For millions of Americans, cereal is a necessary part of their morning routine.

It’s fast, it’s easy and it tastes good. For many, the question of “what’s for breakfast?” never crosses their mind—they go in the pantry, grab their go-to cereal and pour a bowl. Although this might seem like a harmless habit, certain breakfast cereals are much healthier than others.

Downing a cereal packed with added sugar and low in useful nutrients every morning can set you up for bad consequences in the day ahead as well as down the road.

Healthier cereals are typically higher in nutrients like fiber and protein and made with plenty of whole grains.

Less healthy cereals are typically packed with sugar and come up short on important nutrients.

Many sugary cereals are “vitamin-fortified,” which means they’ve had vitamins artificially added—so they’re not natural within the actual ingredients.

Vitamin-fortified foods might make sense for a small percentage of the population (adults over 50 in particular), but most people, athletes especially, are better off getting their vitamins from foods that naturally contain them.

Eating foods in which vitamins naturally occur produces a synergistic effect and likely leads to better bodily absorption.

To help you better understand exactly what you’re pouring into your breakfast bowl every morning, we ranked the 10 top-selling cereals based on their degree of “healthiness.”

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