# Sugar in Breakfast Cereals **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 2, 2000, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sugar-in-breakfast-cereals/35338 "2000-10-02T14:20:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KenP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c0e974/32.png) [@KenP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KenP)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2000, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sugar-in-breakfast-cereals/35338/1 "2000-10-02T14:20:11Z")
How can I find out how much sugar is in various breakfast cereals? Lots of sites on the Internet give one or two examples of cereals that contain 50% or more sugar, but I can’t find a comprehensive list. Thanks in advance. ---
**Author:** ![ij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@ij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ij)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2000, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sugar-in-breakfast-cereals/35338/2 "2000-10-02T14:38:22Z")
Sugars are just carbohydrates, and the amount of carbos per “average serving” (yeah, right) is on the side of the box. As for the difference between sugars and starches, your body does’nt care too much; BOTH rot your teeth if left in your mouth, help make you fat, help you run marathons, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Kyberneticist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kyberneticist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyberneticist)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2000, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sugar-in-breakfast-cereals/35338/3 "2000-10-02T15:22:23Z")
[http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~ah/food/data/preparedcereal.basic](http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~ah/food/data/preparedcereal.basic) ---
**Author:** ![Kyberneticist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kyberneticist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyberneticist)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2000, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sugar-in-breakfast-cereals/35338/4 "2000-10-02T15:23:24Z")
Just use the “carbohydrates” section of that chart. That will be a mixture of simple and complex, but it should be close enough for what you’re looking for. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kyberneticist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kyberneticist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyberneticist)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2000, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sugar-in-breakfast-cereals/35338/5 "2000-10-02T15:26:09Z")
You probably _do_ care more about simple carbohydrates - they’re the ones more likely to give that rush that has kids bouncing off of walls. Hm. Will keep looking for more specific chart. In the mean time, you might want to compare cereals you know are low sugar with the ones on the chart that are high sugar, do a ratio? It might also help to do a ratio of carbohydrates to fibre? Will look around a bit more. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2000, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sugar-in-breakfast-cereals/35338/6 "2000-10-02T16:26:05Z")
I am looking at a box of breakfast cereal (Quaker Oat Life, to be specific) and under nutrition facts it lists: Total Carbohydrates 25g Dietary Fiber 2g Sugars 6g Other Carbohydrates 17g It’s right there on the box! of the total carbs, 6g are sugars. Or, perhaps, you are not currently living in the US? I would like to point out something: some cereals that are “sugar cereals” – especially Frosted Flakes – have less sugar than other cereals that are supposedly “healthy balanced” cereals. Why? Cause the all the sugar in frosted flakes is on the surface (a quick spritz if you will) while it is baked into the so-called “healthy” cereals. Watch out. For the record, I was only allowed to eat Cheerios, Rice Krispies and, if we were really good, Chex as a child. ---
**Author:** ![KenP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c0e974/32.png) [@KenP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KenP)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2000, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sugar-in-breakfast-cereals/35338/7 "2000-10-02T17:33:57Z")
Thanks to those who have helped so far, especially to Kyberneticist. The “Princeton” site is the best information I have seen so far, but I still hope to find info on sugar. I’m surprised that my question prompted such sarcasm (“It’s right there on the box! Or, perhaps, you are not currently living in the US?”) rmariamp, do you want me to compare every kind of cereal in the supermarket, box by box? ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2000, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sugar-in-breakfast-cereals/35338/8 "2000-10-02T19:29:30Z")
I’m sorry, I thought that this was for practical purposes ie you wish to feed your child a low-sugar cereal. If you were doing that, you’d only have to look at a few boxes to find some that meet your criteria, and you’d probably know what they were to begin with (Kix, cherrios, corn flakes, chex, rice krispies, etc.) and just need to verify. I did not get the feeling from your OP that you were doing a research project. ::shrug:: and what’s wrong with going to the grocery store with a notepad and checking boxes? I don’t think it would take as long as you think. Sorry if I sounded sarcastic (I really didn’t mean to) its just that your OP made it sound like the sugar level in cereals was a closely guarded secret and I was perplexed.