October 30, 2009 A Spoonful of Sugar?
Are food manufacturers to blame for rising rates of child obesity? Some say yes. And it’s hard to disagree when you look at some of the nutritional trash that gets advertised to our kids. Reese’s Puffs? Really? I know it’s fortified, but is it really food?
A new report by the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale University shows cereals are the most common category of food advertised to kids – to the tune of $156 million in 2008.
The report also shows that the majority of these advertised cereals are incredibly unhealthy. That's why they should be considered occasional treats, not staples that become habits.
Did you know that cereals geared to children have 85% more sugar, 65% less fiber and 60% more sodium than cereals targeted to adults?
The average sugar content of cereals advertised to kids is 35%, but some cereals are more than 50% sugar.
Want to know which nutritional losers are most heavily marketed to our kids? Here are the Yale team’s 10 worst advertising offenders:
- Lucky Charms
- Cinnamon Toast Crunch
- Honey Nut Cheerios
- Trix
- Reese’s Puffs
- Cocoa Puffs
- Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles
- Frosted Flakes
- Corn Pops
- Froot Loops
Honey Nut Cheerios? You bet. General Mills would have you believe that this gem is as good as the original, but it isn’t.
- Cheerios, which the Yale team scores a 58 (out of 100 for top nutrition), is 3.6% sugar and 10.7% fiber.
- Honey Nut Cheerios, which receives a score of 44, is 32.1% sugar and 7.1% fiber.
And here's the kicker... Your kids never see the ads for regular Cheerios. Those are saved for parents. The other ads? They are targeted straight to your tykes.
There are better choices out there, but you probably think your kids won’t like them. Food manufacturers are counting on you to make that calculation. Don’t play along.
It’s true that kids come predisposed to liking sweet foods but that doesn’t mean that’s all they’ll eat. In fact, their taste buds are shaped by exposure more than anything else, so what you feed them really counts. Give them sweet foods and that’s what they’ll demand, but give them less sugar and they’ll learn to like that too. It's all about their habits.
What can you do?
- Take nutritionist Marion Nestle’s advice and think of most cereals as cookies. If you like your cereal sweet, buy an unsweetened kind and add your own sugar.
- Pay attention to how often sweet is the flavor you feed your children and gradually wean them off it.
- Teach your kids the truth about advertising – “It’s candy that the food makers want you to think is healthy.”
- If your kids beg and whine for sweetened cereals, give it to them – occasionally. Don't make it a habit. Let your kids choose between sugary cereals and other sweet treats such as cookies, sweetened yogurt, and ice cream.
~ Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits. ~
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Sources:
Harris, Jennifer L., et al. 2009. Cereal FACTS: Evaluating the Nutrition Quality and Marketing of Children's Cereals. Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. Yale University. Accessed on October 29, 2009. http://www.cerealfacts.org/media/Cereal_FACTS_Report.pdf
Nestle, M., 2006. What to Eat. New York: North Point Press.
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Reader Comments (2)
Oh, how I worry about cereals! My 10 month old son eats table foods, and we cook from scratch and eat with him, or send food to his daycare which he can feed himself (unsweetened french toast strips, broccoli, asparagus spears, meatballs) - BUT his 'breakfast snack' every morning on arrival at daycare is a handful of dry cheerios, and because he eats them and I therefore know for sure he's eating something before lunchtime (when he will tuck into the meat and green veg very happily) I send cheerios. I mix them with unsweeetened puffed wheat, some of which also goes in... but I do worry that my on-the-go snacks are cheerios and breadsticks, because he can hold them and feed himself, and because they get eaten.
So two questions, I suppose - (1) what can I do to vary up a (packable) breakfast? He gets to the daycare at 7am and so only has a breastfeed before then.
And (2) do you have any tried-and-true, not sweet (or salty!) snacks that work well for teeny tots?
I've been reading your blog with interest for a couple of years now, but suddenly all this is happening to me too - and I don't want to use cheerios to 'soothe' him while I'm in town, (eg "here's a sweet kiddo, stop grizzling so momma can go to the store") but nor can I carry a cooler around with me all day long.
Yikes, this stuff is fraught isn't it?!
Thanks for your blog, Dina!
Marina,
It sounds like your son is a great eater, so my advice is to keep doing what you're doing. At the same time, I understand your worry about the Cheerios. I don't think it's a problem for your son to eat Cheerios as his breakfast, but I would say two things: make sure you're giving him the regular Cheerios (not the Honey Nut, or any of the other flavors) most of the time, and, find a few other cereals you can put into rotation. I would stay away from the breadsticks as a regular routine because they will reinforce your child's desire for bland and bready food, but occasionally bread sticks are fine too.
You can use anything for breakfast on the go that fits into a baggie or which can be wrapped in foil. This includes a sandwich broken into pieces, a mix of nuts and raisins (if there are no allergies), a small bean & cheese burrito (you can buy these frozen), dried fruit... the options are enormous. The key is to talk to your son about eating different things on different days, (you can do this with simple language even at 10 months) and see if he's ready to help make some choices.
Good luck and let me know how it goes.
Dina