Breakfast Cereals: A Buying Guide

We pored over a zillion options to land on the perfect breakfast cereal -- for your health and wallet

In 1863, James Caleb Jackson invented the first breakfast cereal. It was made of rock-like pieces of baked graham dough that had to be soaked overnight in milk to be edible—the epitome of an unappetizing health food. Jackson’s “granula” was followed by John Harvey Kellogg’s “granola,” and later Puffed Rice, GrapeNuts, Wheaties, and Cheerios. For nearly a century, Americans could assume that cereal was healthy. Until, suddenly, it wasn’t.

Still, even as sugar-laden cereals took over the breakfast aisle, for a long time it was pretty clear which options were more or less healthy and which weren’t. A brightly colored box or cartoon character (and often both) signaled dessert masquerading as a morning meal. But over the last decade, the cereal aisle has gotten pretty confusing. Boxes are so cluttered with claims they call to mind Nascar race cars. And often what you see on the front of the box directly contradicts what you see on the nutrition label.

This is not just a feeling. A new study published in JAMA last month revealed that 1,200 breakfast cereals introduced or reformulated between 2010 and 2023 were filled with more sugar, sodium, and fat. And so Liz and I spent the past month gum-shoeing our way through the cereal aisle with the goal of identifying some legit nutritious options — that don’t taste like granula. We were surprised to discover that, for once, the more affordable choices are the best.

The Hunt

I am a creature of habit when it comes to cereal. There may be 100 choices on the shelf, but I always buy the same two.

So the time I spent in the cereal aisle was a revelation. There were, of course, the old-school cereals: GrapeNuts, Wheaties, Cheerios, Chex, Special K, and so on. Then, there were what I came to think of as the cool kids: Cereals with trendy claims like “high in protein,” “grain-free,” “gluten-free,” and “zero-added sugar.”

These new-school brands tended to fall into two categories. First, cereals that emphasized whole and ancient grains and used natural sugars like coconut or honey. Second, high-protein cereals made from ingredients like pea or whey protein, and alternative sugars like monk fruit or stevia. The new-schoolers tend to offer modern flavors –– think maple and sea salt or lemon cake.

It is admittedly tricky to recommend one (or even several) cereals when dietary priorities and taste preferences are so varied. Our goal was to find cereals that were legitimately nutritious, additive free, tasty –– and good value. This was not easy!

What We Prioritized — And Why

Whole Grains

Until recently, most cereals were made from widely-grown grains, things like corn, rice, wheat, and oats. In some cases, such as Corn Flakes, the grains are refined, which means that the kernel has been stripped of its bran and germ, which contain fiber and nutrients. Others, like GrapeNuts, are made from whole grain flour, meaning those fiber and nutrients are still present. The nutritional differences are stark. Whole grain GrapeNuts has seven times as much fiber and twice the protein of the refined grains in Corn Flakes. So remember: Whole grains, good. Refined grains, bad.

When it comes to the new-school cereals, the ingredient lists tend to feature trendier (and more expensive) whole grains to pack in the nutrients: amaranth, sorghum, quinoa, brown rice, etc. This is good news if you’re gluten-free; there are lots of options. We believe that whether your tastes trend classic or modern, a healthy breakfast cereal should have lots of whole grains.

Unless … you’re following a grain-free diet or, like a growing number of people, are obsessed with protein. If there are no grains in your cereal, there are no whole grains. And to load up on protein, cereals are made with milk, pea, or sunflower protein, then bulked up with things like starchy cassava flour or corn fiber. In other words, says Linda Shiue, a culinary nutritionist at Kaiser Permanente, these are “highly manufactured foods.”

That’s an issue because the human body is designed to eat food in whole forms.

“I understand why people like to optimize in all these easy ways. But eating an isolated nutrient never gives you the full scope of nutrition,” says Shiue. Separated from the fat and fiber that usually come with protein, there’s no guarantee it will be digested in the same way, and provide the satiety that protein lovers crave. Shiue’s advice to those who want to get some protein in their morning bowl: Choose a whole-grain cereal and add some nuts or chia seeds, which are naturally high in protein.

Minimal Sugar

The classic sugar cereals — Cap’n Crunch, Coco Pops, Cinnamon Toast Crunch — each have 12 grams (1 tablespoon) of sugar per serving. Ideally, the cereals we recommend would have half that –– or less. As it turns out, 7 grams of sugar per serving is common in cereals; it must be some kind of taste tipping point. So we used 7 grams as our cutoff but gave priority to cereals with 5 grams of sugar or fewer.

The types of sugar in breakfast cereals run the gamut, from corn syrup and organic honey to coconut sugar and non-nutritive sugars such as stevia and monk fruit. The sugars in this last category are much sweeter than traditional table sugar — monk fruit can be anywhere from 100 to 250 times sweeter! They also have no calories … which sounds like the perfect combo until you taste them. Stevia, in particular, has a nasty, bitter aftertaste. Shiue, the nutritionist, said she also worries that becoming accustomed to foods with such high levels of sweetness can make natural foods, like fruit, less palatable or desirable over time.

No Additives / Dyes

Chemical additives and artificial dyes are the red-hot center of the current debate over what constitutes a healthy food. We eliminated any cereal with additives or artificial dyes. The one exception was the preservative tocopherols (see more on why below).

Price

The price per ounce of seemingly similar cereals was … vast. Magic Spoon, a cutesy, Millennial-coded high-protein brand cost $10 for an 8-ounce bag, or $1.44 an ounce. That’s more than five times as much as a serving of ye olde GrapeNuts and only slightly less than the cost of three eggs, which deliver 30 percent more protein!

Figuring the value equation while shopping is not easy. The various brands come in different sizes and weights, making apples-to-apples comparisons difficult. (And you have to account for the fact that many of us eat more cereal than the determined serving size.) As a general rule, the new-school cereals, with their attractive packaging, come in much smaller boxes or bags than the old-school General Mills, Post, and Kelloggs. This makes it look like you’re paying a smaller premium than you actually are.

And Finally … One Note on Vitamins

You’d think that a plethora of vitamins and minerals would score points for a breakfast cereal. In fact, no. Breakfast cereals were some of the first foods to be widely fortified with vitamins and minerals. (Kellogg’s added B vitamins and Vitamin D to a cereal called “Pep” in 1938.) And this is still the case today. Almost any cereal you find on the shelf will be fortified with vitamins, though which vitamins and how much vary from cereal to cereal. If you’re looking for one vitamin in particular, check the nutrition panel.

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