Breakfast cereals and bars. How to spot the ones with a lot of sugar

On the cereal shelf everything looks healthy, with ears of wheat, fruit, ‘wholegrain’ and ‘source of fibre’. The calories per 100 g are almost the same in all of them. The difference lies in sugars and fibre, and you find it in two places on the pack, the nutrition table and the ingredients list.

The numbers

Five foods from the app’s database, per 100 g:

And the same comparison at 30 g, so that you see the same weight. The 30 g is simply the same amount for all of them, not a recommended serving:

The colour comes from the sugars per 100 g, with the thresholds of UK labelling: up to 5 g green, up to 22.5 g amber, above 22.5 g red. The values are averages from the Ciqual database. Each product on the shelf may differ, so look at its own table.

‘Wholegrain’ does not mean little sugar

The wholegrain cereal in our database has a lot of fibre, 9.4 g per 100 g. But it also has 15.2 g of sugars, twice as much as corn flakes. Both have quite a lot of salt, 0.9 to 1 g per 100 g, which makes them amber for salt too.

In the regulations we checked, we found no definition of ‘wholegrain’ for breakfast cereals. The word does not guarantee a specific percentage of whole grain, and it says nothing about sugar. That is why you need to look at the table.

Muesli with no added sugar

The muesli in our database has no added sugar, but it has 13.3 g of sugars per 100 g. When a product says ‘with no added sugars’ and contains natural sugars, the law requires it to also say ‘contains naturally occurring sugars’.

Watch the amount too. A cup of muesli weighs about 85 g and has 318 kcal. A cup of corn flakes weighs 30 g and has 110. Muesli is denser, so the same bowl has almost three times the calories.

Cereal bars

The cereal bar with fruit in our database has 30.4 g of sugars per 100 g. It is the only one of the five foods that comes out red. A 25 g bar has 7.6 g of sugars, about one and a half teaspoons, and 95 kcal. It also has only 1.5 g of protein.

Bars vary a lot from product to product. Some contain sweeteners or polyols instead of sugar. They must then say ‘with sweetener(s)’ next to the name. If polyols are above 10%, they also state that excessive consumption may produce laxative effects. In the app, scan the specific bar to see its own colour.

How to find added sugar

The nutrition table shows all sugars together, so the natural sugars of fruit and milk count too. For added sugar, look at the ingredients, which are listed from the largest amount to the smallest. Sugar can appear under various names:

• sugar of any kind
• glucose syrup, glucose-fructose syrup or fructose-glucose syrup
• dextrose, fructose
• invert sugar
• honey
• concentrated fruit juice

The World Health Organization counts all of these, including honey and juices, as ‘free sugars’, which it recommends keeping below 10% of the day’s energy.

When a product has three or four different sugars, each one may sit lower in the list than it would if there were only one. Count how many of these names appear and how high up they are.

Fibre and protein on the pack

‘Source of fibre’ needs only 3 g. Even the bar in our database reaches it, with 4.1 g. Plain rolled oats, with nothing added, meet all three, with 11.2 g of fibre, 1 g of sugars and 12.4% of energy from protein.

Do breakfast cereals help with weight?

Three reviews find that eating breakfast cereals regularly is linked with a slightly lower body mass index. They rely mainly on observational studies, and all three were commissioned or funded by the cereal industry. The author of one of them writes that cereals may simply go along with a healthier lifestyle. It is uncertain whether the cereals themselves change weight.

A 2019 analysis of 13 randomised trials in the BMJ looked at whether eating breakfast helps. People who ate breakfast had on average 260 kcal more per day and slightly higher weight than those who skipped it. The trials were short, so the finding is of low certainty. It does show, though, that breakfast is not necessary for weight loss. If you like breakfast, have it. If not, you don’t need to force yourself.

How to choose

1. Look at the sugars per 100 g. Below 5 g is low, above 22.5 g is high.
2. Look at the fibre. 6 g or more is a lot.
3. Read the first ingredients and count the names of sugar.
4. Weigh your bowl once, so you know how many grams you eat.

If you want something sweet, a bowl of rolled oats with milk and a piece of fruit gives you sweetness from the fruit and fibre from the oats. See the recipe oats with milk and fruit and the article on the nutrition table.