Breakfast cereals might look fun and colorful and taste great, but many of America’s most popular choices are more like eating candy for breakfast.
These cereals are packed with sugar and artificial colors and offer barely any nutrition. Eating them often can make you crave more sweets and might not keep you full or energized.
As Peter Lurie, director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, notes: “It’s remarkable that, as Americans grow more health-conscious, a product often advertised as a healthy way to start the day is becoming less nutritious.”
Here’s a closer look at 15 of the unhealthiest cereals you’ll find in U.S. grocery stores.
1. Honey Smacks
With their glossy, golden, puffed wheat pieces that look almost sticky, Honey Smacks are hard to resist in the cereal aisle.
When you try them, you’ll first notice how extremely sweet they taste because it’s more like eating syrupy candy than breakfast. The sugar content is shocking, with over half the cereal’s weight coming from sugar and nearly 18 grams per serving.
There’s barely any fiber or protein, so this cereal won’t keep you feeling full for long. Dr. Uma Naidoo, a Harvard-trained nutritional psychiatrist, warns: “Starting your day with these sugary cereals can trigger blood sugar spikes, leading to hunger just hours later.”
2. Golden Crisp
Like Honey Smacks, Golden Crisp features light golden, oval-shaped puffs with a shiny, sugary coating. The first bite is crisp, but the cereal quickly dissolves into a soft, honey-sugar flavor that is almost dessert-like.
It’s also loaded with sugar, over 50% by weight, and has virtually no fiber or protein.
Maya Feller, registered dietitian-nutritionist, puts it well: “By now, there’s little debate that sweetened cereal delivers sugar highs more than it does nutrition – so, ironically, this popular breakfast option was conceived as a health food.”
3. Marshmallow Fruity Pebbles
A bowl of Marshmallow Fruity Pebbles looks like a colorful explosion, with fruity rice crisp pieces and pastel marshmallow bits. Every bite delivers an artificial burst of fruit flavor and a sweet pop from the marshmallows, making it seem more like a treat than a meal.
It’s one of the highest in sugar on this list, about 18 grams per serving, and is loaded with food dyes and hardly any fiber or protein.
Despite this, Fruity Pebbles cereals (including the marshmallow kind) sell nearly 3.7 million boxes monthly.
4. Froot Loops
Pour some Froot Loops and get a rainbow of rings that even color your milk! The taste is tart and fruity but very sweet, and there’s little real fruit.
With at least 12 grams of sugar per serving and lots of artificial colors, it’s unsurprising that more than 6 million boxes are sold each month, making Froot Loops one of America’s favorites despite its health drawbacks.
University of Kentucky professor, Shuoli Zhao, observes: “What surprises me most is that the health claims presented on the packaging of these products and the nutritional information listed are moving in opposite directions.”
5. Cap’n Crunch’s Crunch Berries
Cap’n Crunch’s Crunch Berries stands out with its fun mix of yellow pillow-shaped pieces and vibrant berry-colored “crunch berries.”
The texture is crunchy, while the taste is pure sugary corn and a hint of candy-like berry.
It’s loaded with sugar (17 grams per serving) and has no nutritional value from fruit or whole grains.
Crunch Berries is just one popular variety in the Cap’n Crunch line, which moves millions of boxes monthly.
6. Apple Jacks
Bright orange and green loops make Apple Jacks instantly recognizable, and the color often turns your milk a light green.
The cereal tastes strongly of cinnamon sugar with a hint of manufactured apple flavor and gets soggy quickly.
With 13 grams of sugar per serving and not much fiber or real apple, Apple Jacks still sells between 2.5 and 3 million boxes in the U.S. every month.
7. Lucky Charms
A bowl of Lucky Charms consists of half pale oat cereal pieces and half brightly colored marshmallows in shapes like stars, rainbows, and clovers.
While the oat pieces are bland and mildly sweet, the marshmallows are chalky and pack a powerful sugary punch. This is not filling and delivers 12 grams of sugar per bowl.
Still, the mix of shapes and colors makes it a favorite for kids, with over 8 million boxes sold monthly.
Harvard nutrition professor Dr. Josiemer Mattei warns about cereals like this: “Although the study showed that the increase in added sugars was modest, the added sugar content in ready-to-eat breakfast cereals tends to be high.”
8. Cinnamon Toast Crunch
If you love cinnamon toast, you’ll recognize the flavor in these small, golden-brown squares dusted with cinnamon and sugar.
The cereal is sweet and crunchy, then turns your milk into a cinnamon dessert drink.
Each serving has 12 grams of sugar and few nutrients, but that hasn’t stopped Americans from making it one of the most purchased cereals at nearly 10 million monthly boxes.
9. Cocoa Pebbles
Cocoa Pebbles offers tiny, dark brown rice crisps that look almost like chocolate sprinkles and turn your milk brown.
The taste is a sharp, artificial chocolate sweetness, and they get soggy fast. With 10–12 grams of sugar per serving and little else, these are less food and more dessert.
The Pebbles family of cereals together sells several million boxes per month in the U.S.
10. Frosted Flakes
Every flake in this cereal is thin and crisp, covered in a visible white layer of sugar. When you eat them, they’re crunchy at first, then quickly get soft in milk. The flavor is simple, just sweet corn.
Each bowl contains 12 grams of sugar and almost no fiber, yet it’s consistently a top seller, with millions of boxes leaving shelves every month.
11. Honey Nut Cheerios
These tan little O-shaped rings shine with a honey glaze and smell like honey and nuts, but mostly taste sweet.
Although advertised as heart-healthy, one serving has more than 12 grams of sugar, more than many cookies! Despite this, Honey Nut Cheerios is America’s best-selling cereal, with over 10 million boxes sold monthly.
This is a prime example of what Professor Zhao highlighted, as the portraits of health on these boxes don’t match their sugary reality.
12. Corn Pops
Corn Pops are glossy, light yellow, irregularly shaped strings or puffs. They’re airy, sweet, buttery, and stick to your teeth.
One bowl gives you 15 grams of sugar, almost no fiber, and quick-digesting carbs. While not at the top of the sales charts, millions of boxes are sold yearly.
13. Trix
Trix comes in neon-bright balls or fruit shapes, with every rainbow color. Its taste is an assertive, artificial fruitiness with plenty of sugar, about 11 grams per bowl.
Its super-sweet and tangy flavor makes it a hit among kids and lots of nostalgic adults, contributing to 1–2 million boxes sold monthly.
14. Reese’s Puffs
This cereal resembles half-brown and half-tan spheres. It tastes like the famous peanut butter cups: sweet, creamy, chocolatey, and candy-like.
With up to 12 grams of sugar and lots of processed ingredients, Reese’s Puffs sells an estimated 2.5–3.5 million boxes a month.
15. Cookie Crisp
Cookie Crisp looks exactly like tiny chocolate chip cookies floating in your bowl.
They’re crunchy and taste like a crispy, sweet cookie—with an artificial, sugary twist.
There’s little real nutrition here: sugar (12 grams per bowl), carbs, and additives. Still, this playful cereal sells hundreds of thousands (sometimes over a million) boxes in the U.S. every month.
Do you eat these cereals daily? If so, which is your favorite?
If not, what is your usual breakfast?