Sorting out the cereals: "breakfast candies" aside, how do you pick a winner?

Sorting Out The Cereals

As shoppers wander down the cereal aisle, cross-eyed from reading the tiny print, many yearn for a simple answer to a simple question: Which cereal is best?

Companies make the search tougher by dropping and introducing new healthy-sounding cereals at a rapid-fire pace. Names like Just Right, Nutrific, NutriGrain, Fruit Wheats, and Mueslix seem carefully crafted to appeal to health-conscious consumers.

And appeal, they do. The $5 billion cold cereal market posted sales gains of 11 percent in 1986 (the last year for which figures are available). The average American now eats 11.3 pounds of cold cereal each year.

Picking a Winner. Even a novice can eliminate the sugarladen Count Choculas and Apple Jacks. But "breakfast candies" aside, selecting the best cereal is still not easy, because no single product is perfect for everyone.

Bran cereals are highest in fiber, but most have added sugar or the artificial sweetener, aspartame. Other whole-grain choices, like Shredded Wheat and NutriGrain, have no added sugar, but their fiber levels are only moderate.

Then you have to consider the type of fiber you're getting. If your cholesterol is high, you'll want the soluble fiber found in oats. If you're more concerned about avoiding constipation and possibly colon cancer, it's the insoluble fiber in wheat bran that you'll need.

Because no one cereal meets everyone's needs, we've categorized the better cereals according to their most important features. Choose the category that best suits you. Then check the chart on page 12 for some specifics.

Highest-Fiber

What Are They? Cereals containing 10 to 13 grams of insoluble fiber from wheat bran. Most are fortified with about 25 percent of the USRDA for several vitamins ad minerals.

Who Needs Them? If your goal is to prevent constipation and colon cancer, and you don't eat lots of whole-grain breads, beans, fruits, and vegetables during the rest of the day, this one's for your.

Choices:

* Sugar-Sweetened: All-Bran or 100% Bran contain 10 grams of fiber and just over 1 teaspoon of sugar per 1-ounce serving. That means they're about 18 percent sugar.

* Aspartame-Sweetened: Fiber-One and All-Bran with Extra Fiber are sweetened with aspartame instead of sugar. These cereals contain an extra 3 to 4 grams of fiber because aspartame takes up less space than sugar. Companies fill the space with more bran.

* Unsweetened: If you want neither asparateme nor sugar, choose a medium-fiber, low-sugar cereal (see below), and sprinkle unprocessed wheat bran on top. Each level tablespoon of unprocessed wheat bran provides 1-1/2 grams of fiber.

Medium-Fiber,

Low-Sugar

What Are They? Cereals that contain 2 to 4 grams of largely insoluble fiber from whole wheat, but have little or no added sugar.

Who Needs Them? If your goal is to prevent colon cancer and constipation, but you get some fiber from other food and you want no added sugar or aspartame, choose one of these.

Choices:

* Biscuits: Shredded Wheat offers no salt as well as no sugar. It isn't fortified with extra vitamins and minerals, but many people don't need an extra shot of nutrients in their cereal bowls anyway.

* Flakes: NutriGrain cereals and Wheaties are fortified with about 25 percent of the USRDA for severa vitamins and minerals. Total is identical to Wheaties, except that the fortification levels are 100 percent. A 12-ounce box of Total also costs 58 cents more.

* Nuggets: NutriGrain Nuggets have twice as much fiber as Grape Nuts, and less salt to boot. Both brands are fortified with 25 percent of the USRDA for several vitamins and minerals.

Medium-Fiber,

Sweetened

What Are They? Wholegrain cereals that supply 2 to 4 grams of fiber plus 1 to 3 teaspoons of sugar. Most companies won't say how much sugar comes from the dried fruit added to their cereals. We estimate that about half comes from dried fruits, the rest from refined sweeteners.

Who Needs Them? People who want some fiber, but need a few teaspoons of sugar to "make the medicine go down.c

Choices:

* Biscuits: Like Shredded Wheat, sweetened biscuits such as Raisin or Strawberry Squares, Fruit Wheats, and Frosted Mini-Wheats have no added salt. Each has just over 1 teaspoon of sugar. Only Nabisco, maker of Fruit Wheats cereals, was willing to reveal how much sugar--slightly over half--comes from fruit. Unlike Shredded Wheat, these biscuits are fortified at the usual 25-percent-of-the-USRDA level.

* Fruit and Flakes: Banking on Raisin Bran's popularity, cereal companies are now adding other dried fruits and/or nuts to flakes. The result is cereals such as Fruit 'n Fibre, Fruitful Bran, Nutrific, and Just Right. Each serving contains 2 to 3 teaspoons of sugar, which means the cereal is 30 to 45 percent sugar.

* Mixed Flakes: One of the latest trend in cereals is to mix several grains. Kellogg's Pro-Grain, for example, contains wheat, corn, and oats, plus lots of sugar (39 percent). Others, such as Grape Nuts Flakes, are lower in sugar, but fiber levels are uniformly modest, at about 2 grams per serving.

Hot and Unsweetened

What Are They? Wholegrain cereals without added salt or sugar.

Who Needs Them? People who want insoluble fiber to reduce the risk of colon cancer and constipation, but who also enjoy a hot breakfast. or, those who want oats' soluble fiber, which lowers blood cholesterol.

So far, no American-made cold cereals have as much soluble fiber as regular oatmeal or oat bran. Oat Bran Crunch, a cold cereal from West Germany, is available in some food co-ops and natural food stores. It is high in soluble fiber, but at about $4 per pound, Oat Bran Crunch is also high in cost.

Choices:

* Oats: Oat bran and quick oatmeal offer soluble fiber--and no added salt, sugar, or extra vitamins or minerals.

* Whole Wheat: Wheatena and Ralston Hot Cereal offer insoluble fiber, with no added salt, sugar, vitamins, or minerals.

* Sweetened: Quaker Instant Oatmeals and Ralston SunMaid Instant cereals have fiber. But most also contain 2 to 4 teaspoons of added sugar--more than most people would spoon on at the table. Since unsweetened, unsalted Quick Oatmeal and Ralston's regular hot cereal take less than 1 minute to cook--and you can easily throw in a handful of raisins for extra sweetness--there's no reason to buy the sugared instant versions.

Last and Least

Too Much Fat. Granolas and Cracklin' Oat Bran contain about 1 teaspoon of fat, and it's often artery-clogging coconut oil. While 1 teaspoon of fat isn't much, cereals should be low in fat to leave room for foods that can't be fat-free, such as meat, poultry, and cheese.

Too Little Fiber. Five of the 10 most popular cold cereals--Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies, Honey Nut Cheerios, Frosted Flakes, and Cap'n Crunch--contain less than 2 grams of fiber. So do Crem of Wheat and Crem of Rice. Tehse products wont't hurt you, but they won't do you much good in the all-important fiber department.

One Ounce or Two? According to cereal labels, a serving of cereal is one ounce, period. Yet one ounce of the denser cereals, such as Grape Nuts, fills only one-quarter of a cup, while one ounce of the airier cereals, like Cheerios, fills one and one-quarter cups.

Indeed, government surveys show that people eat about a bowl's worth of cereal, regardless of how many ounces the bowl contains. We typically eat less than one ounce of the lighter cereals, and over two ounces fo the heaviest cereals.

The chart below lists fiber and sugar levels for one ounce of cereal, but beware the "serving size" column. Assess your "serving size" and adjust the other numbers accordingly.