Consumer

Kids' Cereals Packing Some Nutrition Punch

Consumer Reports Rated 27 On Sugar, Sodium, Fiber, Other Factors; Some That Did Well May Surprise You

(CBS) You probably struggle to find your kids just the right cereal for breakfast.

You don't want a lot of sugar or salt, but you do want lots of nutrition. 

"Consumer Reports" has taken some of the guesswork out, by rating 27 popular cereals aimed at kids, and you might be surprised by some of those that got higher scores for nutritional value.

Gayle Williams, deputy health editor of Consumer Reports, worked on the study, and explained the process.

The magazine staff watch commercials on kids' networks, such as Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network, to see which cereals were most heavily marketed to kids. That's why you don't see cereals such as Raisin Bran or Special K on the list. Consumer Reports only wanted to consider cereals marketed directly to children.

None of the cereals is considered bad. They were rated very good, good, and fair.

None of them is poisonous; none would make you ill, she stressed.

Consumer Reports testers considered sugar, sodium fiber, calcium and iron content.

The ones dubbed fair did have some nutritional value and the magazine isn't saying not to eat them. For instance, they may be high in sugar, but some are also high in iron.

The top-rated cereal was Cheerios. It has very little sugar, was good in sodium, and did well in fiber, Williams explains. "It's a good source of a lot of things that has iron and calcium in it as well, and it's good cereal for you."

Also rated "very good": Kix which, Williams said, "is a little bit more fun for kids, and also did well in terms of sodium and sugar and fiber. So that rated well."

Lucky Charms and Frosted Mini-Wheats were rated "good."

Rice Krispies didn't do as well as many at home might think. "After all," Williams pointed out, "it's puffed rice, but basically, it has no fiber in it. It didn't have a lot of sugar, but it also has a lot of sodium in it, so if you're watching your sodium, this is not a good choice."

Among those that didn't rate well were Corn Pops, Honey Smacks and Golden Crisps. They are, Williams said, "high in sugar, and you can make better choices than those."

Some others that did pretty well included Cocoa Pebbles and Chocolate Crisps. "When you look at the lower sodium and the more fiber in it, that's what made those pretty good choices," Williams expalined.

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