10 Breakfast Cereals to Avoid

By MainStreet, via DivineCaroline

A bowl of cereal alone shouldn’t give you or your kids the shakes first thing in the morning. But considering the amount of sugar in these breakfast favorites, don’t be too surprised if you start feeling a little rattled. Here are some of the least healthful breakfast cereals marketed directly to children according to the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, which studied 277 different types of cereal and ranked them based on a variety of health factors. Don’t be surprised if they’re among your adult favorites too. (This might just change your grocery shopping habits.)

10. Froot Loops
These colorful loops, not surprisingly, are among the least healthful breakfast cereals. Regular Froot Loops are 41 percent sugar and 10 percent fiber, plus red, blue and yellow dyes. But the Marshmallow version is even worse. They’re 48 percent sugar and 7 percent fiber.

9. Corn Pops
Certain cereals are just as sugary as a glazed doughnut, according to Consumer Reports findings last year. “We studied how 91 youngsters, ages 6 to 16, poured their cereal and found that, on average, they served themselves about 50 percent to 65 percent more than the suggested serving size for three of the four tested cereals,” it said. Corn Pops are 41 percent sugar and have no fiber at all, according to Rudd Center studies.

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Read more: Basics, Children, Diet & Nutrition, Food, breakfast, cereal, marketing, sugar

Jennifer B.

5:06AM PDT on Jun 13, 2013

No surprises there. They're all full of sugar at the very least.

June 13
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Shanti S.

1:35AM PDT on Apr 18, 2013

Thank you.

April 18
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katarzyna p.

1:10AM PST on Jan 13, 2013

although we don't have all of the same products here in the uk, i've been able to substitute most of them! although i am not a parent, as a parent, you have a responsibility to make sure your child is eating 1 portion of the cereal and substitute the milk for skimmed or soya variety. i like weetabix and oat bran, but i also like muesli. i have gotten into the habit of looking at the packaging of almost all things i buy, but certainly cereal

January 13
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Yiska S.

9:11PM PST on Nov 28, 2012

great list... and they're all GMOs too... however, there are fruit flavored fruit loops tho, and they taste pretty damn good :)

November 28
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Sheila S.

2:32PM PST on Nov 5, 2012

After discovering that I had digestion problems from whole grain breakfast foods, I've switched to yogurt and fruit. Not as much crunch, but easier on my stomach.

November 5
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Dorothy A.

6:41AM PDT on May 31, 2012

That article is like a walk through my childhood. Super sweet cereals and Saturday morning cartoons. We were only allow the cereal and the cartoons on Saturday morning, and it was one of the few times my brothers and I didn't fight. Is Scooby Doo still on?