Did You Know 1 in 4 Children's Breakfast Cereals Are 40% Sugar?
- Proposed Rules by 2016
- Annotated Mythbusters: Episode 55: Archimedes Steam Cannon, Cereal Nutrition
- Sugar is on the menu for kids’ breakfast – - CNN.com Blogs
Only one in four children’s cereals meets government guidelines for limits on sugar, according to a new report by the Environmental Working Group, a consumer advocacy organization. - The Report From The Environmental Working Group:
So you might just want to file this one under the “no kidding captain obvious”, but a study released awhile back found that 1 in 4 kid’s cereals actually have 40% or more added sugar! I personally find this to be quite astonishing. I knew things like fruit loops, and honey smacks weren’t exactly health food, but these numbers are staggering to me. In a few of the cereals sampled, many of the cereals actually had more sugar than a twinkie or 3 Chips A Hoy cookies!
The article which can be found in the links also opened up my eyes to portion sizing. Supposedly a correct portion size of cereal is only 3/4 of a cup. When was the last time you ate 3/4 of a cup of cereal? I’m a bit embarrassed now to admit this but there have been some nights where I have consumed an entire box of cereal for dinner! The cereal manufactures though are crying foul because the study actually used more than the regular serving for their tests. They used a full cup of cereal not 3/4. In addition, they are stating that many of the cereals are not actually marketed to kids. For example the makers of the worst offender on the list, Honey Smacks (and also a personal favorite of mine) said their cereal isn’t marketed to kids. As an adult though I sure can’t get enough of that little green frog on the font of the box! (Hopefully you can sense my sarcasm here.) They might as well of just used Joe Camel as a mascot!
I should point out though that not all cereals have been created by Lucifer himself, and there are a few healthy alternatives such as Rice Krispies and Cheerios. This report was actually done by a consumer advocacy group called “The Environmental Working Group” and features not only the statistics, but also healthy alternatives and other breakfast ideas and recipes as well. Now I should mention that this group has no legal enforcement when it comes to the manufactures, they were simply the fact finders.
There is however a cross governmental task force the thingy setup that is also proposing changes to the food industry by 2016. Again though, they have no teeth, and this is optional. They have no authority or power when it comes to enforcement. You would probably have a better chance of convicting a CEO with Sarbanes-Oxley than to actually get the manufactures to fully cooperate. If you didn’t get that reference, google it and you’ll realize the irony..
Although the Mythbusters have already tested to see if a cereal box has more nutrition than the actual cereal, they may want to retest this one in the near future….