If you’re a cereal lover, you’ve likely come across two of the most sugary cereals in the store: Honey Smacks and Golden Crisp.
Honey Smacks is manufactured by Kellogg’s, while Golden Crisp is manufactured by Post.
Both the cereals are wheat-based and packed with high levels of sugar – we know they aren’t the healthiest breakfast options.
However, when choosing between these two sweet cereals, which one is better?
Honey Smacks or Golden Crisp?
That’s what I am going to find in this post. But here’s a quick and short answer.
Short answer: Honey Smacks is better than Golden Crisp because it is made with whole grain wheat as the first ingredient, contains slightly less sugar and calories, has less sodium, and provides a small amount of fiber, unlike Golden Crisp which has none.
However, neither cereal is an ideal healthy breakfast choice due to their high sugar content
Read on for a detailed comparison of Honey Smacks and Golden Crisp in terms of their ingredients and nutritional value.
Read also: Shredded Wheat Vs Weetabix: Which One Is More Healthier?
Honey Smacks vs Golden Crisp: Ingredients
Honey Smacks ingredients
The Honey Smacks name might make you think you’re getting a healthy dose of the honey.
But a close look at the ingredient list shows that honey is actually pretty low on the list – behind sugar, whole grain wheat, and glucose syrup.
Honey Smacks is made up of whole grain wheat, sugar, glucose syrup, and honey as the primary ingredients.
It also includes other ingredients but in 2% or less, which includes
- Palm oil
- Fruit juice for color
- Salt
- Canola lecithin
- Mixed tocopherols (vitamin E)
Golden Crisp ingredients
Golden Crisp is also made of wheat, but not as the main ingredient.
The main ingredient in this cereal is sugar, followed by wheat, corn syrup, salt, honey, and caramel.
Besides these ingredients, it has been fortified with several B vitamins such as Thiamin mononitrate, Calcium pantothenate, and folic acid(B9).
The verdict: Which one is better?
Ideally, none of the cereals are particularly good for a healthy breakfast (ingredients-wise).
That’s because both cereals are loaded with multiple sugar sources.
However, when choosing one, Honey Smacks is better than Golden Crisp.
That’s because the main ingredient in Hone Smacks is whole-grain wheat, while the main ingredient in Golden Crisp is sugar.
Additionally, the ingredient list for Golden Crisp just states “wheat” rather than “whole grain wheat.”
This indicates that the wheat used is likely refined wheat flour, which is less nutritious than whole-grain wheat (in Honey Smacks).
Honey Smacks vs Golden Crisp: Nutrition
Note that the nutritional information I’ve used here is taken from pack nutrition tables on the official websites.
Sugar
Honey Smacks: 18g sugar per serving (36g)
Golden Crisp: 21g sugar per serving (38g)
Honey Smacks contains a bit less sugar per serving compared to Golden Crisp.
However, both cereals are still very high in added sugar overall.
The sugar in Honey Smacks comes from sugar, glucose syrup, and honey. In contrast, the sugar in Golden Crisp comes from sugar, corn syrup, honey, and caramel.
The American Heart Association recommends not more than 25g of added sugar per day for women and 36g for men.
Just one serving of either cereal supplies most of that recommended daily limit.
If you limit sugar, none of the cereal is good for you.
Calories
Honey Smacks: 130 per serving (36g)
Golden Crisp: 150 per serving (38g)
Both cereals are fairly low in calories.
However, in a side-by-side calorie comparison, Golden Crisp has 20 more calories per serving than Honey Smacks.
In both cereals, calories mainly come from carbohydrates and sugar alone, without much nutritional value.
Fat
Honey Smacks: 0.5g fat per serving (36g)
Golden Crisp: 0.5g fat per serving (38g)
Both Honey Smacks and Golden Crisp offer barely any fat per serving.
Good news if you’re watching total fat intake.
There is no saturated or trans fat.
Protein
Honey Smacks: 2g protein per serving (36g)
Golden Crisp: 2g protein per serving (38g)
Honey Smacks and Golden Crisp contain similar protein content, i.e., 2g.
That’s quite low.
However, the protein content increases (up to 9 to 11g) when these cereals are paired with milk.
But on their own, neither Honey Smacks nor Golden Crisp can be considered a good protein-packed breakfast.
Fiber
Honey Smacks: 2g fiber per serving (36g)
Golden Crisp: 0g fiber per serving (38g)
When it comes to fiber, Honey Smacks is a better choice than Golden Crisp.
Honey Smack has 2g fiber per serving (from whole grain wheat), while Golden Crisp has no fiber.
However, 2g of fiber is still very low. That’s not even 10% of the daily recommended fiber for adults.
Golden Crisp lacks fiber because it is made with refined wheat, from which fiber gets removed.
Sodium
Honey Smacks: 45mg sodium per serving (36g)
Golden Crisp: 85mg sodium per serving (38g)
Sodium is an essential part of the diet, but too much of it can result in heart-related issues.
Fortunately, Honey Smacks and Golden Crisp are low in sodium, containing less than 6% of the daily value.
However, Golden Crisp contains almost double the sodium of Honey Smacks.
If you are limiting sodium in your diet, you can’t go wrong with either of the cereals.
Vitamins and minerals
Neither Honey Smacks nor Golden Crisp is a good source of vitamins and minerals.
However, Golden Crisp is slightly better as it has been fortified with B vitamins like Thiamin, Folic Acid, and Pantothenic Acid.
Moreover, it also contains a trace amount of minerals like phosphorus, magnesium, copper, and zinc.
Honey Smacks contains no added vitamins or minerals.
Here’s the table showing the levels of vitamins and minerals in both cereals.
| Vitamins & minerals | Honey Smacks(% daily value) | Golden Crisp(% daily value) |
|---|---|---|
| Zinc | NA | 4% |
| Vitamin B1 (thiamin) | NA | 60% |
| Vitamin B3 (niacin) | NA | 6% |
| Vitamin B9 (folate) | NA | 8% |
| Magnesium | NA | 4% |
| Phosphorus | NA | 6% |
| Copper | NA | 8% |
Final words
After looking closely at both cereal ingredients and nutrition, Honey Smacks emerges as the better choice.
Here’s why
- Honey Smacks is made with whole-grain wheat, whereas Golden Crisp is made with refined wheat.
- Honey Smacks has slightly less sugar and calories than Golden Crisp.
- Honey Smacks has less sodium than Golden Crisp.
- Honey Smacks contains fiber, while Golden Crisp doesn’t.
However, Golden Crisp has a positive of slightly more vitamins and minerals, which are missing in Honey Smacks.
In a nutshell, none of the cereals are healthy breakfast options. But when compared, Honey Smacks is better than Golden Crisp.
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