{"id":10098,"date":"2024-03-07T20:32:38","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T13:32:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/?p=10098"},"modified":"2024-03-07T20:32:38","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T13:32:38","slug":"are-fortified-childrens-breakfast-cereals-just-candy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/?p=10098","title":{"rendered":"Are Fortified Children\u2019s Breakfast Cereals Just Candy?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The industry responds to the charge that breakfast cereals are too sugary.<\/p>\n<p>In 1941, the American Medical Association\u2019s Council on Foods and Nutrition was <a href=\"https:\/\/jamanetwork.com\/journals\/jama\/article-abstract\/272857\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">presented<\/a> with a new product, Vi-Chocolin, a vitamin-fortified chocolate bar, \u201coffered ostensibly as a specialty product of high nutritive value and of some use in medicine, but in reality intended for promotion to the public as a general purpose confection, a vitaminized candy.\u201d Surely, something like that couldn\u2019t happen today, right? Unfortunately, that\u2019s the sugary cereal industry\u2019s business model.<\/p>\n<p>As I discuss in my video <a href=\"https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/video\/friday-favorites-are-fortified-kids-breakfast-cereals-healthy-or-just-candy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Are Fortified Kids\u2019 Breakfast Cereals Healthy or Just Candy?<\/strong><\/a>, nutrients are added to breakfast cereals \u201cas a marketing gimmick to \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/health\/archive\/2012\/04\/sugary-cereal-breakfast-candy-or-obesity-cure\/256293\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">create<\/a> an aura of healthfulness\u2026If those nutrients were added to soft drinks or candy, would we encourage kids to consume them more often?\u201d Would we feed our kids Coke and Snickers for breakfast? We might as well spray cotton candy with vitamins, too. As one medical journal editorial <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/27318392\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">read<\/a>, \u201cAdding vitamins and minerals to sugary cereals\u2026is worse than useless. The subtle message accompanying such products is that it is safe to eat more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>General Mills\u2019 \u201cGrow up strong with Big G kids\u2019 cereals\u201d ad campaign <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cerealfacts.org\/media\/cereal_facts_report_2012_7.12.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">featured<\/a> products like Lucky Charms, Trix, and Cocoa Puffs. That\u2019s like the dairy industry <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/14706406\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">promoting<\/a> ice cream as a way to get your calcium. Kids who <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1177\/1559827610395476?journalCode=ajla\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">eat<\/a> presweetened breakfast cereals may get more than 20 percent of their daily calories from added sugar, as you can see below and at 1:28 in my <a href=\"https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/video\/friday-favorites-are-fortified-kids-breakfast-cereals-healthy-or-just-candy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>video<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-102925\" src=\"https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1-28.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1-28.png 1920w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1-28-960x540.png 960w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1-28-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1-28-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1-28-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1-28-480x270.png 480w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1-28-1200x675.png 1200w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1-28-720x405.png 720w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1-28-540x304.png 540w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Most sugar in the American diet <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/27550974\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">comes<\/a> from beverages like soda, but breakfast cereals represent the third largest food source of added sugars in the diets of children and adolescents, wedged between candy and ice cream. On a per-serving basis, there is more added sugar in a cereal like Frosted Flakes than there is in frosted chocolate cake, a brownie, or even a frosted donut, as you can see below and at 1:48 in my <a href=\"https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/video\/friday-favorites-are-fortified-kids-breakfast-cereals-healthy-or-just-candy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>video<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-102927\" src=\"https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1-48.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1-48.png 1920w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1-48-960x540.png 960w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1-48-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1-48-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1-48-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1-48-480x270.png 480w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1-48-1200x675.png 1200w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1-48-720x405.png 720w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1-48-540x304.png 540w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Kellogg\u2019s and General Mills argue that breakfast cereals only <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/18926124\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">contribute<\/a> a \u201crelatively small amount\u201d of sugar to the diets of children, less than soda, for example. \u201cThis <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jandonline.org\/article\/S0002-8223(08)01684-2\/fulltext\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">is<\/a> a perfect example of the social psychology phenomenon of \u2018diffusion of responsibility.\u2019 This behavior is analogous to each restaurant in the country arguing that it should not be required to ban smoking because it alone contributes only a tiny fraction to Americans\u2019 exposure to secondhand smoke.\u201d In fact, \u201ceach source of added sugar\u2026should be reduced.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The industry argues that most of their cereals <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210929061858\/https:\/www.bbb.org\/globalassets\/shared\/media\/cfbai\/bbb_cfbai-cerealsnapshot-11.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">have<\/a> less than 10 grams of sugar per serving, but when Consumer Reports <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consumerreports.org\/media-room\/press-releases\/2008\/10\/consumer-reports-some-breakfast-cereals-marketed-to-children-are-more-than-50-percent-sugar\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">measured<\/a> how much cereal youngsters actually poured for themselves, they were found to serve themselves about 50 percent more than the suggested serving size for most of the tested cereals. The average portion of Frosted Flakes they poured for themselves contained 18 grams of sugar, which is 4\u00bd teaspoons or 6 sugar packets\u2019 worth. It\u2019s been estimated that a \u201cchild <a href=\"https:\/\/static.ewg.org\/reports\/2014\/cereals\/pdf\/2014-EWG-Cereals-Report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">eating<\/a> one serving per day of a children\u2019s cereal containing the average amount of sugar would consume nearly 1,000 teaspoons of sugar in a year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>General Mills offers the \u201cMary Poppins defense,\u201d arguing that those spoonsful of sugar can \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/ift.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/full\/10.1111\/1541-4337.12151\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">help<\/a> the medicine go down\u201d and explaining that \u201cif sugar is removed from bran cereal, it would have the consistency of sawdust.\u201d As you can see below and at 3:17 in my <a href=\"https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/video\/friday-favorites-are-fortified-kids-breakfast-cereals-healthy-or-just-candy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>video<\/strong><\/a>, a General Mills representative wrote that the company is presented \u201cwith an untenable choice between making our healthful foods unpalatable or refraining from advertising them.\u201d If it can\u2019t add sugar to its cereals, they would be unpalatable? If one has to add sugar to a product to make it edible, that should tell us something. That\u2019s a characteristic of so-called ultra-processed foods, where you have to <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/28703086\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pack<\/a> them full of things like sugar, salt, and flavorings \u201cto give flavor to foods that have had their [natural] intrinsic flavors processed out of them and to mask any unpleasant flavors in the final product.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-102929\" src=\"https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/3-17.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/3-17.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/3-17-960x540.jpg 960w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/3-17-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/3-17-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/3-17-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/3-17-480x270.jpg 480w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/3-17-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/3-17-720x405.jpg 720w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/3-17-540x304.jpg 540w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The president of the Cereal Institute argued that without sugary cereals, kids might not <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/1091679\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">eat<\/a> breakfast at all. (This is similar to dairy industry arguments that <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/24740451\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">removing<\/a> chocolate milk from school cafeterias may lead to students \u201cno longer purchasing school lunch.\u201d) He also stressed we must <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/1091679\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">consider<\/a> the alternatives. As Kellogg\u2019s director of nutrition once put it: \u201cI would <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/ERIC_ED079441\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">suggest<\/a> that Fruit <em>[sic]<\/em> Loops as a snack are much better than potato chips or a sweet roll.\u201d You know there\u2019s a problem when the only way to make your product look good is to compare it to Pringles and Cinnabon.<\/p>\n<p>Want a healthier option? Check out my video <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/video\/flashback-friday-which-is-a-better-breakfast-cereal-or-oatmeal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Which Is a Better Breakfast: Cereal or Oatmeal?<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>For more on the effects of sugar on the body and if you like these more politically charged videos see the related posts below.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, for some additional videos on cereal, see <a href=\"https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/video\/friday-favorites-kids-breakfast-cereals-as-nutritional-facade\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Kids\u2019 Breakfast Cereals as Nutritional Fa\u00e7ade<\/strong><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/video\/ochratoxin-in-breakfast-cereals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Ochratoxin in Breakfast Cereals<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"et_social_bottom_trigger\"\/>  <\/div>\n<p><script>\n            !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n            {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n                n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n            if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n            n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n            t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n            s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n                'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n            fbq('init', '1582627921973608');\n            fbq('track', 'PageView');\n        <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1675549\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The industry responds to the charge that breakfast cereals are too sugary. In 1941, the American Medical Association\u2019s Council on Foods and Nutrition was presented with a new product, Vi-Chocolin, a vitamin-fortified chocolate bar, \u201coffered ostensibly as a specialty product of high nutritive value and of some use in medicine, but in reality intended for &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}