New tool from registered dietitians helps families choose best cereals for back-to-school breakfasts

Healthcastle.com is an official USDA MyPyramid Partner. Registered dietitians now run the largest nutrition network, Healthcastle.com, which reviews and analyzes 86 popular breakfast cereals for their Go UnDiet – Packaged Food Review tool.

September is Better Breakfast Month, which makes it a great time to take a good look at the cereals your family is eating every day. Many people think of cereal as a quick and healthy way to start off the morning. But after reviewing the facts, you may be stunned to learn what your family is actually eating.

“We were really surprised at some of the results,” said Gloria Tsang, RD, founder of Healthcastle.com. “We found trans fat where we didn’t expect it, as well as a surprising number of cereals that list sugar as the first ingredient.”

Here are some of the findings:

The Go UnDiet – Packaged Food Review tool allows user to sort cereals by sugar, trans fat, protein, fiber, and more. Each cereal’s description also includes an “RD’s take” summary to help interpret the nutrition facts.

In addition to sorting, you can do a side-by-side comparison, and based on what’s most important for your family, you can choose the brand that best suits your needs.

· Cartoon characters sell sugar: When sorted for sugar content, the top 10 with highest sugar content all have cartoon characters on the box. Some kids’ cereal, including Apple Jacks, Fruit Loops, Honey Smacks, and Golden Crisp have sugar as the first ingredient.

· Whole Grain may not mean 100% whole grain: Cereals with the Whole Grain logo on the box are not necessarily made with 100% whole grains. Some, including Cheerios and Corn Chex, added refined corn starch.

· Trans fat hides in 0g trans fat cereals: Some cereals, including Kellogg’s Mueslix and Post’s Waffle Crisp, show 0g trans fat on the Nutrition Facts panel, but have partially-hydrogenated oil on the ingredient list. Partially-hydrogenated oil indicates trans fat.

· Simple is best: Some cereals, including Whole O’s by Nature’s Path and Shredded Wheat by Post have 5 ingredients or fewer. Kellogg’s Smorz has a whopping 46 ingredients.

For Better Breakfast Month, it’s time to finally learn what’s in your breakfast cereal – and whether you might want to consider making a switch. Ideally, choose a cereal that has whole-grain flour as the first ingredient and contains less than 4 g of sugar and at least 5 g of fiber per serving.

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