Children’s Cereals – what to look for: sugar, calories, fiber, additives:
There is a lot of information out there in regard to children’s cereals and nutrition in general. In an attempt to help you to filter out some of the duplicate info and some of the less than credible sources we have published a list of decent information sources below.
Generally, there is a consensus that children’s cereals are pretty terrible at times containing over 50% sugar and having very little fiber or other nutrients of any value. In summary the research below points to the following things to look out for with children’s cereals:
- Low sugar / calories
- High in fiber
- Without artificial additives
- High in protein
Foodessential Children’s Cereals lists:
Below find links to lists of products in the foodessentials database that can help you to make a better choice when it comes to buying cereal for your family.
Useful articles about Children’s Cereals:
KeepKidsHealthy.com
Up to 40% of kids don’t eat breakfast – the most important meal of the day. This article explores the benefits of children eating breakfast including; better health, better weight, better school performance.
2008 consumer report evaluating 27 breakfast cereals:
This report analyzed and rated 27 breakfast cereals for nutritional content including sugars, fiber, iron and calcium. You have to subscribe to get the full ratings results and unfortunately, there is no mention or analysis of the ingredients of the cereals for artificial additives.
WebMd
Reliably does a good job in documenting the results of this consumer report. Breaking down the results in to the nutritional winners, losers and those in the middle.
Medheadlines.com
This article covers the consumer report but also ads an additional twist stating that all this research is based on the serving size as published on the food labels of the cereals. And in fact those serving sizes are understating the actual issue as the average child pours 50% – 65% more cereal than the recommended serving size. If this is the case one could multiply the results of this survey by 1.5 to get a better idea of what children are in fact consuming.
NOTE: This doesn’t take in to consideration the fact that different cereals put different serving sizes. This is why on foodessentials.com all our food product comparisons are done per 100mg/ml – so that we’re comparing apples to apples.
Julie’s Health Club – Chicago Tribune
Also provides a decent overview of the results of this consumer report with some interesting additional information. The comments attached to this article are pretty vocal and worth looking at.
Yale University 161 Product Marketing v’s Nutritional Content Survey
First published in the Journal of American Dietetic Association, this survey thoroughly concludes that children’s cereals on average contain more calories, sugar, carbohydrates and sodium (salt) than adult cereals and less fiber and protein.
The study goes on to say that there is often a no positive correlation between the amount of nutritional marketing (claims) and the actual nutritional benefit of the cereal. Products that claimed “low fat” for example were not better than the other cereals – what they named the “halo effect”. Definitely worth a read.
Diet-blog.com:
Does a good job of summarizing the findings of the Yale study as well as adding some additional statistics and information about what you should be looking for in a good cereal such as; Low in Sugar, High in Fiber, a short and pronounceable ingredient list
Foodessentials.com
Search our database of foods and compare products by nutritional, additive and allergen properties to better find the products that best suit your families dietary requirements.
Which cereals do you feed your family? What is the most important thing to consider when you choose a cereal for your family?
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