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Cereals Low in Sugar

Marian K
Cereals that have less amounts of sugar are an important ingredient of a healthy diet, but they need to be high in fiber too. This story provides information regarding the same.
The importance of a healthy breakfast cannot be stressed enough. A healthy breakfast provides nutrition to your body, helps you kick-start your day, and has several overall health benefits. A healthy breakfast helps adults improve their concentration and productivity.
By including the right food items in breakfast like cereals that are low in sugar but high in fiber, one can help control weight. This will also help lower cholesterol, and thereby reduce the risk of heart diseases to some extent. A healthy diet and proper breakfast is equally crucial for children.
According to the American Dietetic Association, it helps them concentrate better, tackle and solve problems, improves hand-eye coordination, allows them to be more alert and creative. This translates into fewer days of missing school.
If these benefits have convinced you to start having a healthy breakfast, then you need to know what makes a breakfast healthy. If cereal is all you have the time for, the presence or lack of these three factors will dictate its health value:
  • Fiber: One must consume 25 gm of fiber per day, out of which, 5 grams or at least 3 grams must come from your breakfast cereal. To ensure this, read through the list of ingredients and pick cereals, which are high in fiber and contain 5-3 grams of fiber per serving.
  • Sugar: As most cereals have added sugar, you need to steer clear of the highly sugary ones. The healthy ones have low-sugar content, which contain 13 grams or less of sugar per serving.
  • Calories: If you are on a low-calorie diet, or are working towards losing weight, choose those cereals that have lower calories, ideally less than 120 calories per serving.
If you want to consume cereals that are low in sugar, there are a few other facts that you must be made aware of. A recent study from Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has confirmed that most breakfast cereals that are advertised, keeping kids as their target audience, are full of sugar and low in fiber.
The fact that is both troubling and astounding are that these cereals marketed to kids have 85% more sugar, 65% less fiber, and 60% more sodium than those aimed at adults. They also found that the cereal lowest in nutrition are often the ones most aggressively marketed to children.
These include Reese's Puffs, Lucky Charms, Corn Pops, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Cap'n Crunch.

Best Breakfast Cereals with Low Sugar Content:

  • A nutritious breakfast cereal is Mighty Bites Honey Crunch Cereal by Kashi. It contains only 5 grams of sugar and 3 grams of dietary fiber per serving. Additionally, it also has 15 vitamins and minerals. It is a good option for kids as it is tasty, but yet not too sweet.
  • Another low-sugar cereal is Gorilla Munch Organic Cereal by Envirokids, which is not only healthy, but also gluten-free. Slightly sweeter than Mighty Bites, it contains 8 grams of sugar and 2 grams of dietary fiber.
  • A very healthy option, Soy and Flax Clusters by Trader Joe's, is fairly sweet yet within the 'healthy' limit. It has 12 grams of sugar per serving, 6 grams of dietary fiber, and is loaded with Omega-3's.
  • Another good option is the Frosted Vanilla Shredded Bite Size Wheats by Trader Joe's. While you might think that the 12 grams of sugar per serving is a little sweet, it does have 5 grams of fiber per serving. It is also fortified with 9 vitamins and minerals.
The following table presents some other cereals that contain less sugar or equal to less than 13 grams of sugar per serving:
Cereal: Barbara's Shredded Spoonfuls
Serving Size: 1 cup
Sugar: 5 g
Fiber: 4 g
Calories: 120

Cereal: General Mills Fiber One
Serving Size: ½ cup
Sugar: 0 g
Fiber: 10 g
Calories: 148
Cereal: General Mills Cheerios
Serving Size: 1 cup
Sugar: 1 g
Fiber: 3 g
Calories: 103

Cereal: Kashi Go Lean
Serving Size: 1 cup
Sugar: 6 g
Fiber: 10 g
Calories: 148
Cereal: Kellogg's All-Bran Buds
Serving Size: 1/3 cup
Sugar: 8 g
Fiber: 13 g
Calories: 75

Cereal: Kellogg's All-Bran Original
Serving Size: ½ cup
Sugar: 5 g
Fiber: 9 g
Calories: 81
Cereal: Kellogg's Frosted Mini Wheats
Serving Size: 24 biscuits
Sugar: 12 g
Fiber: 6 g
Calories: 200

Cereal: Post Shredded Wheat Original
Serving Size: 1 cup
Sugar: 0.5 g
Fiber: 6 g
Calories: 167
Cereal: Quaker Life Cereal (plain)
Serving Size: ¾ cup
Sugar: 6 g
Fiber: 2 g
Calories: 119

Cereal: Kashi Heart to Heart Honey Toasted Oat Cereal
Serving Size: ¾ cup
Sugar: 5 g
Fiber: 5 g
Calories: 110
Thus, you can check the label on your box and choose one of the low-sugar options. However, should you not like them, you can add some naturally sweet fresh fruit to make the taste more interesting.
Disclaimer: This story is for informative purposes only and does not in any way attempt to replace the advice offered by an expert on the subject.