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Fitness & Health

09th Mar 2015

You might not want to hear what the ten most sugary breakfast cereals are

Your breakfast might never be the same again

Conor Heneghan

Although you probably have an idea all the same.

Breakfast cereals have been a staple part of many a diet in Ireland and numerous other countries for generations, although there has been an increasing realisation in recent years that they might not be the healthiest thing in the world.

Why? Well because a lot of them are loaded with sugar and in some cases, probably even more sugar than you’d think.

A public health campaign group, Action on Sugar, recently conducted a study in the UK on the amount of sugar in breakfast cereals and the results were alarming to say the least.

The study found that 14 out of 50 cereals tested contained at least 33.3g of sugar (approximately eight teaspoons) per 100g.

If you expand that to a 500g box of cereal, that’s 40 teaspoons of sugar in total. In one box. And that’s before a consumer adds their own sugar into the mix.

Action on Sugar also determined the ten most sugary and least sugary breakfast cereals and while the study was based in the UK, similar products are readily available in Ireland.

Please be warned that some of your favourite cereals may well be included below.

We think we might stick to tea and toast tomorrow morning.

Ten most sugary cereals (grams of sugar per 100g)

  1. (Aldi) Harvest Morn Choco Rice (39g)
  2. Kellogg’s Frosties (37g)
  3. Morrisons Honey & Nut Corn Flakes (36.3g)
  4. Sainsbury’s Honey Nut Corn Flakes (36.3g)
  5. Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut (35g)
  6. Kellogg’s Coco Pops (35g)
  7. Sainsbury’s Choco Rice Pops (35g)
  8. The Co-operative Choco Rice Crispies (35g)
  9. Essential Waitrose Choco Pops (35g)
  10. (Lidl) Crownfield Choco Rice (34.2g)

Ten least sugary cereals (grams of sugar per 100g)

  1. Nestlé Shredded Wheat (0.7)
  2. Quaker Oats Oatso Simple Original (1g)
  3. Weetabix (4.4g)
  4. Simply M&S Cornflakes (5.4g)
  5. Sainsbury’s Corn Flakes (7.2g)
  6. (Aldi) Harvest Morn Cornflakes (7.6g)
  7. Kellogg’s Cornflakes (8g)
  8. Tesco Corn Flakes (8.1g)
  9. Asda Cornflakes (8.1g)
  10. Morrisons Corn Flakes (8.4g)

Hat-tip: i100

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