Diet-Friendly Cereals that Taste Good

You either love cereal or want to find out what cereals you can eat while you're on a diet. You also want it taste good. No problem! Here are my five recommendations:

1. Cascadian Farm Organic Oats & Honey Granola. Per serving it contains 230 calories, 3 grams of fiber, 5 grams of protein, no cholesterol, no trans-fat, minimal saturated fat and the majority of the ingredients are organic. For more information about Cascadian Farms cereals, go to: http://www.cascadianfarm.com/products/Product_Detail.aspx?cat=8

2. Kellogg's Cracklin Oat Bran. Per serving it contains 200 calories (240 calories with ½ cup of fat free milk), 7 grams of fat, no trans-fat, 6 grams of fiber, 4 grams of protein. I recommend this cereal to be eaten stand-alone. I'm not a big milk-in-cereal person, so this works great as breakfast or just as a snack. For more information about this cereal, go to: http://www2.kelloggs.com/Product/ProductDetail.aspx?product=559

3. Nature's Path Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal. This is more of a hot cereal. It's low in fat with less than 3 grams per serving. It is low in sodium and has no trans-fat. It is also vegetarian friendly by not using any ingredients sourced from meat, fish, fowl or eggs. It contains 5 grams of protein and 4 grams of fiber. For more information about this cereal go to: http://www.naturespath.com/products/hot%20cereals?tid=6&brand=All&nutri=All

4. Nature Valley Crunchy Granola Bars. It comes two bars to a pack and ranges between 180-200 calories per pack. These bars have no cholesterol or trans-fat. They include 2 grams of fiber and 5 grams of protein. I recommend the oats & honey, peanut butter, or maple brown sugar flavors, although there are plenty of other varieties to choose from and you can find them in your local grocer. For more information about their products, go to: http://www.naturevalley.com/Products.aspx

5. Kashi Honey Sunshine Cereal. This cereal is a whopping 100 calories per serving. It has only 1.5 grams of fat, no cholesterol, 6 grams of fiber, 2 grams of protein. It contains 20g of whole grain and has no artificial sweeteners, flavors or preservatives. For more information about Kashi products, go to: http://kashi.com/products/category/Hot%20&%20Cold%20Cereal

If you're really trying to skim calories on your cereal intake, instead of using whole milk or even 2% milk, consider 1% or skim milk. That's will cut down on your caloric intake while you're eating cereal.