A Closer Look at Our Favorite Childhood Cereals

My post this morning got me thinking about the cereals I used to eat as a kid and the actual nutritional content in these bowls of cereal saturated with marshmallows, fake berries and other sugary delights.

Marshmallows from Lucky Charms

I found an interesting article on WebMD.com that ranked these cereal favorites based on their sugar, fiber and sodium content.

Here’s their breakdown, from best to worst:

Best

• Cheerios (General Mills), 1 gram of sugar, 3 grams of fiber, and 190 milligrams of sodium
• Kix (General Mills), 3 grams of sugar, 3 grams of fiber, and 210 milligrams of sodium
• Life (Quaker Oats), 6 grams of sugar, 2 grams of fiber, and 160 milligrams of sodium
• Honey Nut Cheerios (General Mills), 9 grams of sugar, 2 grams of fiber, and 190 milligrams of sodium

Cheerios

Middle of the Road

• General Mills: Cookie Crisp, Golden Grahams Honey Graham, Lucky Charms, Cocoa Puffs, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Trix, Reese’s Puffs
• Kellogg: Frosted Mini-Wheats Bite Size, Frosted Flakes Gold, Frosted Flakes, Cocoa Krispies, and Frosted Flakes Reduced Sugar
• Post: Fruity Pebbles, Honey-Comb, Cocoa Pebbles

Golden Grahams

Worst

• Cap’n Crunch’s Peanut Butter Crunch (Quaker Oats), 9 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fiber, and 200 milligrams of sodium in a 3/4 cup serving
• Cap’n Crunch (Quaker Oats), with 12 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fiber, and 200 milligrams of sodium in a 3/4 cup serving
• Apple Jacks (Kellogg), 12 grams of sugar, less than 1 gram of fiber, and 135 milligrams of sodium in a 1 cup serving
• Froot Loops (Kellogg), 12 grams of sugar, less than 1 gram of fiber, and 135 milligrams of sodium in a 1 cup serving
• Corn Pops (Kellogg), 12 grams of sugar, no fiber, and 110 milligrams of sodium in a 1 cup serving
• Top Two Worst Cereals: Honey Smacks (15g sugar/serving) and Golden Crisps (14g sugar/serving) –> both have more sugar than a glazed doughnut from Dunkin’ Donuts!

Honey Smacks

I am proud to say my top two favorite childhood cereals made it into the “worst” category. Thatta girl! 😉

I still stand by my personal fav:

Happiness in a Bowl

I’d also like to take this opportunity to share with you my other favorite breakfast as a child:

Toaster Strudel

I was one healthy lil’ lady! 🙂

Ah, the good ol’ days…

How did your favorite childhood cereal stack up???

Big Salad = Full Belly

It took 24 years on this earth for me to realize that there are two different kinds of full. There’s the “I just ate an entire meal of my mom’s amazing home cooking… then followed it up with dessert” full and then there’s the “I just downed a massive amount of fruits and veggies and may turn into a tomato” full.

Thankfully after today’s lunch I am the “I may turn into a tomato” full.

Big Ol' Salad

Though I am not currently experiencing the food cramps and stomach pain that comes along with overindulging in a meal full of buttery mashed potatoes and a bowl of ice cream with homemade chocolate sauce, I am planning a trip home this weekend and will likely experience the aforementioned food cramps within the next couple days. I’m looking forward to it! 🙂

Fortunately, today’s salad did a great job of filling my belly with fresh, nutritious veggies.

Lots of Veggies

I topped a couple cups of broccoli slaw with teriyaki chicken, green peppers, plum tomato, water chestnuts and asparagus. I used balsamic vinegar as my dressing because I am madly in love with that stuff.

One More Time

My meals yesterday were seriously lacking in the veggie department, so I feel better after getting a couple servings in my lunch today.

Honey Nut Breakfast

Who knew such teeny-tiny little o’s could pack such a flavor punch? My morning breakfast centered around the delectable whole grain o’s in Honey Nut Cheerios cereal.

Greek Yogurt, Honey Nut Cheerios, Soy Nuts

I added a nice helping of the honey nut goodness to my Greek yogurt and sprinkled soy nuts on top of the mixture for that added crunch I adore.

Cereal’s like Cheerios take me back to my childhood and the delicious sugary cereal I used to eat all the time!

My top five favorite childhood cereals:

1. Corn Pops

2. Fruit Loops

3. Honey Comb

4. Lucky Charms

5. Golden Grahams

Today I usually eat my cereal hot – in the form of oatmeal, which I also adore, though nothing will make me smile like a huge bowl of Corn Pops.

Today’s breakfast was admittedly lacking the sugar of the breakfasts of my past, but it was nonetheless super tasty! To complete my meal, I added a cup of hot Yogi Tahitian vanilla hazelnut tea.

Yogi Tahitian Vanilla Hazelnut Tea

My breakfast

Stirring the cereal and soy nuts into my Greek yogurt really added a lot of volume which is great because I love digging into a big o’ bowl of yogurt for breakfast.

My tummy is happy! 🙂

Question for you… what was your favorite childhood cereal?