Sugar Cereals Like Honey Smacks, Captain Crunch & Froot Loops Worse Than A Twinkie
Many cereals on the market today being pitched to kids contain way too much sugar
Recent studies state some cereals contain as much sugar in a one cup serving as a Twinkie or 3 Chips Ahoy! Chocolate chip cookies. Many parents are actually feeding desert to their children for breakfast.
Studies show that children who eat a high sugary breakfast don’t do as well in school, have higher incidents of childhood obesity, and growing research supports FAT TO SKINNY research that the high sugar content can become as addictive as nicotine or even cocaine.
Cereals are popular for many reasons, including ease of preparation, the “cool” ads on TV that make many children beg their parents for them, and the taste that gets some pickier kids to eat when other times they may choose not to.
The cereal that topped the list as the unhealthiest breakfast cereal on the planet was Kellogg’s Honey Sugar Smacks. This is the cereal that has as much sugar in one serving as a Twinkie. Considering how most serving sizes are small compared to what people normally deem a serving size, the sugar intake is even higher.
Linda Sutherland, Vice president of nutrition for Kellogg’s (Kellogg Company: NYSE:K), stated in an email to NPR, that Kellogg’s has “reduced the sugar content of its U.S. kids’ cereals by 16 percent since 2007.” She goes on to say that Honey Smacks isn’t marketed to children and kids rarely eat them. That statement is clearly an attempt to defend what isn’t able to be defended. Anyone who has seen their kids walk down a cereal aisle will tell you that they love the smiling frog on the front of the box.
Other cereals that really push the limits on sugar which equal the amount of three Chips Ahoy! cookies are Honey Nut Cheerios, Apple Jacks & Cap’n Crunch. One serving of these cereals would be equivalent to dining on 3 cookies every morning. Other cereals that have high sugar content are Froot Loops, Quaker Oats Oh!s and Quaker Oats Cap’n Crunch’s Oops All Berries. Unless you want your kids to have sugar highs you also need to keep from buying Apple Jacks, Smorz, Cap’n Crunch Berries, Golden Crisp and pretty much anything else with lots of color in the cereal.
There are many options of healthier cereals out there, but then the problem becomes getting their kids to eat those cereals. Of course parents CAN help this problem by offering their children healthier breakfasts, despite the extra time involved in preparing them. Eggs, meats, low carb toast with peanut butter, Smaps Cereal with strawberries are just a couple of choices which will remove sugar from their bowl.
The breakfast cereal companies do need to take some responsibility and lower the sugar content in their cereals. However, parents also need to step up to the plate and realize they are the ones in control of what actually goes into their kids’ mouths in the morning. There are just too many options out there to feel like they are handcuffed to the cereal aisle. If more parents take that step, the cereal companies will have to respond by making healthier cereals for their biggest demographic… kids.
