How hard is it to make a healthy breakfast cereal that tastes good, too? Apparently, it's nearly impossible, according to a painstakingly researched expose [1] in Wednesday's New York Times.

Intrepid food reporter and cookbook author Marian Burros [2] sampled roughly a hundred varieties of “alternative” cereals, and rough is the operative word: according to Burros, many of them tasted like cardboard, or sawdust.

If you've tried any of these supposedly healthier cereals, you know first hand what she's talking about. What was news to me was the fact that not all the fiber contained in these cereals comes from the whole grains themselves. It's added to the cereal in much the same way as vitamins and minerals are added to most mainstream brands.

And some of these cereals, like their conventional counterparts, are high in sugars and salt. Sweeteners such as evaporated cane juice and honey are no better than refined sugar, Burros says.

Only a small fraction of these brands is totally organic [2], and while they're free of artificial colors, preservatives, additives, hydrogenated oils, and trans fats, they're mostly lacking in taste and texture as well.

Breakfast cereal was on my shopping list yesterday, so I bought two new varieties that “do pass muster” by Burros' standards. One, Kashi's Mighty Bites, is clearly aimed at kids and, while it wasn't bad, it was a bit sweet for me. It comes in what the box describes as “crunchy fun shapes,” which are, in fact, little people. I found this kind of cannibalistic and creepy.

I also tried another new Kashi cereal, 7 Whole Grain Flakes. It is, as the box proclaims, “crunchy.” So crunchy, my jaws got tired after eating half a bowl of it. It tasted OK, but I don't think I'd buy it again. Like Burros, I'll stick with a hot cereal, preferably steel cut oats. Chewing should be a pleasure, not a chore.

Does anyone know of a breakfast cereal that's tasty, and healthy, too? Is it time to revisit our childhood cereals, now that Kellogg and General Mills have reformulated them to include whole grains?