Surviving the Cereal Aisle

 

When it comes to the supermarket cereal aisle, the healthy offerings have not changed very much on 50 years. They remain unsweetened oat, wheat and bran cereals. All contain little or no added sugar and a healthy dose of whole grains. You would do best by completely ignoring the cereal marketers' pitches for everything else. Whether its keto, or protein, or "real" nuts and berries, odds are its garbage dressed up as healthy.

Here is what to look for to escape the cereal aisle with your wallet and your health intact.

Look for whole grains. If the box says "100% whole grain" then go ahead and grab it. Anything less than 100% means you need to check the ingredient list. If the whole grain is far down the list it means there is very little of it in the box. Usually just enough to plaster it on the front.

Check the Serving Size. Cereal servings can range from as little as 1/2 a cup to as much as 1 1/2 cups. 1/2 cup isn't much so odds are you will eat more. Remember that all the nutrition information is per serving.

Watch for added sugar. The new nutrition labels finally have to list the sugar that is added to the product. Unlike the naturally occurring sugar in fruits (Total Sugar = Added Sugar + Naturally Occurring Sugar) added sugar is nothing but nutrition-free empty calories. To put this in perspective, the current dietary guideline for added sugar is no more than 50 grams per day.

Not all fiber is alike. The point of whole grains is that the fiber-heavy bran has not been processed away. Many cereals trumpeting their fiber content are not whole grains but just contain cheap insoluble fibers. Any bran cereal, whole grain wheat or corn and most oat cereals contain natural bran fiber.

Best bets? As I said at the beginning, the old standbys still lead the pack. Among the best choices are: unsweetened Cheerios, Wheaties, Total, unsweetened Shredded Wheat, Grape Nuts, Wheat Chex and Bran Flakes. Watch out for Raisin Bran though, it is loaded with added sugar. Better? Plain old bran flakes with your own raisins added.