Is Fiber One Cereal Healthy? 13 Things You Should Know

Is Fiber One Cereal healthy?

I still remember my first thoughts about Fiber One cereal: (1) It looks like rabbit food, and (2) It seems to give me gas. That said, I try to be more thorough and logical than that when researching foods. So today, we’re exploring in detail: Is Fiber One cereal really healthy?

Fiber One cereal is made with healthy whole-grain wheat, and it has a remarkable 18g of fiber per serving, about 3 times as much as shredded wheat. It is also sugar free. However, Fiber One also has processed ingredients like caramel color and sucralose, so it may be less healthy overall.

Below, we’ll explore the details of Fiber One’s ingredients and nutrition facts. We’ll look at its glycemic load, whether it’s good for weight loss and heart health, and more. I’ll also compare Fiber One to All Bran and oatmeal to see which is truly best.

Is Fiber One Cereal Good for You?

Here are the 13 specific questions I’ll be answering about Fiber One nutrition. Click any of them to skip ahead to that section—or just keep scrolling to read them all:

1. What Is Fiber One Cereal Made Of?
2. Is Fiber One Cereal High in Fiber?
3. What Kind of Fiber Is in Fiber One Cereal?
4. Is Fiber One Cereal Low in Sugar?
5. Is Fiber One Cereal Low Glycemic?
6. Does Fiber One Cereal Have Artificial Sweeteners?
7. Is Fiber One Cereal a Processed Food?
8. Is Fiber One Cereal Good For Weight Loss?
9. Is Fiber One Cereal Good for Your Heart?
10. Is Fiber One Cereal Healthier Than All Bran?
11. Is Fiber One Cereal Healthier Than Oatmeal?
12. Is It Ok to Eat Fiber One Cereal Every Day?
13. Is Fiber One Cereal Vegan?

1. What Is Fiber One Cereal Made Of?

Let’s start by looking at some Fiber One ingredients. We’ll mostly be looking at the Original flavor of Fiber One cereal. But I’ll also cover the Honey Clusters flavor below.

Fiber One Cereal (Original) Ingredients: Whole Grain Wheat, Corn Bran, Modified Wheat Starch, Color (caramel color and annatto extract), Guar Gum, Cellulose Gum, Salt, Baking Soda, Sucralose, Natural Flavor. [Added Vitamins and Minerals]

Here’s what I notice about these ingredients:

• Fiber One cereal is made with whole grain wheat. The cereal is not 100% whole grain, but still, this is a good thing. Whole grains are higher in fiber and other nutrients compared to processed grains. More on fiber below.

• Fiber One cereal is free of added sugar. This is very uncommon for cereal nowadays. Even relatively healthy cereals like Cheerios and Weetabix have some sugar—but not Fiber One. Does this make Fiber One cereal low-glycemic? We’ll cover that below.

• Fiber One Cereal has caramel color. This coloring ingredient can potentially contain a carcinogen called 4-MeI. For example, in a Consumer Reports study, many sodas with caramel color tested at surprisingly high levels for 4-MeI. So that’s not the most encouraging thing.

• Fiber One Cereal has sucralose. Sucralose is a somewhat controversial zero-calorie sweetener. It likely reduces the amount of calories and sugar in Fiber One cereal, but it may come with downsides, too, particularly for gut health. More details below.

• Fiber One cereal has added vitamins and minerals. Fortified foods are not the best way to get all your vitamins and minerals—but this is still probably a positive point overall.

Overall, the Fiber One ingredients have some healthy aspects, along with some not-so-good aspects. In the next sections, we’ll look more at the details of the fiber content, glycemic index, and other pros and cons.

2. Is Fiber One Cereal High in Fiber?

Fiber One cereal is very high in fiber, with 18 grams of fiber per 2/3 cup serving (40g). That is almost 5 times as much fiber as Cheerios, or 19 times as much fiber as Corn Flakes. Fiber One cereal even has about 3.5 times the fiber of shredded wheat.

Really, you could view Fiber One cereal as more of a fiber supplement than a normal cereal. Here is a table showing how Fiber One compares to other cereals for fiber content:

Cereal	Fiber per 100g
Rice Krispies	1.0g
Special K	2.3g
Corn Flakes	2.4g
Cheerios	9.4g
Weetabix	10g
Grape Nuts	12.1g
Shredded Wheat	13.3g
Uncle Sam	18.2g
All-Bran Original	29.3g
Fiber One	46.7g
Poop Like a Champion	57.5g

As you can see, Fiber One cereal is not quite the highest-fiber cereal in the world, but it’s actually one of the highest. In fact, from the cereals commonly found in big grocery stores, it may indeed be #1.

In fact, many people use Fiber One cereal more as a fiber supplement—they mix it into other cereals for extra fiber. For example, you could eat a bowl of Cheerios but add 1/3 cup of Fiber One for an extra 9g of fiber.

If you eat a large bowl of just Fiber One alone, it may be too much fiber for many people. (But we’ll discuss “How much Fiber One is too much?” below.)

Related Question:

• Is Fiber One cereal good for constipation? Fiber One cereal is a good source of fiber, which can soften stool and help prevent or relieve constipation.

3. What Kind of Fiber Is in Fiber One Cereal?

Each serving of Fiber One cereal has 17g of insoluble fiber and 1g of soluble fiber. This fiber comes from a blend of whole-grain wheat, corn bran, modified wheat starch, guar gum, and cellulose gum.

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

Well, Fiber One cereal has the same amount of soluble fiber per serving as Cheerios (1g). But it has a lot more insoluble fiber, too. And insoluble fiber has its own benefits, including helping with regularity and with insulin sensitivity. (source)

It’s also worth noting: The fiber in Fiber One cereal is not all from whole-grain wheat or other whole foods. Fiber One has added fiber-rich ingredients like corn bran and cellulose gum.

Some critics may complain that Fiber One kind of imbalanced in this regard. Yes, there is a lot of fiber in Fiber One cereal, but it’s not necessarily balanced with all the same micronutrients as in fruits, vegetables, beans, or other whole foods.

So you can’t necessarily say that Fiber One is “as healthy” as more natural high-fiber foods like beans or 100% whole wheat. It’s more complicated than just the amount of fiber.

3. Is Fiber One Cereal Low in Sugar?

Fiber One’s Original cereal is free of added sugar, and it has 0g of total sugar per serving. Instead of having sugar, it is sweetened with the artificial sweetener sucralose. However, Fiber One Honey Clusters cereal has 10g of sugar per serving.

Most cereals today are packed with sugar, but not Fiber One (at least not the Original flavor). It’s sugar free. That’s great, in my opinion, even if it does come with sucralose, which could have some downsides, too. (See below for more on sucralose.)

But there’s something else to consider when thinking about sugar content, too: Glycemic index (GI).

If you’re concerned about your blood-sugar levels, it’s important to remember that 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 the glycemic index of Fiber One cereal next.

4. Is Fiber One Cereal Low Glycemic?

I was unable to find a credible source that directly reports a glycemic index score or glycemic load for Fiber One cereal. However, there is still some data surrounding this question we can refer to.

One study found that participants eating Fiber One cereal experienced reduced appetite, more fullness, and a reduced glycemic response to a meal consumed 75 minutes later. That study was comparing Fiber One to corn flakes cereal or white bread, specifically. This is encouraging.

And we can use our logic a bit here, too. If we look at other cereals made with whole wheat and not much sugar—like shredded wheat and Weetabix—they’ve both scored as “medium” on the glycemic index, but “low GI” when eaten with low-fat milk. (source)

Now, also consider that fiber usually reduces the glycemic index of foods, and Fiber One has a ton of fiber—more than almost any other cereal, as we saw above.

Based on all this information, we should be able to assume that Fiber One cereal is low glycemic or, at worst, medium glycemic for most people. That said, we don’t have super solid data to go off of.

Related question:

• Is Fiber One cereal high in carbs? Yes, most of the calories in Fiber One cereal come from carbs. Fiber One cereal has 34g of total carbohydrates per serving. Fiber One cereal is not low-carb or keto-friendly. That said, Fiber One cereal is free of added sugar.

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5. Does Fiber One Cereal Have Artificial Sweeteners?

Fiber One cereal contains the artificial sweetener sucralose. This allows the cereal to be sugar free and lower in calories. However, sucralose and other artificial sweeteners may worsen gut bacteria or cause other health issues over time.

Here are a few of the possible health issues with sucralose:

• Sucralose seems to be a migraine trigger for some people. (source, source)
• Sucralose may contribute to insulin resistance through multiple mechanisms (more on that below).
• Sucralose has been shown to have a surprisingly minimal effect on weight loss.

There’s still some uncertainty about how the human body reacts long-term to any artificial sweeteners. That said, most of these health concerns are not well proven at this point. And these sweeteners are likely still better than added sugar.

Here is a more in-depth discussion of the up-to-date research on artificial sweeteners, including sucralose: