The Problem With Raisin Bran

One of the most popular cereals in our house is Raisin Bran. It doesn't matter the brand; just give us the bran flakes and raisins.

But I was thinking the other day, "Why do the raisins have to be covered with sugar? Aren't raisins sweet enough on their own?"

So I set out trying to find some raisin bran that did not have sugar-coated raisins. I'm willing to pay extra for it. So I checked the regular grocery stores, generic brands, WalMart, and Whole Foods. (Wow! WalMart and Whole Foods in the same sentence!)

The closest I could find was the generic brand at Whole Foods. It has no "sugar", but does list "evaporated cane juice crystals". So still a variation of sugar. But at least the nutritional label on this box only listed 8g of sugars per serving.

That got me thinking about the sugar-levels in the other raisin bran cereals. Here's what I've found:

• Kellogg's Raisin Bran -- 19g
• Post Raisin Bran -- 19g
• Malt-O-Meal Raisin Bran -- 21g

Yikes! That's an awful lot of sugar! Then I figured I'd compare the raisin bran cereals against other Kellogg's brand cereals. I got the nutritional information from the Kellogg's website.

• Kellogg's Frosted Flakes -- 11g
• Kellogg's Cocoa Krispies -- 13 g
• Kellogg's Honey Smacks -- 15 g
• Kellogg's Mini Swirlz -- 12 g
• Kellogg's Apple Jacks -- 15 g
• Kellogg's Fruit Loops -- 13 g

So it turns out that what one would think is a relatively healthy cereal (i.e., raisin bran) actually has significantly more sugar that the so-called "sugary cereals" that we never purchase!

It's time for us to really start looking at nutritional labels better. The boys don't need to get hyped up on sugar to start their days. We'll see how this generic version from Whole Foods works out.

But perhaps we'll need to start making our own homemade raisin bran. Bran flakes and raisins. Nothing else. That's the way it should be.