Supports Chapter 18: Prevention is better; Chapter 19: 'Healthy eating' is fattening
It's not surprising that today's children are become so obese. On average, sugar accounts for more than one-third of the weight of children's cereals compared to less than one-quarter of adult cereals. Some breakfast cereals aimed children are two-thirds sugar. Even the rest is composed of starch, a carbohydrate which the digestion converts into sugar.[1]
Yet the 'health industry' labels these as 'healthy'!
Schwartz MB, Vartanian LR, Wharton CM, Brownell KD. Examining the nutritional quality of breakfast cereals marketed to children. J Am Diet Assoc 2008; 108:702-5. (PMID: 18375229)
4 comments:
Must be something about my kids then - they prefer the adult cereal! In fact, my kids prefer fruit to candy - but maybe that's because we eat fruit in front of them all the time. I totally agree that the food industry should be a bit more responsible about this sort of thing with our kids - but shouldn't parents read the labels too??
Hi Gary
Yes they should, but many don't. Children's cereals are made to look attractive to kids, and are placed a children's eye level on supermarket's shelves. The manufacturers and the supermarkets then rely on 'pester power' for the little blighters to get what they want, even if parents don't want them to have it.
I'm glad that your children prefer the adult varieties although, in my opinion, it would be preferable that breakfast cereals were not on their menu at all. Something like scrambled eggs is so much healthier.
Even worse, there are "organic" varieties of breakfast cereal on the market. Well, it'll still kill you, but only with diabetes, not with pesticide-induced cancer! *eyeroll*
My little girl loves eggs. Eating wheat causes behavioral problems so I try to minimize that for her.
Hi Dana
Couldn't agree more.
It's great that your girl loves eggs. Just make sure when she goes to school she isn't brainwashed into shunning them.
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