I often hear from parents “I know all breakfast cereals are terrible!” or “Breakfast cereals are so high in sugar, I would never feed them to my kids”.

While this may certainly be true for some products on the market, if you make a smart choice about what breakfast cereal you feed your kids it can make for a quick, easy and nutritious breakfast in the morning when time is pressing, or a good mid morning snack or after school refuel.

Eating cereal often means kids will be eating milk or yogurt too – so a great way to get some dairy food into them. And don’t forget to top it all off with some sliced or stewed fruit for taste, extra fibre and vitamins!

Breakfast cereals are usually fortified – meaning they have extra vitamins and minerals added such as folate, B vitamins, vitamin C, iron and calcium.

Studies suggest that people who eat breakfast are less likely to be overweight or obese than those who don’t. Children also perform better at school when they eat breakfast.

So what are the healthiest cereals which kids would actually eat?? Below are some good options to consider.

The cereals below have at leats 7 g of fibre (more than half of a child’s fibre intake for the day) and 40% wholegrain. I also looked for cereals that were low in sugar and salt.

Porridge is a great choice for breakfast – stick to the plain instant sachets for speed and convenience. The flavoured ones are often sugared up – you can see the grainy crystals when you open the packet. Shredded coconut, vanilla extract, cinnamon, chopped toasted nuts, grated apple or pear and a drizzle of honey will make this warming breakfast even more inviting.

Weetbix or Vita-Brits head up the list, along with Uncle Toby’s Shredded Wheat. Your children might be more likely to eat Weetbix – Shredded Wheat would benefit from adding some sliced banana or strawberries.

Weeties are 99% wholegrain toasted wheat, but they are higher in salt that the other brands mentioned.

Kellogg’s Guardian flakes have a pleasant, almost vanilla flavour – and with lower levels of sugar and salt, and the highest fibre of the lot they ranked well.

Goodness Superfoods Barley Clusters are low in salt and sugar, with a good serve of fibre and wholegrains. The new Protein Clusters look delicious and are high in protein too. The Digestive and Heart are flake-and-fruit-style-cereals which also provide good nutritional value.

Carmen’s Honey Roasted Nut Crunchy Clusters like the Superfoods Clusters are low in salt and sugar and have a decent amount of wholegrains but a lesser amount of fibre.

Freedom Foods Crunchola has a decent amount of wholegrain oats, a moderate amount of fibre, and is very low in salt. However a serving will deliver just over 3 tsp sugar.

Cheerios are smack bang in the middle – a moderate amount of salt, sugar and fibre and better than average wholegrain content. Kellogg’s Sustain was similar, albeit with a low level of salt.

All Bran Flakes are OK, but have a higher salt content, and containing less wholegrains.

Sultana Bran is higher in sugar – yielding about 2.5 tsp per serve, and having a low wholegrain content. Weetbix Apricot Bites have about the same sugar and salt, but more wholegrains.

So what will I be serving up tomorrow morning? All of these are good options, and certainly better than most of what’s on the supermarket shelves. The star for me is porridge, but on mornings when I want something quick I would give my kids Weetbix, Guardian, Carmen’s or any of the Goodness Superfoods variety – although Crunchola is already a firm favourite! After all, it can be the best most nutritious cereal in the world but if they won’t actually eat it, then it won’t do them much good!