Choosing a healthy breakfast cereal is not a simple task. The cereal aisle is a long one, full of contradictions. You’ll find cereals made with refined grains with nearly no fiber  and cereals made with whole grains and bran boasting 7 grams or more of fibre. There are cereals with so much sugar they seem more like boxes of little cookies. And there are cereals with sugar listed far down on the ingredient list.

If you eat cereal almost every day, either for breakfast or as a snack, the cereal you choose can say a lot about your health. It can add a lot of good stuff to your diet — or it can add a whole lot of nothing.

Cereals made with refined grains have generally not been linked to health benefits, like a lower risk of death from heart disease, as whole-grain breakfast cereals have. Refined-grain cereals do not lower the risk of gaining weight or having a higher BMI (body mass index), but whole grain-rich cereals do.

Choosing a Healthy Breakfast Cereal: Taste or Nutrition?

The trick is finding a breakfast cereal that is full of healthful attributes, low in sugar, and has no saturated fat and trans fat — but still tastes great! It doesn’t matter how good for you a cereal is; if it doesn’t taste good, you’re probably not going to eat it day after day.

totalhealthnow breakfast