Are Cheerios high in sugar and are there any sugar-free Cheerio alternatives? Cheerios. They are that “O” shaped cereal that everybody loves. But does everybody love Cheerios’s sugar content? And more importantly, does anybody actually know what Cheerio’s sugar content is? This is the question I wanted to answer in this post.
To answer this question, I have collated the total sugar content data per serving of all 20 Cheerios cereals (yes, all 20 different types of Cheerio cereals). I then put these Cheerio cereals together in descending order of total sugar content. So, make sure to read right to the end to find out what the lowest-sugar Cheerio cereal is. Trust me – it may surprise you.
I also managed to find, not one, not two, but three sugar-free Cheerio alternatives. So, make sure to read right to the end of this post to find out about these sugar-free Cheerio alternatives.
Let’s dig in – are Cheerios high in sugar and what are the sugar-free alternatives?
How Much Sugar is in Cheerios?
As a general rule, original Cheerios are low in sugar as they only contain 2g of total sugar per recommended serving. All the other varieties of Cheerios are higher in sugar – coming in at 8g-15g of total sugar per serving.
The following brands all make a sugar-free Cheerio alternative:
- Three Wishes
- Great Value
- Love Grown Os
Ranking Cheerio Cereals Sugar Content
In this section, I will rank the sugar content of 20 different Cheerio cereals. The list is ranked in descending order from highest to lowest.
*The below total sugar contents are based on Cheerio’s recommended serving (without milk) for each individual cereal. The weights of each of the different Cheerios vary depending on how dense the cereal variety is*.
1. Oat Crunch Oats N Honey Cheerios – 15g of Total Sugar
Cheerio’s Oat Crunch range is the highest sugar variety of cereal available from the Cheerio brand. There are 15g of total sugar in a serving of Cheerio Oat Crunch Oat N’ Honey cereal.
Interestingly a 1 cup serving of Cheerios Oat Crunch Oat N’ Honey cereal is much heavier in weight than other Cheerio cereals – coming in at a weight of 54g for a serving. The fact this cereal is so dense compared to the other Cheerio cereals may explain the higher sugar content.
2. Oat Crunch Cinnamon Cheerios – 15g of Total Sugar
You can’t have a cereal brand without a cinnamon option. Oat Crunch Cinnamon Cheerios contains the same sugar content as their Oat N Honey flavor – clocking in at 15g of total sugar per cup serving.
3. Oat Crunch Almond Cheerios – 15g of Total Sugar
Oat Crunch Almond Cheerios is another flavor of the range that contains 15g of total sugar per serving. Make sure to keep reading to find out about the only Cheerios oat crunch cereal that contains less than 15g of sugar per serving.
4. Apple Cinnamon Cheerios – 12g of Total Sugar
Apple Cinnamon Cheerios cereal contains a little less sugar at 12g of sugar per cup serving. A cup of Apple Cinnamon Cheerios weighs 37g so it is a less dense cereal. If you love cinnamon and love Cheerios, make sure to keep reading to find out about the lowest-sugar cinnamon-flavored Cheerios.
5. Honey Nut Cheerios – 12g of Total Sugar
It probably doesn’t come as a huge surprise that Honey Nut Cheerios isn’t one of Cheerios lowest sugar cereals – I mean any food with honey in the name doesn’t tend to be low in sugar content for obvious reasons. There are 12g of total sugar per cup serving.
6. Honey Nut Cheerios Medley Crunch – 12g of Total Sugar
The medley crunch variety of honey nut Cheerios also contains 12g of total sugar per cup serving.
7. Frosted Cheerios – 12g of Total Sugar
It also shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that frosted Cheerios aren’t one of the lowest sugar flavors. I mean frosted basically means coated in sugar. Frosted Cheerios contain 12g of total sugar per serving.
Talking about frosted cereal, if you are interested in what the sugar content of frosted flakes is then make sure to check out the following post I wrote – Do Frosted Flakes Have A Lot of Sugar? 14 Brands Ranked.
8. Frosted Lemon Cheerios – 11g of Total Sugar
Cheerios’ limited edition frosted Lemon variety has a similar sugar content, coming in at 11g of total sugar.
9. Oat Crunch Berry – 11g of Total Sugar
I established above that the Oats N Honey, Cinnamon, and Almond flavors of Cheerios Oat Crunch range all contain 15g of total sugar per cup serving. Well, there is a lower sugar flavor that is part of the Oat Crunch range – and that flavor is Oat Crunch Berry. This version of the cereal contains 11g of total sugar per cup serving.
If you are looking for the lowest sugar “Oat Crunch” version of Cheerios, this would be your option.
10. Berry Berry Cheerios – 11g of Total Sugar
Another berry-style Cheerio cereal – this time without the Oat Crunch. Cheerio Berry Berry contains 11g of total sugars per serving.
11. Strawberry Banana Cheerios – 11g of Total Sugar
Do you love the combo of Strawberry and Banana? I mean who doesn’t – it makes for the best smoothies which is probably why Cheerio decided to make it into a cereal flavor. Cheerio Strawberry Banana Cheerios contain 11g of total sugar per serving.
12. Pumpkin Spice Cheerios – 11g of Total Sugar
If you love cracking out the pumpkin spice Cheerios during Fall, then you may be interested to learn that they aren’t Cheerios’ highest sugar variety, but they also aren’t their lowest. There are 11g of total sugar per serving of pumpkin spice Cheerios.
13. Cinnamon Cheerios – 11g of Total Sugar
The other fall-inspired Cheerio cereal flavor is Cinnamon Cheerios. This cinnamon-spiced cereal contains 11g of sugar per cup serving. That is because there are also 11g of sugar per serving of Cinnamon Cheerios. This means whatever “Fall” inspired flavor you pick from Cheerio the sugar content is the same – 11g of sugar per serving.
14. Chocolate Cheerios – 10g of Total Sugar
You may have assumed that chocolate Cheerios would obviously be higher in sugar than say cinnamon oat crunch – but guess what? You would be wrong.
There are 10g of total sugar per serving of Chocolate Cheerios.
15. Blueberry Cheerios – 10g of Total Sugar
If blueberries are your thing for breakfast cereals, then the lowest sugar “blueberry” flavored option from Cheerios is its Blueberry Cheerios. This cereal contains 10g of total sugar per serving.
16. Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios – 9g of Total Sugar
Even though chocolate peanut butter sounds like an indulgent flavor that would be very high in sugar, here at Low Sugar Snax, I have often found it is a lower sugar flavor. For example, this is especially the case when picking smoothies or ice cream. Well, it’s the same with Cheerios – there are 9g of total sugar per serving of chocolate peanut butter Cheerios.
17. Honey Vanilla Cheerios – 9g of Total Sugar
I talked above about how honey nut Cheerios contain 12g of total sugar per serving. Well, how about if you love a honey Cheerio but are watching your sugar intake? In this case, your best bet is to choose honey vanilla cheerios. These are Cheerios’ lowest-sugar honey flavor, coming in at 9g of total sugar per serving.
18. Vanilla Spice Cheerios – 8g of Total Sugar
Another vanilla-flavored Cheerio that is lower in sugar content is their vanilla spice Cheerios, which contain 8g of total sugar per serving.
19. Multigrain Cheerios – 8g of Total Sugar
Multigrain Cheerios are one of Cheerios lower sugar cereals clocking in at 8g of total sugar per serving. That said, I am still surprised that they are 4 times the sugar content of the original Cheerios (see below).
20. Original Cheerios – 2g of Total Sugar
Okay, I saved the best to last (of course!).
The most exciting thing to come out of this article is the fact that ORGINAL CHEERIOS ONLY CONTAIN 2 GRAMS OF TOTAL SUGAR PER SERVING.
How awesome is that!
That is a pretty darn low sugar content for a cereal. If you compare this to the average sugar content of Cinnamon Toast Crunch (What Are The Lowest Sugar Cinnamon Toast Crunch Options?) and frosted flakes (Do Frosted Flakes Have A Lot of Sugar? 14 Brands Ranked) you will see that a lot of popular cereals contain double digits of sugar per serving.
The other exciting thing is that a serving of original Cheerios is actually 1 1/2 cups (whilst most servings of Cheerios varieties are 1 cup). If this isn’t a reason to dig into a bowl of Cheerios now, I don’t know what is.
Summary Table of Sugar Content of Cheerios Cereals
Below is a summary table of the sugar content for all the Cheerios cereals I mentioned above. This is to give a quick and easy answer on the sugar content of all the different varieties of Cheerio cereals.
| Cheerio Variety | Total Sugar Content In A Serving |
|---|---|
| Oat Crunch Oats N Honey Cheerios | 15g |
| Oat Crunch Cinnamon Cheerios | 15g |
| Oat Crunch Almond Cheerios | 15g |
| Apple Cinnamon Cheerios | 12g |
| Honey Nut Cheerios | 12g |
| Honey Nut Cheerios Medley Crunch | 12g |
| Frosted Cheerios | 12g |
| Frosted Lemon Cheerios | 11g |
| Oat Crunch Berry Cheerios | 11g |
| Berry Berry Cheerios | 11g |
| Strawberry Banana Cheerios | 11g |
| Pumpkin Spice Cheerios | 11g |
| Cinnamon Cheerios | 11g |
| Chocolate Cheerios | 10g |
| Blueberry Cheerios | 10g |
| Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios | 9g |
| Honey Vanilla Cheerios | 9g |
| Vanilla Spice Cheerios | 8g |
| Multigrain Cheerios | 8g |
| Original Cheerios | 2g |
Are There Any Sugar-Free Cheerio Alternatives?
I established above that Original Cheerios are actually pretty low in sugar for breakfast cereal. But how about if low in sugar isn’t good enough? What if you are looking for a completely sugar-free Cheerio-style alternative (i.e., 0g of total and added sugar)?
Well, I have you covered as I have managed to find 3 completely sugar-free Cheerio alternatives.
OPTION 1: Three Wishes Unsweetened Grain Free Cereal – 0g of Total Sugar
A great sugar-free Cheerio alternative comes from Three Wishes. These little Os are grain-free and made from chickpeas and pea protein. This means they are pretty high in protein. They, of course, also contain no added sugar and 0g of total sugar per serving.
OPTION 2: Great Value Toasted O’s – 0g of Total Sugar
This one is for Walmart shoppers. Great Value (Walmart’s own brand) makes a sugar-free Cheerio alternative. Yes, that’s right, a sugar-free Cheerio alternative. They are called “Toasted O’s” – so make sure to keep an eye out for them next time you are in the cereal aisle at Walmart.
They could be easy to miss as they aren’t marked as being sugar-free. But when you check the ingredients and nutritional info you see that they are in fact sugar-free. Not sure why Walmart is not advertising this fact on the front of the packaging.
OPTION 3: Love Grown Power Os – 0g of Total Sugar
Another sugar-free Cheerio alternative I tracked down comes from Love Grown. Love Grown Power O’s are actually made from a bean blend – how cool is that? And they are of course also sugar-free.
Sugar In Cheerios F&Q
How Much Sugar Is In A Bowl Of Cheerios?
There are 2g of total sugar in a serving (1 ½ cup) serving of Cheerios.
Are Cheerios Sugar-Free?
Original Cheerios are not sugar-free. Original Cheerios are, however, low in sugar as they contain 2g of total sugar per serving.
Are Multigrain Cheerios Sugar-Free?
Multigrain Cheerios are not sugar-free. A serving of multigrain Cheerios contains 8g of total sugar per serving.
Do Honey Nut Cheerios Have More Sugar Than Cheerios?
Honey Nut Cheerios contain more sugar than Original Cheerios. There are 12g of total sugar in a serving of Honey Nut Cheerios vs. 2g of total sugar in a serving of Original Cheerios.
Are Cheerios High in Sugar and Are There Any Sugar-Free Cheerio Alternatives? – The Final Bite
Are Cheerios high in sugar and are there any sugar-free Cheerio alternatives? What have we learned from the above? Well, first, when it comes to Cheerios, I did not realize that there were 20 different varieties of cereal. Secondly, if you are looking for the lowest-sugar Cheerios cereal option then it really is the original Cheerios. Any special or unique flavor will contain much more sugar. For example, original Cheerios contain 2g of sugar per serving. In comparison, the next lowest cereal by Cheerios is its multigrain Cheerios which come in at 8g of sugar per serving. Some of the other varieties can be as high as 15g of sugar per serving.
Just remember that Original Cheerios are not sugar-free. They still contain 2g of sugar. However, if you do want some completely sugar-free “Cheerio-style” cereal I have listed three alternative brands which give you that option.
Please note that all the sugar content above is before you add your milk of choice. Depending on the milk you choose this may add additional sugar. If you want to know the best milk to go with your cereal, then check out some of my “milk-focused” posts below:
And Remember…
Ingredients and/or manufacturing processes may change. Always double-check ingredient lists and nutritional information before purchasing any food items.
WANT TO FIND MORE LOW SUGAR OPTIONS?
Do you want to learn about some other low-sugar options at your favorite coffee chains, fast food, or restaurant joints, or just while you are shopping for groceries? If you do, then check out some of my other articles below:
