Is Raisin Bran Crunch Healthy? 8 Things You Should Know

Is Raisin Bran Crunch a healthy breakfast option?

“Raisin Bran” sounds like it would be healthy. I mean, raisins are fruit. And bran is high in fiber, right? Well, today let’s look a bit deeper. Let’s specifically check out Raisin Bran Crunch. Is this healthy-looking cereal actually good for you?

Raisin Bran Crunch is not very healthy overall because has 13g of added sugar per serving, making it one of the highest-sugar cereals sold today. That said, it is made with whole grains and has moderate fiber content, so it is not the worst cereal for you, either.

Below, I’ll explore Raisin Bran Crunch’s nutrition in detail, comparing it to other cereals. I’ll discuss whether it’s good for weight loss, whether it can cause acne, and more. I’ll also share what I think is actually the healthiest raisin bran you can buy.

Is Raisin Bran Crunch Good for You?

Here are the 8 specific questions I’ll be answering about Raisin Bran Crunch nutrition. Click any of them to skip ahead to that section—or just keep scrolling to read them all:

1. What Is Raisin Bran Crunch Made Of?
2. Is Raisin Bran Crunch Low in Sugar?
3. Is Raisin Bran Crunch High in Fiber?
4. Is Raisin Bran Crunch High in Iron?
5. Is Raisin Bran Crunch Good For Weight Loss?
6. Can Raisin Bran Crunch Cause Acne?
7. Which Raisin Bran Is Healthiest?
8. Is Raisin Bran Crunch Vegan?

1. What Is Raisin Bran Crunch Made Of?

Let’s start by looking at the actual ingredients for Raisin Bran Crunch:

Raisin Bran Crunch Ingredients: Whole grain wheat, sugar, rice, raisins, wheat bran, whole grain oats, brown sugar syrup, vegetable glycerin, Contains 2% or less of corn syrup, salt, natural flavor, modified corn starch, molasses, palm oil, cinnamon, honey, mixed tocopherols (vitamin E) for freshness.

Here’s what I notice about these ingredients:

• Raisin Bran Crunch is made with whole grain wheat and whole grain oats. These whole grains are healthier than the processed grains often used in packaged foods. Along with the wheat bran, they provide quite a bit of fiber, which we’ll discuss in more detail below.

• Raisin Bran Crunch has added sugar. And it has brown sugar syrup, corn syrup, molasses, and honey, as well. All together, there is quite a lot of added sugar—13 grams per serving! We’ll discuss how that compares to other cereal brands in more detail below.

• Raisin Bran Crunch has real raisins and cinnamon. Raisins are a bit high in sugar, but as a fruit, they are generally considered healthy. Cinnamon is also regarded as a healthy spice with antioxidants and blood sugar control benefits.

• Raisin Bran Crunch has a little bit of palm oil. Vegetable oils are not great for health, as they’re highly processed. And palm oil has an extra downside—it’s relatively high in saturated fat. That said, Raisin Bran Crunch doesn’t have much of it. In fact, the nutrition facts label says 0g of saturated fat. So, it’s not a big issue.

• Raisin Bran Crunch is free of artificial sweeteners or colors. Thankfully, Raisin Bran Crunch is free of any controversial artificial sweeteners or colors like sucralose or red 40.

Raisin Bran Crunch’s ingredients are a mix of good and bad. The key to whether it’s really “healthy” may come down to questions like, How much sugar is there? How much fiber? And so on.

So, let’s take a look at those kinds of questions next.

2. Is Raisin Bran Crunch Low in Sugar?

Raisin Bran Crunch has 13g of added sugar and 19g of total sugar per serving of 1 cup (55g). That is more sugar than almost any other popular cereal available today. Raisin Bran Crunch has over 6 times the added sugar of Cheerios in each serving.

The American Heart Association recommends a limit of 25g of sugar per day for women and 36g per day for men. But no added sugar is needed for human health. Really, the healthiest diet would likely just have some natural sugar from fruit and whole foods.

So, for me personally, any amount of “added sugar” is a negative. Unfortunately, most popular foods today come with a bunch of sugar. And Raisin Bran Crunch is no exception.

Here is a table comparing the sugar content of Raisin Bran Crunch to other popular cereal brands:

Cereal	Serving Size	Total Sugars	Added Sugar
Cheerios	1 1/2 cup (39g)	2g	2g
Corn Flakes	1 1/2 cup (42g)	4g	4g
Froot Loops	1 1/3 cup (39g)	12g	12g
Frosted Flakes	1 cup (37g)	12g	12g
Grape Nuts	1/2 cup (58g)	5g	0g
Life	1 cup (42g)	8g	8g
Raisin Bran	1 cup (59g)	17g	9g
Raisin Bran Crunch	1 cup (55g)	19g	13g
Rice Krispies	1 1/2 cup (40g)	4g	4g
Shredded Wheat	1 1/3 cup (60g)	0g	0g
Special K	1 1/4 cup (39g)	5g	4g

Raisin Bran Crunch has the most added sugar per serving of any cereal I checked. However, it’s worth noting the serving sizes, too.

To be fair, one serving of Raisin Bran Crunch has 55g of cereal—that’s a bit more than you get in one serving of Frosted Flakes, in terms of weight. So it may not be fair to just compare the sugar content per serving exactly.

In any case, Raisin Bran Crunch is among the sugariest cereals. And it’s worth noting, too: Aside from sugar, Raisin Bran Crunch is made with grain-based flours that will turn into sugar in your body, as well.

So if you have blood-sugar issues, you may want to avoid Raisin Bran Crunch or strictly limit your portion sizes.

Related questions:

• Does Raisin Bran Crunch have high fructose corn syrup? Raisin Bran Crunch does not have high fructose corn syrup. Instead, it is sweetened with sugar, brown sugar syrup, molasses, and corn syrup.

• Is Raisin Bran Crunch keto friendly? Raisin Bran Crunch is not keto friendly or low carb. Raisin Bran Crunch has 46g of carbohydrate in each serving (55g or 1 cup).

3. Is Raisin Bran Crunch High in Fiber?

Raisin Bran Crunch has a moderate amount of fiber, with 4g of fiber per serving or about 7g per 100g of cereal. That’s about three times as much fiber as Corn Flakes, but still less fiber than Cheerios, Weetabix, or Shredded Wheat.

Here is a table showing exactly how Raisin Bran Crunch compares to several other popular cereals for fiber content:

Cereal	Fiber per 100g
Rice Krispies	1.0g
Special K	2.3g
Corn Flakes	2.4g
Life	7.1g
Raisin Bran Crunch	7.3g
Cheerios	9.4g
Weetabix (Original)	10g
Grape Nuts	12.1g
Shredded Wheat	13.3g
Uncle Sam	18.2g
All-Bran Original	29.3g
Fiber One	46.7g

As you can see, Raisin Bran Crunch is by no means the highest-fiber cereal… But it’s not the lowest either, thanks to being made with whole grains and wheat bran.

4. Is Raisin Bran Crunch High in Iron?

Raisin Bran Crunch is not a great source of iron. It supplies only 1mg of iron per serving, which is about 6% of the daily value for iron, based on the needs of an adult with a 2,000 calorie diet.

If you’re looking for a fiber-rich cereal that is a better source of iron, you may want to look at Cheerios or Weetabix. They are both fortified with iron, so they give you a lot more.

And if you need to improve your iron levels, I have another tip for you: Eat vitamin C at the same meal as your iron-rich foods. Vitamin C is shown to improve absorption of non-heme iron when eaten together.

So, if iron is what you’re focused on, you may want to ditch the Raisin Bran Crunch, and switch to Cheerios with vitamin-C rich fruits.

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5. Is Raisin Bran Crunch Good For Weight Loss?

Raisin Bran Crunch is not the best choice for a weight-loss diet. There are other cereals that could help fill you up with more fiber, less sugar, and perhaps keep you better satisfied while in a calorie deficit.

Raisin Bran Crunch is honestly pretty high in calories, as it has quite a bit of processed sugar. Any processed ingredients (including sugar) tend to have a relatively high caloric density, as the bulk and fiber are removed. But if you want to lose weight, it helps to focus on low calorie-density foods.

By itself, a few servings of Raisin Bran Crunch will not make or break your weight loss diet, though. Weight loss depends on your overall diet and lifestyle.

If you’re burning more calories than you’re eating overall, you should lose weight. Eating some Raisin Bran Crunch or other “processed foods” on occasion will not ruin your diet as long as that overall pattern is in tact.

Related Question:

• Is Raisin Bran Crunch Good For Losing Belly Fat? Specific foods cannot help you lose fat from a specific area of your body. Fat loss is a full body process, and it depends on your overall diet and lifestyle—not one food you eat. For more information, read this post on how to get six-pack abs.

6. Can Raisin Bran Crunch Cause Acne?

The relationship between diet and acne is still evolving. But there is growing evidence that diet does play a major role in acne. And there are a few specific types of foods that are widely acknowledged as problematic.

The first big problem food for acne is dairy: Milk, cheese, ice cream, and so on. So if you’re eating your Raisin Bran Crunch with cow’s milk, that could already be aggravating your acne.

But the second kind of acne problem food is even more closely associated with Raisin Bran Crunch. It’s sugar. As covered above, Raisin Bran Crunch has a lot of sugar in each serving (19 grams of total sugars)—plus it has more carbs from the grain-based flour.

Milk and sugar are suspected to affect acne through similar mechanisms. It has to do with your body’s insulin response. Your body’s use of insulin is affected by eating dairy foods and also by spikes in your blood sugar. (source)

Interestingly, this means that for many acne sufferers, reducing acne is about stabilizing your blood-sugar levels. And often, that means cutting out high-GI carbs like those found in Raisin Bran Crunch—or at least minimizing them.

Even the more “natural” sugars in Raisin Bran Crunch (raisins and honey) could contribute to blood-sugar spikes for many people, leading to potentially worse acne.

Personally, I found that cereal was one of the worst foods for my acne. Even if I chose cereals with “0g of sugar,” the high-GI processed flakes still often seemed to cause problems for me.

If you want to learn more, I wrote more about acne science and how to clear your acne in this big blog post.

7. Which Raisin Bran Is Healthiest?

If you were limited to choosing between only the Kellogg’s Raisin Bran flavors, then the healthiest Raisin Bran would be the original one. All the other flavors, including Raisin Bran Crunch, have even more added sugar.

But thankfully, there are some actually healthier raisin bran brands out there, too.

The healthiest raisin bran is probably Uncle Sam Skinner’s Raisin Bran. It has 0g of added sugar. The only sugar is from the raisins. It also has more fiber than most other raisin bran cereals, with 8g of fiber per serving.

Another somewhat healthy option would be Nature’s Path Flax Plus Raisin Bran. It’s another high-fiber option, and it has flaxseeds for added health benefits. But unfortunately, it still has moderate sugar content, with 6g of added sugar per serving.

8. Is Raisin Bran Crunch Vegan?

Raisin Bran Crunch is not strictly vegan, as it contains honey. It also has sugar, which is a gray-area ingredient that some vegans avoid. However, some vegans may be relaxed about these “minor” ingredients and be okay with eating Raisin Bran Crunch.

Most vegans avoid honey, as it is an animal ingredient. That said, many vegans let it slide because it’s not actually clear to what extent bees experience consciousness, suffering, or any kind of sentience.

Another potential vegan complaint against Raisin Bran Crunch would be that the sugar could be processed with animal bone char. But most vegans are not so picky as to boycott foods over that detail.

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