# Is Breakfast Cereal Nutritious? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 19, 2007, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-breakfast-cereal-nutritious/427062 "2007-11-19T18:36:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-breakfast-cereal-nutritious/427062/1 "2007-11-19T18:36:10Z")
I’ve been eating this stuff all of my life, and i wonder how good a food substannce it really is. First: it is expensive-more than cheese or eggs 9on a weight basis). Second, it is failry low in nutrition-you don’t get a lot from it, unless you eat with milk. third; it was invebnted by a 19th century health nut (Dr. John kellogg0, who promoted it as a substitute for meat. Should i be eating something else for break fast? Are scranbled eggs a better deal 9nutritionally and financially)? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-breakfast-cereal-nutritious/427062/2 "2007-11-19T19:11:29Z")
First things first-- what kind are you eating? Lucky Charms or flax flakes? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-breakfast-cereal-nutritious/427062/3 "2007-11-19T19:30:28Z")
[QUOTE=Cat Fight] First things first-- what kind are you eating? Lucky Charms or flax flakes? [/QUOTE] I always wanted to film an updated version of those old _Total_ commercials: [open on Joe Smith, walking down cereal aisle in his local supermarket] Off-Camera Interviewer: Good morning, Mister Smith! Picking out a breakfast cereal? Smith: Sure. I thought I’d try… _Special K_. [takes box off shelf] I: Well, you’d have to eat four boxes of _Special K_ [four boxes tumble off shelf, bouncing off Smith, crashing to floor] to equal the nutritional content in one box of _Total_. S: Oh? [moves a few feet down the aisle] How about _Grape Nuts_? [takes box off shelf] I: You’d have to eat _twelve_ boxes to equal the nutritional content in one box of _Total_! [more boxes tumble off shelf, bury Smith to his ankles] S: Oh… [moves down row] How’s about… _Franken Berry_? [rumbling sound, entire shelf crashes down on Smith] I: [cut to image of _Total_ Box] _Total_, it’s total nutrition. So, what cereal will you choose, Mr. Smith? [shot of microphone leaning in toward collapsed shelf, approaching Smith’s dead hand, emerging from debris, clawing futilely for life] Mr. Smith? Mr. Smith? _Total_. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-breakfast-cereal-nutritious/427062/4 "2007-11-19T19:39:01Z")
Yes, with juice, toast, milk and fruit on top it’s very nutritious. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-breakfast-cereal-nutritious/427062/5 "2007-11-19T19:48:11Z")
Some cereals are nutritious, some are not. Look at fiber and sugar content. You want to get a lot of the first, but not the second. Eggs are not a substitute for cereal. Totally different foods there. An ideal breakfast would be some sort of high fiber starch, some protein, and some sort of vegetation, such as fruit. A good cereal will give you the first, and milk will give you the second. Another good combination is a slice of wheat toast and an egg. So what are the good cereals? Cheerios Grape Nuts Shredded Wheat Frosted Mini Wheats (Seriously! One of the best you can get, and tasty, too!) Raisin Bran Cinnamon Toast Crunch (Another surprising one.) Bran Chex Cracklin’ Oat Bran Conspicuously missing from this list are Cap’n Crunch, Cookie Crisp, Rice Crispies, and Cocoa Pebbles. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-breakfast-cereal-nutritious/427062/6 "2007-11-19T19:59:40Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] So what are the good cereals? Cheerios Grape Nuts Shredded Wheat Frosted Mini Wheats (Seriously! One of the best you can get, and tasty, too!) Raisin Bran Cinnamon Toast Crunch (Another surprising one.) Bran Chex Cracklin’ Oat Bran Conspicuously missing from this list are Cap’n Crunch, Cookie Crisp, Rice Crispies, and Cocoa Pebbles. [/QUOTE] I move to strike Raisin Bran and Cracklin’ Oat Bran from the list. The former has an ungodly amount of sugar - 18.9 grams of sugar a serving, compared to “only” 13 for Cookie Crisp! And Cracklin’ Oat Bran has an oddly high amount of fat for a breakfast cereal (8 grams in a serving) and 17 grams of sugar. I love it as an ice cream substitute, but it’s not a healthy cereal. Why don’t you like Rice Krispies, if I may ask? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-breakfast-cereal-nutritious/427062/7 "2007-11-19T20:28:56Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Why don’t you like Rice Krispies, if I may ask? [/QUOTE] For a 1.25 cup serving, there are 0.1 grams of dietary fiber. It barely even rates! Good call on the others. Personally, I’ll stick with Frosted Mini Wheats. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-breakfast-cereal-nutritious/427062/8 "2007-11-19T20:33:35Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] For a 1.25 cup serving, there are 0.1 grams of dietary fiber. It barely even rates! Good call on the others. Personally, I’ll stick with Frosted Mini Wheats. [/QUOTE] Ah, good point. I mostly use it to thicken the yogurt that my toddler likes to eat so it sticks to her spoon instead of hitting the floor. I don’t care for it myself, but she got a hankerin’ for it when her father shared it with her. Maybe I’ll throw a tablespoon of wheat germ into her Krispies ‘n’ yogurt. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-breakfast-cereal-nutritious/427062/9 "2007-11-19T20:58:49Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers] I: Well, you’d have to eat four boxes of _Special K_ [four boxes tumble off shelf, bouncing off Smith, crashing to floor] to equal the nutritional content in one box of _Total_. [/QUOTE] [Colon Blow](http://snltranscripts.jt.org/89/89ecolonblow.phtml) (SNL commercial starring the late great Phil Hartman) ---
**Author:** ![Pazu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pazu/32/15522_2.png) [@Pazu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pazu)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-breakfast-cereal-nutritious/427062/10 "2007-11-19T21:48:01Z")
[QUOTE=Scarlett67] [Colon Blow](http://snltranscripts.jt.org/89/89ecolonblow.phtml) (SNL commercial starring the late great Phil Hartman) [/QUOTE] Or even [“I like this Ano-Weet, it really unclogs me.”](http://www.ibras.dk/montypython/episode45.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-breakfast-cereal-nutritious/427062/11 "2007-11-19T22:24:55Z")
[QUOTE=Scarlett67] [Colon Blow](http://snltranscripts.jt.org/89/89ecolonblow.phtml) (SNL commercial starring the late great Phil Hartman) [/QUOTE] I thought of mine first but sadly never committed it to paper. ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-breakfast-cereal-nutritious/427062/12 "2007-11-19T23:10:51Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] I move to strike Raisin Bran and Cracklin’ Oat Bran from the list. The former has an ungodly amount of sugar - 18.9 grams of sugar a serving, compared to “only” 13 for Cookie Crisp! And Cracklin’ Oat Bran has an oddly high amount of fat for a breakfast cereal (8 grams in a serving) and 17 grams of sugar. I love it as an ice cream substitute, but it’s not a healthy cereal. Why don’t you like Rice Krispies, if I may ask? [/QUOTE] eh, the scare about fat is overrated. 8g of fat isn’t nothing when you really should get something like 60g through the day. Also Cracklin’oat bran PROBABLY gets most of it’s fat from nuts, so they are good fats (if a BIT processed). ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-breakfast-cereal-nutritious/427062/13 "2007-11-19T23:15:03Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] I move to strike Raisin Bran and Cracklin’ Oat Bran from the list. The former has an ungodly amount of sugar - 18.9 grams of sugar a serving, compared to “only” 13 for Cookie Crisp! And Cracklin’ Oat Bran has an oddly high amount of fat for a breakfast cereal (8 grams in a serving) and 17 grams of sugar. I love it as an ice cream substitute, but it’s not a healthy cereal. Why don’t you like Rice Krispies, if I may ask? [/QUOTE] The raw amount of fat in Cracklin’ Oat Bran says nothing about whether or not it is “good for you.” Fat isn’t bad, I’ve said it on these forums before, but without some fat in your diet you _will die_, your brain can’t function without it. There are good fats and bad fats. And just because one food item may seem a bit “high” in fat, unless you know _what type_ of fat it is high in you can’t really say if it is good for you or not. Furthermore, while it may have more fat than a normal cereal, it may be a perfectly acceptable amount based on what your overall food intake is like for the day. Sugars are also something that shouldn’t be judged in such a universal way. Fruits are all very high in sugars and most fruit is very good for you; Raisin Bran probably has high sugar content because it is full of raisins, which are high in sugar (but not the refined sugar characteristic of a cereal like Cookie Crisp.) ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-breakfast-cereal-nutritious/427062/14 "2007-11-20T00:24:35Z")
Both of you are absolutely right about fat (and sugar) not being some boogeyman evil to be avoided at all costs. I never said anything to the contrary. But if we’re compiling a list of “healthiest” ready-to-eat breakfast cereals, what would you have us go on? \*\*tdn \*\*suggested we look for high fiber and low sugar. I suggested we add lower fat (I never said a thing about nonfat or a nonfat diet, which I agree is not healthy) into the rubric and pointed out two cereals on the list which are not even close to low sugar, but in fact two of the higher sugared cereals on the market. Most recommendations from medical and nutritional groups these days for _most people_ are to increase fiber and decrease sugar and fat. [QUOTE=Martin Hyde] There are good fats and bad fats. And just because one food item may seem a bit “high” in fat, unless you know what type of fat it is high in you can’t really say if it is good for you or not. Furthermore, while it may have more fat than a normal cereal, it may be a perfectly acceptable amount based on what your overall food intake is like for the day. [/QUOTE] Palm oil is the fourth ingredient. 2.3 grams saturated fat, which is very high for the food category of ready to eat breakfast cereals. It gets a B- on [calorie-count](http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/item/8023.html). Not a food to be avoided at all costs (because I don’t think there is such a thing), but it’s not the very best choice most people could make every morning. > [@](#): > > Sugars are also something that shouldn’t be judged in such a universal way. Fruits are all very high in sugars and most fruit is very good for you; Raisin Bran probably has high sugar content because it is full of raisins, which are high in sugar (but not the refined sugar characteristic of a cereal like Cookie Crisp.) I’m not judging it in a universal way (what does that even mean?) I’m judging it based on experience with the cereal. I made the same assumption about the source of sugar until just this morning, when I snagged a raisin out of my husband’s bowl of Raisin Bran. It was coated, visibly, in white refined sugar. The ingredient list reads: WHOLE WHEAT, RAISINS, WHEAT BRAN, SUGAR, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, SALT, MALT FLAVORING. By all means, go ahead and state your own criteria and suggest some cereals that meet them and we can discuss. But I think (hope) we can all agree that not all Breakfast Cereal is created equal. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-breakfast-cereal-nutritious/427062/15 "2007-11-20T01:33:07Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] Frosted Mini Wheats (Seriously! One of the best you can get, and tasty, too!) [/QUOTE] Woo-hoo! It’s one of my favorites. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-breakfast-cereal-nutritious/427062/16 "2007-11-20T14:39:24Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] Woo-hoo! It’s one of my favorites. 🙂 [/QUOTE] Absolutely! Good stuff. I actually have a list of the best cereals you can eat, but it’s on paper, and it’s at home, where I am not right now. Upon request, I’d be happy to post a partial listing. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-breakfast-cereal-nutritious/427062/17 "2007-11-20T14:49:40Z")
Just check on Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds, otherwise known as the cereal of the gods. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-breakfast-cereal-nutritious/427062/18 "2007-11-20T16:21:19Z")
So I am guessing Captain Crunch with Mountain Dew instead of milk is not the way to go? ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-breakfast-cereal-nutritious/427062/19 "2007-11-20T16:28:18Z")
Thanks. I’m just wondering if I’m better off skipping ceral, and having some protein for breakfast. seems like ceral is pretty expensive for the nutrition it provides, and can have a lot of sugar. ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-breakfast-cereal-nutritious/427062/20 "2007-11-20T17:47:28Z")
Sometimes I eat the [Special K Protein Plus](http://www.thedailyplate.com/nutrition-calories/food/special-k/special-k-protein-plus) cereal, tastes pretty good and has 10g of protein per serving and 5g of fiber (I usually eat two servings). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-breakfast-cereal-nutritious/427062.md?page=2)