https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2834355
Brief summary: cereals marketed to children have been increasing sugar, fat, and salt, while decreasing protein and fiber.
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This is yet another reason to pay attention to nutritional labels. They are really important.
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It’s mind boggling that cereal marketed to children could have become even worse over the years considering what complete crap it already was when I was a kid.
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Okay, you made me look. I grew up on Cheerios as cereal of choice. Turns out it is pretty good. And gluten free–although that wasnt a thing back then.
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Yeah, is it possible that Cap’n Crunch is even more unhealthy than it used to be?
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Froot Loops. OMG. 
I forgot how horrible this stuff is since our kids don’t feed cereals to their offspring (other than Cheerios). Big kid bought some as a road snack to keep kids busy on the plane. Horrible stuff!
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Seems that Cheerios becoming gluten-free began in 2015, when the manufacturer sourced ingredients like oats from suppliers that avoided the common cross-contamination issues.
However, while the original Cheerios has very little added sugar (1g per serving), the newer variants of Cheerios have significantly more added sugar (7-15g per serving).
I grew up with a mom who was very careful about added sugar in products. My brother was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes when he was quite young, so we were all schooled on proper nutrition. I have paid attention to ingredients since nutritional labeling became a law - not saying I always eat the right stuff, but I know for the most part what is in foods. If you think added sugar is an issue, read the sodium content on labels. It’s insane!
So which came first, the chicken or the egg? Do companies add so much sugar and salt because consumers have been clamoring for it, or did they choose to include it in order to make consumers crave their products? Are we telling them we expect that sweetness or saltiness, or have they slowly turned us on to the addictive power of junk? I don’t know the answers - just food for thought.
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It would be helpful to know which ~70 cereals per year are on the launch list. I expect there is a huge variety in nutritional content in different cereals. For example, the most popular cereal with highest sales revenue is Cheerios. Cheerios is marketed to children and popular with children (as well as adults). It has a small fraction of the sugar listed in the article, and has a largely unchanged recipe over the decades. A comparison between the first nutrition facts label in 1994 and current is below, with adjustments to convert to 2025 serving size. The only notable change I see over past 30 years is a large decrease in salt.
1994 → 2025
Sodium: 350 → 190
Sugar: 1.#g → 2g
Fiber: 4g → 4g
Protein: 4g → 5g
Fat: 2.#g → 2.5g
1994 Ingredients: Whole Oat Flour, Food Starch, Wheat Starch, Sugar, Salt, …
2025 Ingredients: Whole Grain Oats, Corn Starch, Sugar, Salt, …
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My parents bought us Captain Crunch, Fruit Loops, Frosted Flakes, Frosted Mini Wheat, Corn Pops, etc. I still can’t believe that I put that junk into my body when I was young.
Thank goodness I got a smarter on nutrition in my college years and I don’t eat any of those boxed cereals anymore.
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We didn’t get those very often, but it was usually in mini cereal box form. It was a fun and mildly transgressive feeling to convert the individual wax paper lined box into a “bowl” and pour milk into it. But we also joked about how the cardboard box itself would probably be a healthier breakfast than the cereal.
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Our kids had cheerios, kix, and Rice Krispies. And sometimes granola.
BUT once a year, for their birthdays, they were allowed to choose ANY one box of cereal from the cereal aisle that they wanted for themselves…and they did not have to share it unless they wanted to.
Fun fact…DD picked out Booberry one year. When she had the first bowl, and saw the blue milk, she refused to eat it. Oh well.
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Both?
Note that new types of cereals marketed toward adults also tend to be sweetened. Have there been any new ready-to-eat cereals in the last few decades that are not sweetened (not including obvious copies of “classic” ones like store-brand shredded wheat)?
We are not cereal people and the only ones my D ate when she were young were low sugar and organic but she preferred other things. The only exception was when we travelled. If there were Fruit Loops at breakfast she would have a small bowl, sans milk, just dry ; )
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My S had Cinnamon Toast Crunch at a friend’s house in his teens & he absolutely loved it. I admit that I sometimes bought it for him (he ate it as a snack). He’s in his 30’s now and there’s no way he’d touch anything like that … he has a much healthier diet now than I could ever get him to eat when he was younger.
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I ate cereal from time to time as a child. I eat it more regularly as adult, having a bowl of cold cereal most mornings and warm cereal (oatmeal) most afternoons. I eat ~6 meals per day. I find that ready-to-eat cereal works well for the first meal. When I wake up, I am usually hungry and dehydrated. Cereal is quick and easy to prepare, helps with hydration when served with milk, is inexpensive per calorie, can be reasonably healthy (or unhealthy) depending on cereal choice, can help get nutrients that are lacking in other parts of diet, and results in generally good and predictable functioning compared to other alternative first meals I have tried.
I usually rotate through 3 ready to-eat-cereals – Shredded Wheat, Toasted O’s, and Bran Flakes. The first 2 do not have any sugar added. The latter does. I eat the Bran Flakes on mornings following a late night cardio session, when I am still showing signs of being glycogen depleted. I eat the other 2 when I did not have an intense, glycogen depleting workout on preceding evening – generally whichever one fits best with future meal timing due to the caloric differences.
Of course ready-to-eat cereals can be far less healthy that the ones I listed, which I expect are primarily targeted towards adults or appealing to adults buying cereal for their children. Cereals that have marketing focused on appealing to children over adults, such as with a cartoon character on the box, tend to have a good amount of additives to make taste more appealing to children. It’s unclear from the study how much this has changed.
For example, among the cartoon character on box cereals, Frosted Flakes is often the best selling one in US – usually among top 3 most popular cereal in US by sales. It was originally named “Sugar Frosted Flakes” from initial release in 1950s to 1980s. I suspect it was no more healthy during this period than today. Like the other cereals I mentioned earlier in the thread, the first nutritional facts label in 1994 shows slightly worse nutrition than present. 1994 had 14g sugar and 220mg salt (when converting serving size). Current has 12g sugar and 190mg salt.
When I was on school committee, I learned that all of the cereals that are available for school breakfast programs are different formulations then the ones sold in stores (same is true for many of the cereal bars, granola bars, and snack packs) because they must meet the whole grain/lower sugar criteria to be used. I asked for this information because parents were concerned about what their children were being served. Our family buys/consumes very little processed food, so I don’t know which bothered me more. That this is what we were feeding kids for breakfast or that companies built brand loyalty among kids K-12 through the breakfast program and then sold their parents a completely different item.
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Wow, I learned something new today.
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I don’t think an occasional of Golden Grahams or Cinnamon Toast Crunch killed anyone. It can also be served with milk with sides that are more nutrient rich. And what might matter more is to pay attention to serving size. A cereal serving size is often only half a cup - yet we/kids fill their bowl much more.
I know some people who will buy a sugary cereal for their kids but only allow them to eat it as a dessert choice. Again, adding milk or fruit to the bowl helps to increase the nutritional value and is better than a piece of cake or a bunch of candy!
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Crunch berries.
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