The Worst Cereals in the World

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October 23, 2008 | 109,492 views

Some breakfast cereals currently being marketed to U.S. children are more than half sugar by weight, according to Consumer Reports.

A single serving of 11 popular cereals, including Kellogg's Honey Smacks, can carry as much sugar as a glazed doughnut. And some brands have even more sugar and sodium when formulated for the U.S. market than the same brands have when sold in other countries.

Post's Golden Crisp and Kellogg's Honey Smacks are both more than 50 percent sugar by weight, while nine brands are at least 40 percent sugar.

Unfortunately breakfast is typically one of the worst meals to eat out. Most restaurant options are simply not consistent with a healthy meal. The most notorious offenders though are probably breakfast cereals, which were initially developed to increase convenience, and now have mostly morphed into highly processed packages filled with synthetic vitamins and are a mere fantasy of a healthy food. 

Breakfast cereals, along with waffles, pancakes, bagels and other high-carb, high-sugar foods, are some of your absolute worst breakfast options. And cereals that are aggressively marketed to kids have the worst nutritional quality of all cereals, according to an analysis of 161 brands earlier this year.  



The food industry spends about $229 million annually advertising these nutritionally void cereals to children. Colorful cartoons and other cheery tricks are meant to stimulate your child into wanting these “fun” foods, but the damage they can do to your child’s health is no laughing matter.

Obesity has become a major concern for American children, with excess sugar and carbohydrates being two of the major culprits contributing to this growing problem.


Sugar is Not a Healthy Breakfast, Fiber be Damned

There are two major problems with breakfast cereals:

  1. Their high sugar content
  2. The grains (carbohydrates, which also break down into sugar)


Regardless of the “healthy fiber” content of the cereal, consuming that much sugar is not going to promote good health. Foods high in added sugar contain little in terms of essential vitamins and minerals, and the calories they contain are not made up of important micronutrients needed for health and growth.


In fact, sugar is bad for your health in so many ways, I’ve compiled an entire list outlining 100-Plus Ways in Which Sugar Can Damage Your Health!

In Most Cases Grains  Equals Sugar

Grains are such common staples that most can’t imagine them not being healthy. Now, if you are a Carb type, you can actually do well with grains. However, in my experience, only about 15 percent of the population benefit from having healthy unprocessed grains.For the majority, grains and cereals should be limited or avoided as much as possible.

This is because grains rapidly break down to sugar in your body, and stimulate insulin production. Therefore, anyone who is overweight, or has high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or diabetes would do best to avoid grains as well, because you’re right back to the issue of consuming too much sugar again.

Proper childhood nutrition and engaging in an active lifestyle is so important -- if you want to set the stage for lifelong health -- I wrote an entire book on the subject called Generation XL: Raising Healthy, Intelligent Kids in a High-Tech, Junk-Food World.

What Makes a Healthy Breakfast?





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