What Are The Best Breakfast Cereals For A Low Cholesterol Diet?

Breakfast cereals aren’t always the healthiest breakfast choice, but they’re fine to include in a low cholesterol diet as long as you choose the right ones. There are two things to check on the back of your cereal box to see whether it’s cholesterol-friendly:-

Is it low in saturated fat? It should contain less than 1.5g of sat fat per 100g.
Is it high in fibre? It should contain at least 6g of fibre per 100g.

Dietary fibre helps to lower cholesterol, so the more fibre in your cereal the better. There are plenty of breakfast cereals that are low in saturated fat and high in fibre, but a lot of them also have a lot of added sugar. It’s best to buy zero or low sugar cereals, then add your own sweeteners if you need to, like a bit of honey, some berries or chopped banana.

Semi-skimmed milk is a popular cholesterol-friendly accompaniment for cereal, but you could also try unsweetened almond milk, low fat natural yoghurt or soya yoghurt.

Best Choices – No Added Sugar Cereals

These four breakfast cereals are all low in saturated fat, high in fibre and have no added sugar, so can be eaten frequently as part of a heart healthy diet:-

Alpen No Added Sugar
Good Grain Puffed Wheat
Nestle Shredded Wheat
Post Grape Nuts

Next Best Choices – Low Sugar Cereals

These two breakfast cereals are all low in saturated fat, high in fibre and low in sugar, so can also be eaten frequently as part of a heart healthy diet:-

Fuel10k Apple Cinnamon Low Sugar Granola
Weetabix Original

Other Choices – Higher Sugar Cereals

These eight breakfast cereals are all low in saturated fat and high in fibre, so they’re cholesterol-friendly by definition, but they’re also relatively high in sugar so shouldn’t be eaten as frequently:-

Kelloggs All Bran
Kelloggs Bran Flakes
Kelloggs Sultana Bran
Nature’s Path Honey And Chia Superflakes
Natures Path Mesa Sunrise
Nestle Shreddies
Quaker Wholesome Goji Berry Granola
Weetabix Crunchy Bran

Extra cholesterol-lowering tip

To increase the cholesterol-lowering benefits of my breakfast cereal I like to add a tablespoon of one or more of these cholesterol-lowering foods:-

Flaked almonds
Chopped walnuts
Raisins or sultanas
Chopped apple
Blueberries
Ground flaxseeds
Toasted sunflower seeds

Alternatives to breakfast cereals

I tend to alternate between different breakfasts, rather than eating the same thing every day, as it stops me getting bored and also gives me a wider range of nutrients. Although breakfast cereals are really convenient, there are plenty of cholesterol-friendly alternatives that don’t take too long to prepare. Here are my favourites:-

Porridge – this is probably the best cholesterol-lowering breakfast you can eat, and if you add other cholesterol-lowering foods like almonds and chopped apple, you can pack a lot of nutrients into one meal. Here’s a recipe for my favourite cholesterol-lowering apple and cinnamon porridge.
Homemade Muesli – this is another great cholesterol-lowering breakfast option if you make it with oats, nuts, seeds and dried fruit. My favourite homemade muesli is rolled oats mixed with flaked almonds, ground flaxseeds and goji berries.
Wholemeal Toast with Almond or Peanut Butter – this is a really quick and simple cholesterol-friendly breakfast to prepare, and tastes great with chopped banana on top. Make sure you choose the ‘no added sugar’ varieties of nut butter.
Oat Pancake with Low Fat Yoghurt – this makes a great weekend breakfast and the oats will help to lower your cholesterol – see recipe here.
Wholemeal Toast with Smashed Avocado & Smoked Salmon– the healthy fats in the avocado and fibre in the toast will help to lower your cholesterol. Eating salmon can also help to raise your ‘good’ cholesterol levels.