Childhood obesity is on the dramatic rise, as well as excess sugar consumption. Pressure is being put on food manufacturers, parents and schools to come up with healthy alternatives to the highly sugar-laden, ready-to-eat cereals. Take advantage and start slipping in the better products for the old style high sugar ones to get kids to eat healthier.
Big Cereal Sugar Study
We’ve all heard the saying that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and Yale University researchers set out to see if children would eat low-sugar ready-to-eat cereals and what effect is had on the consumption of cereal, refined sugar, fruit and milk. Surprising results can be cheered by all. What was discovered is some very interesting facts about our children and the breakfast they eat or would eat if available.
Children who ate the low-sugar cereal consumed on the average slightly more than a standard serving of the cereal (35 grams), but the kids in the high-sugar group ate much more (61 grams), which amounted to almost double the amount of total sugar. For notation, the milk and total calories consumed weren’t much different, but here’s the rub: The kids in the low-sugar group were much more likely to put fruit on the cereal (54% vs 8%) and therefore, ate a greater portion of the calories from fresh fruit (20% versus 13%).
Just Switch the Cereal Boxes
High sugar, ready-to-eat cereals increase kids' total nutrition-less sugar consumption, which therefore reduces the breakfast’s nutritional benefits. The children got less nutrition but more nutrition-less sugar. The most important part of this study is that kids will consume low-sugar cereals when they are present and offered to them and they do give them much better nutritional benefits, so let's toss the sugar-laden stuff and just switch out the boxes.
Let’s Go Healthy and Sugar-Less
How about just not having the high sugar cereal (even the touted reduced sugar versions of the high sugar cereals) in the house? Have bananas, raisins, orange juice and strawberries in the house and drag them out for breakfast. The study showed kids will put good fruit on their cereal and drink more orange juice. Cereals marketed to kids contain much more added sugar than those targeted to adults (32% to 43% of cereal content by weight), and they tend to eat much more at once, so day by day, the kids are eating much more sugar and having less overall nutritional benefits. Help stop obesity by eating less added sugars. Let's get breakfast back to being the most important meal of the day.
Sources:
Jennifer L. Harris, PhD, MBA, Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Princeton, New Jersey
Pediatrics 2011;127-71-6
Rampersaud GC. Benefits of breakfast for children and adolescents, update and recommendations for practitioners,. American Journal Lifestyle Medicine 2009; 3:86-103
Nicklas TA, O’Neil CE. Berenson GS. Nutrient contribution of breakfast, secular trends and the role of ready-to-eat cereals; a review of data from the Bogalusa Heart Study. American Journal Clinical Nutrition. 1998;67:757S-763S
Gleason PM. Dodd AH. School breakfast program but not school lunch program participation is associated with lower body mass indexes. Journal of American Dietary Association 2009;109:S-118-S129
Brenda K. Oswalt - Brenda Oswalt is a French trained cook, writer, businesswoman/inventor who holds several medical patents.
