So USA Today reported recently that kids cereals have 85 percent more sugar and 65 percent less fiber than adults’ cereals. To that you can hear a resounding “Duh!” coming from most people.
Where it really starts to get outrageous is the money spent to coerce our youth. According to this article, the average preschooler sees 642 cereal ads advertised on television every year, and most of them are worthless nutritionally speaking. And (hold your jaw, it’s about to fall open) with $156 million spent on advertising to kids, you would think these big cereal companies would feel a little more responsibility for the cereal they’re peddling to these innocents, especially when you consider the rise in childhood obesity and the subsequent consequences to a child’s health.
I’m sorry, but that is unconscionable. They claim they “self-regulate,” but their nutrition labels out this self-regulation as complete absurdity. As Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center puts it, “self-regulation is an abject failure.”
And while these stats aren’t exactly shockers, the response from General Mills and Kellogg’s are. Kris Charles, Kellogg’s company spokesperson says, “Kellogg has a global standard that determines how and what products are marketed to children under 12.” The article didn’t state what the “global standard” for marketing was.
General Mills spokesperson Heidi Geller cites a study that says that kids who eat cereal (including the presweetened kind in question), “tend to weigh less than kids who eat cereal less frequently—and they’re better nourished.” I wonder who funded that study?
So much for being accountable. My mother used to tell me you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. That same reasoning holds true for cereal: you can’t make a nutritious breakfast out of a bowl of sugar, artificial colorings, flavorings and additives. Just because some big cereal company spent millions to market it to your child, decorated the box with cartoons and has “Smart Choice” emblazoned on the front of the box doesn’t mean a blasted thing.
Remember this parents: You are in charge of what you buy to pour into your children’s cereal bowl if you choose to exercise that right. Let’s take BACK our children’s health starting with breakfast. My vote goes for good, old-fashioned oatmeal.
For more help putting dinner on your table, check out Leanne’s website, www.SavingDinner.com, or her Saving Dinner book series (Ballantine) and her New York Times bestselling book Body Clutter (Fireside). Copyright 2009 Leanne Ely. Used by permission in this publication.
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