These 7 Cereals Are Shockingly Not Considered “Healthy” By The Government

There’s no meal or snack more versatile than cereal. Whether you eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a late-night snack, there’s always a place for cereal. It can be tough to locate a tasty, healthful cereal. One that isn’t loaded with sugar, provides numerous nutrients, and will hold you over until lunchtime?

It can be tricky to identify which foods are considered “healthy.” The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has released specific guidelines that brands must meet in order for their product to be labeled as “healthy.”

A product can only be classified as “healthy” if it meets the FDA’s updated Nutrition Facts label and the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Therefore, the majority of “healthy” cereals— even those you might have believed were healthy before—aren’t beneficial for you.

In order to earn the healthy seal of approval from the FDA, cereals must meet certain requirements. These include:

– three-fourth ounces of whole grains

– no more than 1 gram of saturated fat

– no more than 230 milligrams of sodium

– no more than 2.5 grams of added sugars

These new standards are a direct result of the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health “as well as the release of the related national strategy, which aims to end hunger, improve nutrition and physical activity, reduce diet-related diseases and close disparity gaps by 2030,” reads the FDA press release.

“Healthy food can lower our risk for chronic disease. But too many people may not know what constitutes healthy food,” stated the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra. “FDA’s move will help educate more Americans to improve health outcomes, tackle health disparities and save lives.”

The cereals below might have seemed healthy to you before, but according to new guidance, they’re not.

1 – Raisin Bran (9g of added sugars)

2 – Honey Nut Cheerios (12g of added sugars)

3 – Corn Flakes (300mg of sodium; 4g of added sugars)

4 – Honey Bunches of Oats Honey Roasted (8g of added sugars)

5 – Frosted Mini Wheats (12g of added sugars)

6 – Life (8g of added sugars)

7 – Special K (270mg of sodium; 4g of added sugars)

Out of these cereals, which do you eat most often? And are there others that you consume even though they don’t have the FDA’s blessing?