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A Breakfast Cereal You Can Feel Good About

August 5, 2010   15 Comments

Back in March, I wrote Candy or Breakfast? Evaluate Your Cereal and since then I have been on a search for cereals that pass my, "Healthy or Crappy Cereal Test" (patent pending :)

Heart To Heart Cereal

The sad thing isn't that I couldn't find hardly any that I both liked and passed the test! The biggest problem with my test was the second ingredient measure. If the second ingredient was sugar, high fructose corn syrup, molasses, etc., I had decided the cereal failed.

Well, that turned out to be quite a high bar and I think it ruled out some healthy choices. I asked my new pal Cheryl Forberg Interview what she thought. She thinks that if it has 5 grams or less of sugar per serving it is a good choice.

So here is a new version of the test using Kashi's Heart to Heart Cereal:

Healthy or Crappy Cereal Test

1. Is the first ingredient whole grain? Yes! The first ingredient is whole oat flour.

2. Is there 5 grams or less of sugar per serving? Yes! There is 5 grams of sugar per serving.

3. One serving must provides at least 4 grams of fiber. You can remember this one with Four Fiber. Yes! It has 5 grams of fiber!

Great! Kashi's Heart to Heart passes!

Previously on Snack Girl, I slammed Kashi for Kashi GoLean Review, which has 10 grams of sugar per serving. That stuff really tasted like Captain Crunch.

But, Kashi's Heart to Heart cereal is pretty tasty and has less sodium than Cheerios, but more sugar (aah, trade-offs). My kids don't love it, but I can serve it with some other cereal mixed in (like Rice Krispies) and it becomes more palatable.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Do you have any label tests? Please share.

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15 Comments:

We switched from Cheerios to Kashi Heart to Heart a few years ago for the extra fiber and low sugar. It sticks with my kids longer and I mix in plain flax flakes for extra texture, fiber and low sugar goodness. Even Rice Crispies has sugar..there's no escape!

This is one of my favorites and my two year old loves it. We won't buy Cheerios ever again! He also likes the Honey Sunshine cereal by Kashi which is 1 WW point per 3/4 serving.

We've been eating for many years and LOVE it! Once you start eating things with little or no sugar, everything else is simply "too much". Your taste buds will notice, even when you reduce salt intake. Most foods seem too salty for me now. I don't even have salt or sugar in the house any more. If it's not there, one can't use it!!

We like Heart to Heart. My kids won't eat it every day or every week, but I buy a box every month or two and they will eat it.

I've heard this cereal also makes great breading for chicken when crushed up. :)

SWEET! I love this cereal, the honey AND the cinnamon.

I've been following your guide and kicked my Kashi Go Lean Crunch (and Berry Crunch!) habit easily. Thank you. I was reading the nutritional label on a box of Fiber One yesterday; did you know it contains zero grams of sugar but does contain asparatame? Greaaat.

I just wanted to point out that Kashi Go Lean CRISP is the perpetrator here - not Kashi Go Lean. I eat regular Kashi Go Lean every morning and there is nothing sugary about it. My husband calls it "twigs and rocks" cereal. They even use the term "fiber twigs" on the front of the box. Absolutely nothing compares in the cereal aisle nutrition-wise, but you have to get used to the taste. I was throwing some dried cranberries in there but I didn't like all the extra sugar.

I love this cereal. It does look like cat food, though! too expensive. stopped buying it. tight budget.

You should try Kashi heart to heart cinnamon.

Have you heard of PC fibre first cereal? It's the best I've seen :)

Its a aquirred taste but I love it now!

I love the Kashi heart to heart cereal. I first tried it when Kashi sent me a free sample to try. I'm glad to see it on your good list of things to eat.

Just get some pure via Stevie in there and you got really crunchy cheerios

Here's another test...the ratio of fiber gms to carb grams should be below 1:10....So Arrowhead Puffed Barley is about as good as it gets! 3 gm fiber/13 gm carb comes out to about 1 gm fiber to 4 gm carb and NO sugar or fat at all!

McCann's Oatmeal: 3 gm fiber to 27 carb is about 1:9, with 1 gm soluble fiber, the good stuff.

Nature's Path org. Corn Puffs: has a 1:12 ratio, slightly above ideal...but no sugar or fat. It has the whole grain seal on it.

Hope this helps!

Trader Joe's has some great alternatives...

Joe's O's alone or mixed half and half with Fruity O's

Joe's O's mixed in 2/3rds with 1/3 High Fiber O's (8g sugar!)

My Mom Fav is O's with a drizzle of honey over raw walnuts, yum!

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