Today, cereal is an $8.9 billion business in the United States, and an entire aisle in most supermarkets. Although that sounds like a lot of flakes and Os and marshmallow hearts, experts say cereal–especially the sugary variety–hasn’t been selling so well lately. It’s getting serious competition from breakfast-on-the-go products. And Americans are looking for healthier alternatives–meaning less sugar and fewer calories and, oh, a little more fiber would be nice. Because two-thirds of us are almost as chubby as sumo wrestlers, it’s about time we cut back somewhere. So the We Test It crew went shopping for healthy cereals*, specifically those that left out trans fats and were low in sugar (12 g or less per serving), saturated fat (less than 1 g), and calories (200 and below). We also looked for at least 2 g of protein–a stick-to-your-ribs ingredient that, along with the fiber in these cereals, helps you make it to lunchtime without having to hit the vending machine for those little chocolate-covered doughnuts. We filled our shopping cart with 60 different cereals, making sure that name brands were represented, along with natural-food-store products you never heard of. View the PDF of our healthy cereal results*. Our testers were clear: These require no overnight soaking. Here are nine yummy and healthy cereals that also happen to be good for you. *To view the Healthy Cereals poster, you must have the Adobe Acrobat reader. To download this free software, click here.
