Are Cheerios Healthy? 15 Things You Should Know

Is consuming Cheerios a healthy choice?

If you look at a Cheerios box, you’ll see the words “Lower Cholesterol” in huge letters. Certainly, this is a cereal that is marketed for its supposed health benefits. But how healthy are Cheerios really? Is it just hype, or are they the real deal?

Cheerios are one of the healthiest popular cereals behind shredded wheat and plain oatmeal. They are a good source of fiber, including soluble fiber that can help lower cholesterol. Cheerios do have added sugar, but only 2g per serving, which is less than most cereals.

Below, we’ll dig into the details of Cheerios ingredients and nutrition facts, and how they compare to other cereals. We’ll answer questions about glycemic index, weight loss, whether it’s okay to eat Cheerios every day, and much more.

Are Cheerios Good for You?

Here are the 15 questions we’ll answer about Cheerios nutrition. Click any of them to skip ahead to that section—or just keep scrolling to read them all:

1. What Are Cheerios Made Of?
2. Are Cheerios Low in Sugar?
3. Are Cheerios Low Glycemic?
4. Are Cheerios High in Fiber?
5. What Kind of Fiber Is in Cheerios?
6. Are Cheerios High in Iron?
7. How Much Sodium Is in Cheerios?
8. Are Cheerios Processed Food?
9. Are Cheerios Good For Weight Loss?
10. Are Cheerios Really Good for Your Heart?
11. Are Cheerios as Healthy as Oatmeal?
12. Are Cheerios the Healthiest Cereal?
13. What Are the Healthiest Kind of Cheerios?
14. Is It Ok to Eat Cheerios Every Day?
15. Are Cheerios Vegan?

1. What Are Cheerios Made Of?

Let’s start by looking at some actual Cheerios ingredients. There are many versions of Cheerios, and I have a separate post about Multigrain Cheerios specifically. But in this post, we’ll mostly be looking at Original Cheerios.

Cheerios Ingredients: Whole Grain Oats, Corn Starch, Sugar, Salt, Tripotassium Phosphate. Vitamin E (Mixed Tocopherols) Added to Preserve Freshness. [Added Vitamins and Minerals.]

Here’s what I notice about these ingredients:

• Cheerios are made with whole-grain oats. Whole grains provide more fiber and other nutrients than processed grains. In Cheerios, the whole-grain oats are responsible for the cholesterol-lowering soluble fiber, which we’ll discuss more below.

• Cheerios have added sugar. Refined sugar adds empty calories and can have many negative health impacts when eaten in excess. Cheerios also have corn starch, which may also raise the glycemic index a bit. We’ll compare the sugar content of Cheerios to other cereals below.

• Cheerios are free of artificial sweeteners or colors. Cheerios have a fairly simple, minimal ingredients list. There are no controversial artificial sweeteners or colors like sucralose or red 40.

• Cheerios have added vitamins and minerals. These include iron, zinc, calcium, vitamin D, a mix of B vitamins, and more. Generally it’s better to get most of your nutrients from whole foods, not fortification—but this is likely still a positive.

Overall, Cheerios ingredients are pretty simple, and not bad aside from the sugar. The key to whether Cheerios are “healthy” may have to do more with the numbers, like “How much sugar is there? How much fiber? What’s the glycemic index?“

So let’s take a closer look at those areas in the next sections.

2. Are Cheerios Low in Sugar?

Cheerios are quite low in sugar, with only 2g of added sugar per serving (1 1/2 cups or 39g). Cheerios only have half the added sugar of Corn Flakes or Rice Krispies. Cheerios have less than a quarter of the added sugar in Raisin Bran.

The American Heart Association recommends a limit of 25g of sugar per day for women and 36g per day for men. That would allow you about 12 to 18 servings of Cheerios per day, if you ate no other added sugars.

Here is a table comparing the sugar content of Cheerios to other popular cereal brands:

Cereal	Serving Size	Total Sugars	Added Sugar
Cheerios	1 1/2 cup (39g)	2g	2g
Corn Flakes	1 1/2 cup (42g)	4g	4g
Froot Loops	1 1/3 cup (39g)	12g	12g
Frosted Flakes	1 cup (37g)	12g	12g
Grape Nuts	1/2 cup (58g)	5g	0g
Life Cereal	1 cup (42g)	8g	8g
Raisin Bran	1 cup (59g)	17g	9g
Rice Krispies	1 1/2 cup (40g)	4g	4g
Shredded Wheat	1 1/3 cup (60g)	0g	0g
Special K	1 1/4 cup (39g)	5g	4g
Total	1 cup (40g)	6g	5g

Cheerios are one of the lowest-sugar cereals that are actually popular and widely available. That said, shredded wheat would be an even better option if you want to cut out sugar—it’s got 0g of sugar, and no sketchy artificial sweeteners, either.

Of course, if you’re concerned about blood-sugar levels, it’s also important to remember that other carbs get broken down into sugars in your body, too. And quick-digesting carbs can spike your blood sugar, too, even if they’re not “sugar.”

So let’s look at glycemic index (GI) in the next section.

Related question:

• Do Cheerios have high fructose corn syrup? Cheerios do not have high fructose corn syrup. They are sweetened with normal sugar instead.

• Are Cheerios keto friendly? Cheerios are not keto friendly or low carb. Cheerios have 29g of carbohydrate in each serving (39g or 1 1/2 cups).

3. Are Cheerios Low Glycemic?

Cheerios have scored 74 on the glycemic index, categorizing it as a high-GI food. This is despite Cheerios high fiber content and relatively low sugar content when compared to other popular cereals. (source)

Interestingly, this puts Cheerios far above plain oatmeal on the glycemic index. Rolled oats have a lower GI score of ~55. (But it depends exactly which oatmeal you eat, and how it’s prepared. “Instant” oats typically score as high GI.)

Before moving on, I want to add a few cavaets:

• Glycemic index scores for foods can often vary from study to study—and interestingly, from person to person. So, I wouldn’t put a ton of stock in the precise numbers cited in GI studies.
  
• The glycemic index of cereal is affected by which milk you eat it with. Some whole-grain cereals like Weetabix score as “medium GI” when eaten dry, but “low GI” when eaten with low-fat milk. Cheerios’ GI would logically be affected in a similar way.

But if blood-sugar control is important to you, then I’d be a bit cautious with Cheerios. On the positive side, yes, it’s a high-fiber food made with whole-grain oats. But it’s processed in such a way that seems to be digested more quickly than in-tact grains.

As explained in the “Whole Grain Hierarchy” video by Brenda Davis, RDN, whole-grain cereals are often not quite as low-GI as in-tact whole grains.

So, proceed with caution. You may want to test your individual blood-sugar response to Cheerios before assuming it’s an optimal choice for you.

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4. Are Cheerios High in Fiber?

Cheerios are a good source of fiber, with 4g of fiber per serving or about 10g per 100g of cereal. That is about four times the fiber of Corn Flakes, or ten times the fiber of Rice Krispies. Cheerios have about 75% as much fiber as shredded wheat cereal.

Here is a table showing how Cheerios compares to several other popular cereals for fiber content:

Cereal	Fiber per 100g
Rice Krispies	1.0g
Special K	2.3g
Corn Flakes	2.4g
Life	7.1g
Cheerios	10g
Weetabix	10g
Total	10g
Grape Nuts	12.1g
Shredded Wheat	13.3g
Uncle Sam	18.2g
All-Bran Original	29.3g
Fiber One	46.7g

As you can see, Cheerios are by no means the highest-fiber cereal… But they’re a relatively high-fiber choice, thanks to being made with whole-grain oats and just a few other ingredients.

Related Question:

• Are Cheerios Good for Constipation? Cheerios are a good source of fiber, which can help relieve constipation. However, Cheerios are not quite as “heavy duty” as ultra high-fiber cereals that specialize in this purpose. Cheerios only has about 1/4th as much fiber as the cereal named “Poop Like a Champion,” for example.

5. What Kind of Fiber Is in Cheerios?

Each serving of Cheerios has 2g of insoluble fiber and 2g of soluble fiber. This fiber comes primarily from whole-grain oats.

Let’s discuss soluble vs isoluble fiber a bit. Soluble fiber is known for its ability to lower LDL cholesterol and blood sugar levels. It’s why Cheerios are often touted as a cholesterol-lowering food.

But insoluble fiber has its own benefits, too, including helping with regularity and with insulin sensitivity. Really, they are both important, and Cheerios gives you both in about equal measure.

It’s also a good thing that the fiber in Cheerios comes from whole-grain oats. That’s a more natural and whole-food source than some other cereals, such as All-Bran, which get most of their fiber from isolated ingredients like wheat bran.

6. Are Cheerios High in Iron?

Cheerios are a good source of iron. They supply 12.6mg of iron per serving. In a 39g serving, Cheerios have 70% of the Daily Value (DV) for iron, based on the needs of an adult with a 2,000 calorie diet.

If you need to improve your iron intake, I have a special tip for you: Eat vitamin C at the same meal as your Cheerios. Vitamin C is shown to improve absorption of nonheme iron when eaten together.

So have some fruit with your Cheerios! Here’s a list of high vitamin-C fruits.

7. How Much Sodium Is in Cheerios?

Cheerios have 190mg of sodium per serving of 1 1/2 cups (39g). This is moderate sodium content, about th