It can shave dollars off your weekly grocery bill as well. A family that spends $10 on two boxes of cereal a week can cut its bill almost in half by making its own from scratch, experts estimate. Over a year, the two-box-a-week family can save nearly $260.

"It's hard to find anything wrong with cereal from scratch. It's healthy, it's easy and it's cheap," said Laura Slama, a Tempe, Ariz., caterer who last year turned her homemade granola into a fast-selling commercial success.

Homemade cereal also allows you to avoid the sugars, salt, fats and laundry list of chemicals in many popular boxed varieties.

"When you make your own cereal, you control what goes in and what stays out. And you can customize your cereal to fit your personality, health needs and your taste," said Eddy Chavey, a Los Angeles culinary school graduate who offers a slew of homemade cereal recipes at mrbreakfast.com.

Mix your own cereal Combine seeds, grains, dried fruits and nuts for tasty, less expensive custom cereals.

Seeds: Raw flax and other seeds add healthful oils, fiber. Photos by Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

Prepared cereals: Choose high-fiber, low-sugar options.

Dried fruit: Add for sweetness, texture, nutrients.

Grains: Oatmeal, other grains, provide inexpensive protein, fiber.

Wheat germ: Nutty flavor; high in nutrients.

Concocting a homemade cereal takes little cooking skill.

At its most basic, just assemble ingredients, such as wheat flakes or wheat germ, dried fruit and your favorite nuts.

Other cereals, such as most granolas, may require you to warm fats, sugars and flavoring agents together on top of the stove and drizzle these over the assembled cereal ingredients. Other mixture are tossed together and baked.

Today, a wide selection of cereal ingredients is available in health food stores and some groceries. In the health food store, check out the bin section for ingredients including multigrain flakes, rice bran, flaxseed and such. At the grocery store, look for dried cherries, granolas, trail mixes and whole grains.

In Hawai'i, one challenge is keeping cereal mixtures from going rancid or becoming a home to bugs. If you've got freezer space, many homemade cereals and higher-fat cereal ingredients (such as coconut), keep well this way. Or use 2-gallon zip bags, vacuum-sealed jars or airtight plastic containers and store them in the coolest possible place.

It's important, however, to make sure you don't overdo the sugary or fatty ingredients, or you'll be back at square one, nutritionally.

Learn to enjoy your cereal with a lowfat soy- or rice-based "milk." Begin with one of the richer, flavored varieties, such as Silk in the red carton or vanilla Rice Dream, then switch gradually to the even skinnier options. Unlike dairy milk, these have no cholesterol and they can be lower in calories and fat.

Another option is to mix cereal with unflavored or vanilla low-fat or non-fat yogurt — but be sure to choose brands that are less sweetened. A yogurt brand with live cultures, such as Mountain High Yoghurt is also preferable. Live and active cultures promote bowel regularity, are a boost against gastrointestinal infections and may help against yeast infections in women.

Many healthful and widely available cereal mixtures begin with oats — either the quick or rolled kind. Or you can blend another cereal or cereal mixture with steel-cut oats, which must be cooked. As with other whole grains, it's the fiber in oatmeal that helps lower the risk of cancer and heart disease and helps control blood sugar.

Don't forget brown rice or barley as a cereal option; or less familiar grains found in health food stores, such as millet and amaranth.

Studies also show that people who eat a high-fiber, low-fat bowl of cereal with fruit are less likely to nibble before lunch.

"We've heard it since we were kids, but it's true. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and if you eat wisely by selecting whole grains, nuts and fruits, you will not be hungry an hour later," said Dr. Timothy Harlan, a Virginia internist and cookbook author known as Dr. Gourmet.

"Studies show that it's hard to lose and keep weight off without eating a healthy breakfast."

Slama also recommends eating homemade cereals for snacks or as a light dinner.

"In our family — and I know we are not alone — a bowl of cereal is our breakfast, our late-night snack and what we reach for whenever we are hungry and rushed," Slama said. "For a little extra effort, you can make sure your bowl is filled with tasty and healthy ingredients."