Great-Tasting Granolas Without All the Fat, Sugar, and Calories - Consumer Reports (2024)

Granola doesn’t usually seem like a healthy choice. Check the nutrition label and you may see as many as 200-plus calories in a tiny ⅓-cup serving—along with lots of added sugars and saturated fat. So it’s not a surprise that a March 2024 Consumer Reports nationally representative survey (PDF) of 2,000 American adults found that 59 percent hadn’t eaten granola recently.

“But the basic ingredients—oats, nuts, seeds, dried fruit—are whole foods that offer health benefits,” says Amy Keating, RD, a CR nutritionist who oversaw our evaluation of 22 granolas. While the testing confirmed that a few of them resemble a dessert more than a breakfast cereal, we also found better options. “Some of the granolas we tested are really flavorful but still relatively low in added sugars and saturated fat.”

Checking ingredients lists and sticking with moderate portions is, of course, key. Our ratings of the best and worst granolas, below, can help guide you further.

The Good Stuff in Granola

Like a number of cold cereals in the supermarket, granola contains whole grains—typically oats. But the rolled oats in granola are in a less processed form than the whole grains you might find in, say, wheat flakes or oat squares.

“Most cold cereals, even those with whole grains, are made from grains that are cooked and pressed or extruded into flakes or other shapes,” Keating says. “Some can be a healthy choice, but they are more processed than the rolled oats in many granolas.”

What to Watch Out For

Calories: “Even though the oats, nuts, and fruit in granola are good for you on their own, combining them makes for a pretty calorically dense snack or cereal,” Keating says. For instance, Bob’s Red Mill Homestyle Cranberry Almond Granola has 185 calories in ⅓ cup. Raisin Bran, a less dense whole-grain cereal, has 63 calories in ⅓ cup. “A third of a cup of granola is going to look tiny in a cereal bowl, so you may be tempted to pour in more,” Keating says. “That’s why using it as a topping on fruit or yogurt instead is a good idea.”

Added sugars: The American Heart Association recommends that women get no more than 6 teaspoons (25 grams) of added sugars per day and men no more than 9 teaspoons (36 grams). A serving of a sugary granola can account for a lot of that. Five granolas we tested had 2 teaspoons (8 grams) or more of added sugars in ⅓ cup. Many had coconut sugar, honey, or maple syrup, which aren’t any better for you than regular sugar.

Fortunately, our panel of trained testers found you don’t need much of the sweet stuff to get a great-tasting granola. The one with the highest taste score—Early Bird Farmhand’s Choice Granola—has 5 grams of added sugars. Some of our recommended products have even less. For example, Cascadian Farm Organic No Added Sugar Blueberry Vanilla Granola has, as its name says, no added sugar at all, and Back Roads Original Granola has just 3 grams per serving.

Saturated fat: The fats in many granolas are healthy, but the granolas with a lot of coconut oil or coconut can be high in unhealthy saturated fat. For example, Paleonola Grain Free Cinnamon Blueberry Granola has 10.5 grams in ⅓ cup.

Coconut oil is often touted as healthier, but the evidence is thin. “If someone has high cholesterol, it would be good to be careful about coconut because of its saturated fat,” says Kelly Morrow, RDN, an affiliate instructor at the Osher Center for Integrative Health Department of Family Medicine at the University of Washington. A case in point: A 2020 review article published in the journal Circulation found that compared with oils rich in healthy fats, coconut oil increased LDL cholesterol by more than 10 points, on average.

Unwanted additives: Some companies bump up the fiber content of their granolas with ingredients like chicory root. But it’s unclear if such added fiber has the same benefits as fiber from whole food. You may also see no-calorie sweeteners like stevia or monk fruit, especially in low-sugar granolas. Research has raised concerns about the health effects of sugar alternatives, so consider limiting consumption.

Grain-free granola: Those with nuts, nut butter, seeds, and often coconut—but no oats or other grains—are increasingly popular, especially among people who follow low-carb diets. That doesn’t always make them the best choice. While some ingredients are rich in healthy fats, the grain-free granolas we tested were among the highest in saturated fat due to coconut oil or coconut. “And there’s no reason to avoid granola with whole grains,” Keating says. “It’s well established that whole grains help protect against heart disease, cancer, and other illnesses.” But if you want a grain-free option, Purely Elizabeth Grain Free Vanilla Almond Butter Granola meets our saturated fat (and added sugar) guidelines and is one of our top picks.

Best and Worst Granolas

The 22 granolas we tested are grouped by flavor—original, berry, and vanilla—and ranked in order of nutrition and taste. Those with the same scores are listed alphabetically.

We defined granola as “good for you” if it had 5 grams or less of added sugars (equivalent to 1¼ teaspoons of sugar) and 4 grams or less of saturated fat (20 percent of the daily value) per ⅓-cup serving. These two values account for a majority of our nutrition score.

To calculate the taste score, our experts evaluated each product’s flavor and texture without milk. None of our testers knew which granolas they were tasting.

Five granolas—two original flavor, one berry, and two vanilla—scored high enough on nutrition and taste to be recommended. Several others that got top marks for taste just missed our guidelines for healthiness.

NOTE: When you’re shopping, it can be tough to compare the calories (and nutrients) between granolas because serving sizes listed on the packages can vary from ¼ to ⅔ cup. In our tests, we standardized the serving at ⅓ cup of granola to make the differences in nutrition content easier to spot. (For manufacturers that list a different serving size, we used their products’ nutrition facts panel to calculate the nutrition values for a ⅓-cup serving.)

What About Granola Bars?

Granola in bar form can be a handy preportioned snack, but it can also be a sugar-filled one. We reviewed the nutrition stats for a dozen granola and oat bars and found just a few that met our suggested limit for added sugars, which is no more than 5 grams per serving. Nature Valley Oats ’n Honey Crunchy Granola Bars, for instance, had more than double that amount. Calorie-wise, the bars we looked at ranged from 130 to 210 per serving, similar to a serving of granola. And for some, a serving was just half a bar. Eat an entire Bobo’s Original Oat Bar, for instance, and you’ll get 18 grams of added sugars and 340 calories.

If you like the convenience of bars, we suggest MadeGood Mixed Berry Granola Bar or Cascadian Farm Blueberry Vanilla Chewy Bar, No Added Sugar, which meet our sugar guidelines.