Cereal. A “Great” Way To Start The Day? Don’t Even Get Me Started!
In today's NY Times, I read a piece on a cereal that Kellogg's is beginning to sell in the US, marketing toward adults, "Crunchy Nut Cereal".
Here are the ingredients:
Maize, Brown Sugar (Sugar, Molasses), Peanuts (7%), Sugar, Honey (2%), Barley Malt Flavouring, Salt, Niacin, Iron, Vitamin B6, Riboflavin (B2), Thiamin (B1), Folic Acid, Vitamin B12.
And only a mere 35 g of refined sugar per serving!
Great to see that, according to this article, "nearly all American households buy cereal" and that the cereal companies obviously have our health as the most highly ranked priority on their agenda as they reference one of their marketing tactics, "The way to market to kids is a lot about taste and fun,” said Mr. VanDeVelde, of Kellogg’s, noting the popularity of mascots like Toucan Sam, the Froot Loops character. “Toucan Sam has a great relationship with kids and goes on all these fruity adventures.”
Here are the ingredients for FROOT LOOPS (does the name not give it away?):
SUGAR; WHOLE GRAIN CORN FLOUR; WHEAT FLOUR; WHOLE GRAIN OAT FLOUR; OAT FIBER; SOLUBLE CORN FIBER; PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OIL (ONE OR MORE OF: COCONUT, SOYBEAN AND/OR COTTONSEED OILS)†; SALT; SODIUM ASCORBATE AND ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C); NIACINAMIDE; REDUCED IRON; NATURAL ORANGE, LEMON, CHERRY, RASPBERRY, BLUEBERRY, LIME AND OTHER NATURAL FLAVORS; RED #40; BLUE #2; TURMERIC COLOR; YELLOW #6; ZINC OXIDE; ANNATTO COLOR; BLUE #1; PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6); RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2); THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B1); VITAMIN A PALMITATE; BHT (PRESERVATIVE); FOLIC ACID; VITAMIN D; VITAMIN B12.
† LESS THAN 0.5g TRANS FAT PER SERVING
Fantastic that kids are being presented with this as a 'food' and that Toucan Sam can help ease them along the way to an early start to juvenile diabetes and obesity.
Also interesting to note that "Crunchy Nut Flakes are 35.5 percent sugars by weight, well over not just many cereal brands but also some cookie brands, like Chips Ahoy, which are 31.3 percent sugars."
OK- so you're actually going to start the day with more sugar than if you ate cookies for breakfast.
Even if you're not someone who follows The Paleo Diet, PLEASE- don't start your day, or your kids' day this way! How about some Omega 3 scrambled eggs and fresh fruit??
