Added Sugar vs Natural Sugar in Cereal: What’s the Difference?

The Nutrition Facts label now separates added sugars from total sugars, and in the cereal aisle the gap between those two numbers can be large. Kellogg’s Raisin Bran and Froot Loops both carry double-digit sugar totals, yet about half of the raisin bran’s sugar occurs naturally in its ingredients, while every gram in Froot Loops is added. Here is how the label defines each kind of sugar, how to read the gap, and which swaps actually cut added sugar.

How the Label Defines Each

Under FDA labeling rules, Total Sugars is “the sum of all free mono- and disaccharides (such as glucose, fructose, lactose, and sucrose)” in a serving, whatever their source.

Added Sugars is a subset of that total. The FDA says added sugars include sugars added during processing, such as sucrose or dextrose, foods packaged as sweeteners, such as table sugar, sugars from syrups and honey, and sugars from concentrated fruit or vegetable juices. They do not include the sugars naturally found in milk, fruits and vegetables. The word “includes” before the Added Sugars line means those grams are already counted in Total Sugars. The Daily Value for added sugars is 50 g a day on a 2,000-calorie diet.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030, draw the same line: “Some foods and drinks, such as fruits and plain milk, have naturally occurring sugars. The sugars in these foods are not considered added sugars.”

The added-sugar line is relatively new. The FDA required manufacturers with $10 million or more in annual food sales to use the updated label by January 1, 2020, and smaller manufacturers by January 1, 2021.

Where the Natural Sugar in Cereal Comes From

In cereal, naturally occurring sugar mostly comes from dried fruit. Grains themselves contribute little: Grape-Nuts lists 5 g of total sugars and no added sugar per ½-cup (58 g) serving, and Post Shredded Wheat lists no sugar at all.

Raisin bran is the classic example. Kellogg’s Raisin Bran lists 17 g of total sugars, 9 g of them added, per 1-cup (59 g) serving in USDA FoodData Central. That leaves about 8 g of naturally occurring sugar, most of it from the raisins. The ingredient list is short: whole grain wheat, raisins, wheat bran, sugar and brown sugar syrup, with malt flavor and salt at 2% or less. The added 9 g come from the sugar and brown sugar syrup. The raisins carry more than sugar: USDA data list dark seedless raisins at about 65 g of sugar, 4.5 g of fiber and 744 mg of potassium per 100 g.

Fruit-and-nut cereals vary more than their names suggest. Post’s Great Grains Raisins, Dates & Pecans lists 13 g of total sugars but only 4 g added per ¾-cup (54 g) serving. Great Grains Cranberry Almond Crunch lists 12 g of total sugars per 1-cup (56 g) serving, and all 12 g are added. Its ingredient list shows why: the dried cranberries themselves are made with cane sugar, and cane sugar is also the cereal’s second ingredient. Dried fruit in a cereal is not automatically natural sugar.

Where Added Sugar Comes From

Sweetened recipes. Froot Loops lists 12 g of sugar per 1⅓-cup serving, all of it added, on its current Food Lion listing. Its ingredients on that listing include a corn flour blend, sugar, wheat flour and whole grain oat flour, with “natural flavor,” but no fruit. WK Kellogg Co says its cereals, including Froot Loops, will take their colors from fruit and vegetable juices and other plant-based ingredients by the end of 2026, but those ingredients are there for color; our report on the dye changes has the details.

Coated cereals. When sugar is applied to a plain base, nearly all of the cereal’s sugar is added. Honey Smacks, whose ingredients begin with whole grain wheat, sugar, invert sugar and honey, lists 19 g of total sugars and 19 g added per cup. In FoodData Central, Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes carries about 32 g of added sugar per 100 g, against about 9 g for Kellogg’s Corn Flakes.

Several sweeteners at once. Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight, so a recipe that uses several sweeteners can spread its sugar across several lower positions. Lucky Charms, for instance, lists sugar second and corn syrup fourth. The Dietary Guidelines suggest watching for ingredients that include the word “sugar” or “syrup” or end in “-ose,” and their list of added-sugar names includes high-fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, rice syrup, dextrose, cane sugar, fruit juice concentrate, honey and molasses. Maltodextrin, which shows up in some cereals, is a starch-derived carbohydrate; under the FDA’s definition it is not a mono- or disaccharide, so it is not what the sugar lines measure, even though it is still a refined carbohydrate.

Why the Distinction Matters

The main dietary limits are written around added sugar, not total sugar. The 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines say one meal should contain no more than 10 g of added sugars. The American Heart Association suggests no more than about 25 g a day for most women and 36 g for most men, and no more than 25 g for children ages 2 to 18, with none before age 2. In children, the AHA’s 2017 scientific statement concluded that “strong evidence supports the association of added sugars with increased cardiovascular disease risk in children through increased energy intake, increased adiposity, and dyslipidemia.”

Naturally occurring sugars arrive with the rest of the food. The Dietary Guidelines encourage eating whole fruits, say dried fruits “with no or very limited added sugars” can be good options, and advise limiting 100% juice. A sliced banana on Original Cheerios adds fruit sugar, fiber and potassium, while the bowl itself carries just 1 g of added sugar per 1½-cup serving.

The numbers add up quickly on the added side. One cup of Honey Smacks, at 19 g, is about three-quarters of the AHA’s suggested daily limit for most women. Several cereals aimed at children, including Lucky Charms, Cocoa Puffs and Cookie Crisp, list 12 g per serving, which is about half of a child’s daily limit and above the per-meal cap. Kix, at 4 g per 1½ cups, shows that a children’s cereal can be far lower.

Reading the Label

Compare the two lines. If Total Sugars and Added Sugars are the same, all of the sugar was added. A large gap usually means fruit or milk ingredients.
Check the ingredient list. Raisins or dates near the top explain a gap between the two lines. Dried fruit listed with sugar in parentheses, as in Great Grains Cranberry Almond Crunch, means that fruit’s sugar is counted as added.
Count fruit juice concentrate as added. Under the FDA’s definition, sugars from concentrated fruit or vegetable juices count as added sugars, and the Dietary Guidelines list fruit juice concentrate among added-sugar names.
Count honey as added. “Made with real honey” is still added sugar on the label.
Match the serving sizes. Compare cereals at the same serving weight, or by sugar per 100 g, before deciding which is lower.

Smart Swaps That Cut Added Sugar

Frosted Flakes to Corn Flakes with sliced strawberries. Added sugar drops from about 32 g to about 9 g per 100 g of cereal, and the berries add only naturally occurring sugar.
Honey Nut Cheerios to Original Cheerios. Added sugar per labeled serving drops from 12 g to 1 g.
Great Grains Cranberry Almond Crunch to Grape-Nuts. Added sugar drops from 12 g to 0 g per serving, while fiber rises from 4 g to 7 g and protein from 5 g to 6 g.
Within one brand. Choosing Great Grains Raisins, Dates & Pecans over Cranberry Almond Crunch cuts added sugar from 12 g to 4 g per serving.

The Dietary Guidelines say no amount of added sugar is recommended, so the practical aim is to keep each breakfast within the 10 g per-meal cap and to get more of the sweetness from fruit. For limits in more detail, see Sugar in Cereal: How Much Is Too Much?; for brand-by-brand figures, our 2026 sugar rankings; and for lower-sugar picks, our healthy cereals guide.

Sources

U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Added Sugars on the Nutrition Facts Label — accessed November 1, 2026
U.S. Food and Drug Administration: How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Label — accessed November 1, 2026
U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Changes to the Nutrition Facts Label — accessed November 1, 2026
eCFR: 21 CFR 101.9, Nutrition labeling of food — accessed November 1, 2026
eCFR: 21 CFR 101.4, Food; designation of ingredients — accessed November 1, 2026
Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030 (PDF), USDA and HHS — accessed November 1, 2026
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, The Nutrition Source: Added Sugar — accessed November 1, 2026
Vos MB et al. Added Sugars and Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Children: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. Circulation, 2017 (PubMed)
USDA FoodData Central (Branded: Kellogg’s Raisin Bran, Frosted Flakes, Corn Flakes, Lucky Charms, Cocoa Puffs, Cookie Crisp, Kix; SR Legacy: dark seedless raisins) — accessed November 1, 2026
Post Consumer Brands: Great Grains Raisins, Dates & Pecans — accessed November 1, 2026
Post Consumer Brands: Great Grains Cranberry Almond Crunch — accessed November 1, 2026
Post Consumer Brands: Grape-Nuts Cereal — accessed November 1, 2026
Post Consumer Brands: Shredded Wheat Original Spoon Size — accessed November 1, 2026
Cheerios: Original Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios — accessed November 1, 2026
Food Lion: Froot Loops, 23 oz and Kellogg’s Honey Smacks, 16.3 oz — accessed November 1, 2026