

Most of the nutritional value I’ve seen in cereals have been through supplemental ingredients. For example, a lot of the vitamins and minerals are added in as if you crushed supplements and put them in your bowl. There are better ways of getting those nutrients, including fiber: beans, chickpeas, lentils, peanuts, flax seeds, chia seeds, various vegetables, etc. None of those require milk to be palatable and they’re much cheaper than the ultra-processed cereals. When it comes to fiber, you’ll want a variety, cereals largely just rely on bran.

If I were going for optimization, I wouldn’t be suggesting food, I would be suggesting supplements and powders. Odd that you seem to have a problem with optimization in your first sentence, then you promote cereal because it’s non-perishable, easy, and predictable, which all sound like optimizations to me. Just so you know, beans, chickpeas, and lentils all fall under those categories as well.