SubscribeCereals: Fatty and Sugary
British consumer group Which? has published a comprehensive survey of breakfast cereals. They found "that more than three quarters (76 per cent) of cereals had high levels of sugar, a fifth (19 per cent) had high levels of salt and 7 per cent had high levels of saturated fat."
275 different types of cereal were surveyed. This alone is enough to raise eyebrows... 275 different cereals?
Salient Points
- 52 cereals were targeted at children using "free giveaways, competitions, cartoon characters or kid-friendly images". 88% of these were considered high in sugar.
- The most sugary cereals were honey puffs (or golden puffs).
- The highest in salt were (surprisingly) Kelloggs All-Bran and Morrisons Right Balance.
- The overall 'worst offenders' were Quaker Oatso Simple Kids (any flavour), Kellogg’s Coco Pops Straws and Mornflake Pecan and Maple Crisp. All were found to be high in both sugar and saturates.
- A browse through the comprehensive charts (PDF) shows that plain oats, plain shredded wheat, and plain wheat biscuits are the least sugary and fatty.
The report also looks at how many cereals are branded with a healthy image - but the nutritional facts don't necessarily match the claims. Check out the names of these two cereals:
Tesco Healthyliving Bran Flakes and Sainsbury’s Be Good To Yourself Balance get red lights for both sugar and salt.What a minefield!
More like this in Food · Jul 19, 2006
Breakfast cereal is way overpriced for what you get. I totally only buy plain oats or oat bran cereal. It's only pennies a serving and there's no added junk in it.
ReplyOh boy, you just told me my one fault. I am a big breakfast eater as I love the taste of my kids cereals. I have been eating a lot of cheerios with raspberries though as I believe that is pretty healthy. I too believe cereal is over priced and it is a lot cheaper to just buy old fashion oat meal and put splenda and raspberries with it.
Replywe don't eat cereals at breakfast.
ReplyBeing the creature of habit that I am, I have the same breakfast every day but Saturday. One serving of oatmeal. A serving of egg-beaters, one slice of wheat toast and a tablespoon of low-sugar grape jelly. I've often looked at other cereals at the market, but after reading the nutrition statements, I just stick with the oatmeal.
ReplyA few months ago I tried my hand at making my own granola (more of a muesli really), it's actually not that hard and a damn sight tastier than most commercial ceral. And I get to control the amount of sugar, the type of fat and the amount of dried fruit I add.
ReplyWhy not put prizes in bagged salad? MMMMM
I love whole grains like oatmeal. Sugary cereals are often better for you than some health food cereal that is loaded with fat and isn’t fortified.
Read the lable.
There are good earls for children like corn flakes, kix, crisped rice, and puffed wheat.
ReplyI don't eat breakfast cereals because I wasn't raised that way. Much later in life I did try a few but didn't like them...or the idea of eating food that is practically worthless. My husband eats wheetabix (yuk).
I make real Swiss müsli (muesli) which never has sugar in it...one doesn't need it. The fruit is enough. Or often flaxseeds, pumpkin seeds and a little oat freshly ground with my goat yoghurt, sometimes with a grated apple. I love it. Maybe with a fine drizzle of honey, but more often not.
I DO like porridge (cooked oat) but in the cooler months.
ReplyIt's the reason why these greedy _______ people want to make money. Look at Smart Start cereals. They contain hydrogenated oils! Why would I want to eat ad foods "promoting health" while it actually clogs up arteries? Give me a break. Even a miniscual amounts of these hydrogenated trans fats are harmful to your health. Instead of hydrogenated oils, put virgin coconut oil in it. It's far healthier then the artery clogging hydrogenated oils they put in.
I eat Kashi's Organic Cinnamon Harvest cereal with organic skim milk, organic bananas, and sweeten it with stevia. It tastes just as great as kellog's frosted flakes, yet it's a heck of a lot healthier than this even fortified counterpart.
By the way, there are organic versions of honey nut cherrios and cherrios. They are called: "Organic Honey Nut Os, and Organic Purely Os, which may taste better than the regular cherrios, yet are much healthier. Hopefully, I can see an organic version of Cocoa Puffs, Frosted Flakes, and Lucky Charms without the sugar AND artificial sweeteners, which is actually worse than sugar.
ReplyI have All Bran and Branflakes with a banana and milk, or yogurt.Yummy!!I was surprised to see that the Asda (Eglish for Wal-Mart)equivalent,which is alot cheaper than Kelloggs, was lower in sugar and salt than Kelloggs.
ReplyCereals may look very nice a colorful, but the harm they caused is more to send you to the doctor in the llong run. We have to start educating ourselves with what we eat and what we give our children. Our children will only follow us, if we eat things high in suger, nine time out of ten, your chikd will reach for the same. Let's start waking up, stop over paying for nonesence, and lets' add more years to our life span.
ReplyWhat's breakfast ceareal without high amounts of sugar?
ReplyI don't eat cereal for breakfast, instead I eat tuna with vegetables, bread or spaghetti.
Reply