Nutritionists Pick The Best (And Worst) Breakfast Cereals For Your Health

See how the 10 most popular cereals rank.

When you roll out of bed in the morning, do you reach for a bowl of cereal to break the fast? Hungry cereal lovers bought $23 million worth of packaged cereals in the U.S. in 2024, and are expected to buy $64 billion globally. People love the convenience of packaged cereals and think of them as a healthy breakfast. But how healthy are they?

Some, yes, and some, not so much. With some tips from three nutrition experts, you can select the best cereals for your health.

First, don’t get confused by a new food classification that villainizes all cereals.

The NOVA food classification system has been causing unnecessary confusion about which foods are “ultraprocessed.” It was developed by the Center for Epidemiological Studies in Health and Nutrition, School of Public Health at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and it groups foods by their level of processing and recommends avoiding “ultraprocessed foods” like candy and soda. All breakfast cereal is lumped in the ultraprocessed category. This has prompted debate among nutrition experts.

Courtney Pelitera, a registered dietician (RD), thinks the NOVA scale is being misinterpreted. “Processing simply refers to all physical, biological and chemical methods used during the food manufacturing process, including the use of additives. This classification system was never meant to determine the ‘healthiness of food’ as has become popular on social media channels.”