Should Your Family Eat This or That?

Puffed Rice Cereal or Raisin Bran?

The better choice: Raisin bran.

"Iron-rich raisins pack a nutritional punch, and one cup of raisin bran has around seven grams of fiber, which kids don't get enough of," says Elisa Zied, M.S., R.D., the author of Feed Your Family Right! (John Wiley & Sons, $17, amazon.com). Fiber recommendations by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) range from 19 grams, for 1- to 3-year-olds, to 31 grams, for 9- to 13-year-old males. Also, cereals with flakes retain more of their nutritional value than puffed varieties, according to a 2006 study published in Food Chemistry.

 Keep in mind: Be sure to brush after eating the sugarcoated raisins―one serving of raisin bran has 19 grams of sugar.