Our favourite cereals are 'more sugary than jam doughnuts', shocking study shows



Cereal offender: Kellogg's Crunchy Nut contains 13.6g or sugar per 40g serving, far more than chocolate cake

They are often seen as the healthiest way to start the day.



But many breakfast cereals contain more sugar than a piece of chocolate cake or a jam doughnut, research shows.

Eight best-selling brands are laden with more sugar than a slice of McVitie's chocolate cake and five of the ten are at least as sweet as a doughnut oozing with jam.

The figures are for the cereal only and do not include any of the extra sugar often liberally sprinkled into the bowl at home.

Kellogg's Crunchy Nut Cornflakes is the country's top seller but is also one of the worst offenders in the sweet stakes, with 13.6g of sugar in a 40g serving - more than three teaspoons per small bowl.

In contrast, a jam doughnut contains 8.6g of sugar, and a slice of chocolate cake just 5.4g, the research by price comparison website mysupermarket.co.uk found.

Kellogg's Coco Pops and Coco Pops Coco Rocks contain at least 8.6g of sugar, as do Weetabix Minis Chocolate Crisp and Nestle Cheerios. The figures suggest that even apparently healthy foods are helping fuel the obesity crisis.

The condition blights the lives of a quarter of men and women, raising their odds of diabetes, heart disease, infertility, cancer and premature death.



Some other popular cereals have less sugar - but higher levels of salt. Kellogg's Special K, marketed as a product that will help a woman keep in shape, has 0.9g of salt per small bowl.

This is three times the amount in a small bar of chocolate. Too much salt can lead to high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes.

Manufacturers said cereals were high in vitamins, minerals and fibre, low in fat, and had numerous health benefits.

A spokesman for the Association of Cereal Food Manufacturers added: 'We know from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey that breakfast cereals contribute less than 5 per cent salt and sugar to an average day's diet.'

