Trying to make good choices in the cereal aisle for your family? Me too! It is so confusing with all the brands and the labels and organic v. conventional.
Well I have a great resource for you– the Environmental Working Group has compiled the most sugar per lb by brand. The EWG is an awesome agency- they are the ones that compile the Dirty Dozen list every year* as well as lots of other studies that are extremely helpful in making good choices for your family.
This is really excellent news because more often then not cereal- especially the stuff targeted at children can have crazy amounts of sugar. So the little ones are starting off the day full of junk instead of full of quality food that will keep those little brains ready to learn.
The EWG analyzed over 1500 brands and determined that a child that eats a bowl of sugary cereal per day will ultimately consume over 10 lbs of extra sugar over a year. Ack! My 5 year old weighs 40 pounds so to think she could be consuming 25% of her body weight just from breakfast is so upsetting.
And remember most of us do not actually consume the recommended serving size of products. My beloved Muesli is recommended at 1/4 cup as the serving size. I usually have 1/2 cup myself so 10 pounds would probably be pretty conservative.
So here is a very quick reference guide to the top cereals loaded with sugar vs. the ones with the least amount of sugar.
I was surprised at the Rice Krispies! The kids beg for that cereal and now I know that I can get it and tell them they got a wonderful treat for being such little angels ;).
Also a lot of us probably put a bit of sugar on cereal like Rice Krispies and I learned a great tip from Michael Pollen a long time ago. It is FAR better to add your own sugar to something because chances are you will add far less then a manufacturer of sugar.
You can see the entire report from the EWG here with a lot more information and additional brands that they ranked for sugar content.
*I will have the Dirty Dozen list updated for you for 2014 tomorrow so please check back!
Love this post! Thanks!
Another source is the App Foodeducate! you can check the item you eat and it will grade it with A+, A, A-, B+ and so on….and then it gives you other options to choose from to make a wiser choice on foods that are healthier!
Yes I have used Foodeducate before… for some reason I stopped using it. I can’t remember now what it was that made me stop…
Another important thing to think about with cereals is fiber content. I can’t remember where I read it, but the guideline I try to follow is 5g or more of fiber/serving and 5g or less of sugar. Most of the good cereals listed above have little to no fiber. It’s tough to find cereals that meet both, but Fiber One, Shredded Wheat, and a couple of Kashi cereals are low in sugar and high in fiber.
Good point! Fiber is important- we get it through fresh foods so I know the kids hit 5g before lunch just from the fruit and veggies I pack in their lunch and then the whole wheat bread too.