organic labeling and what the USDA Organic seal means USDA Agricultural Marketing Service