Life Cereal is one of the oldest breakfast cereals in the US, launched in 1961. The brand describes their product line as "Multigrain Cereal" that's a "delicious, nutritious choice for everyone."

But what's actually in Life Cereal, and is it healthy? Does the brand use any questionable additives? What's the healthiest flavor? And how does its healthiness compare to other popular breakfast cereals like Reese's Puffs and Shredded Wheat?

In this article we'll answer all of these questions and more, as we analyze the ingredients in Life Cereal to give our take on whether or not it's healthy, and which flavor is the healthiest.

We'll also compare the healthiness of Life Cereal to other popular cereal brands to give our winners.

Ingredient Analysis

The ingredients in the Vanilla flavor of Life Cereal are shown above.

Only three of the 16 ingredients (four if you include salt) are whole food ingredients. This is an unfavorable ratio in our opinion.

Whole grain wheat flour is rich in fiber, and this cereal provides 3 grams (g) of fiber per serving.

A medical review found that only 5% of the American population consumed an optimal daily fiber dose, so this cereal may help in that regard.

There are three ingredients in this product we consider potentially unhealthy.

Artificial flavor is included, and a medical review published in the Toxicology and Industrial Health journal concluded the following:

"...it is advisable to limit the uses of these food colorants and/or food flavor additives."

Natural flavor is a broad categorical descriptor that can include some compounds clinically shown to be harmful, as we documented in our Pedialyte ingredient review article. 

Folic acid is a synthetic B-vitamin that was shown in a clinical trial published in the Cancer Prevention Research journal to potentially increase cancer risk.

Overall, we do not consider Life Cereal to be healthy due to the additive ingredients discussed above, and due to the use of synthetic vitamin additives (we prefer cereal primarily composed of whole foods).

What's the Healthiest Flavor?

Life Cereal Chocolate is the healthiest flavor of this cereal in our opinion.

Its ingredients are shown below:

Cocoa powder is used as a flavoring ingredient, and this cereal is free of artificial flavors.

A 2013 medical review concluded that cocoa has anti-allergenic, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties.

This flavor is also free of folic acid.

Interestingly, we consider the Original flavor to be the least healthy of all.

There is no ingredient list for the Original flavor on the brand's website at the time of publishing this article, which is a consumer safety issue.

Sodium phosphate dibasic is listed as an ingredient on this third-party retail site, and dietary phosphate intake has been linked with increased cardiovascular disease risk in some clinical trials, as we discussed in our article titled are Goldfish healthy.

Life Cereal vs. the Competition

Here's how the healthiness of Life Cereal stacks up against other popular cereal brands in our opinion:

Reese's Puffs

Contains more added sugar than Life per serving. Also contains a dietary phosphate and artificial flavor.

Winner: Life

Shredded Wheat

Only contains two ingredients: wheat and BHT (a preservative). As we documented in our is Shredded Wheat good for you article, BHT contains a metabolite described as a tumor promoter in at least one medical study.

We consider BHT to be worse for you than artificial flavor.

Winner: Tie

Frosted Flakes

Contains more added sugar than Life, but is free of artificial flavor.

Winner: Life (the Chocolate version)

Our Healthy Cereal Pick

Ezekiel Sprouted Grain Cereal is the healthiest cereal brand in our opinion, and features entirely sprouted grains like organic sprouted wheat, organic sprouted barley and organic sprouted millet.

A Harvard Health review found that sprouted grains have more bioavailable nutrients than unsprouted grains, and a medical review published in the Nutrients journal found that “the amount of anti-nutritional factors…decreases significantly” when grains are sprouted.

Ezekiel Cinnamon Raisin cereal is naturally sweetened with organic raisins, which are shown in medical research to support cardiovascular health and gut function.

There are no questionable additive ingredients in this product, and it's rich in naturally-occurring vitamins and minerals.

Cereal Show Reviews Life

YouTube creators with a channel called "The Cereal Review Show" gave their take on Life:

Conclusion

We don't consider Life Cereal to be healthy due to some of the additive ingredients used. 

In our view, a minimally-processed brand would be a better option.

That being said, we consider Life to be healthier than some of its competitors like Frosted Flakes because it has no synthetic preservatives.

For consumers planning on purchasing Life, we think the Chocolate flavor is the healthiest, because it uses real cocoa for flavoring (rather than artificial flavor).