Digital News Report – Would you give your child cookies or a Hostess Twinkie snack cake for breakfast? If you add a multi-vitamin with these dessert treats, you just might be better off than eating a bowl of sugared breakfast cereal. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) organization released a scathing report on the amount of sugar found in breakfast cereals that are marketed towards children and found that one cup of many of these cereals contain more sugar than three Chips Ahoy Chocolate Chip Cookies. EWG investigated the sugar content in 84 major brands of breakfast cereal and reported their findings in a newly released report.
EWG named the worst offenders as being Kellogg’s Honey Smacks, Post Golden Crisp, and General Mills Wheaties Fuel cereals. One cup of these cereals has more sugar than a Twinkie, which has 18 grams of sugar. The EWG used product nutrition labels to determine sugar content. The group said that Honey Smacks has 20 grams of sugar.
Forty-four other brands of children breakfast cereal that EWG pointed out as having the same amount of sugar of 3 Chips Ahoy Chocolate Chip Cookies in one cup servings. Included are Honey Nut Cheerios, Apple Jacks, and Cap’n Crunch cereals. For instance, Honey Nut Cheerios has 12 grams of sugar while Chips Ahoy! Cookies have 11 grams of sugar.
The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends that adult men consume no more than 9 teaspoons of added sugars (about 150 calories) and women consume no more than 6 teaspoons (about 100 calories) of added sugars per day. They say that there are two types of sugars, one that is naturally found in food, and ones that are added to the food. The product packaging lists both kinds on the nutrition label under the sugars section. The only way to know if the product has added sugars is by looking at the ingredient list.
Many of the added sugars in the ingredient list will end with “ose.” However, there are also high fructose corn syrup, molasses, cane sugar, corn sweetener, raw sugar, syrup, honey, or fruit juice concentrates. The AHA says that they consider these as added sugars. The ingredients are listed in the order of the most to the least amount in comparison to the other ingredients. If these sugar ingredients are at the top of the list and other ingredients are after it, there is more of that ingredient.
The EWG organization did name some major brand cereals that meet the federal guideline for children’s breakfast cereal based on sugar, sodium, fat, and whole-grain amounts. Additionally, these cereals do not have any artificial flavors, colors, and artificial sweeteners. EWG said that Kellogg’s Mini-Wheats in the form of Unfrosted Bite- Size, Frosted Big Bite, Frosted Bite-Size, Frosted Little Bite were all meeting the criteria. Also included was General Mills Cheerios Original and General Mills Kix Original cereals, however these two brands meet the Interagency Working Group 2016 sodium guideline but does not meet the 2021 guideline. EWG did warn that these cereals could use food that is genetically modified and uses pesticides to be grown.
EWG offers breakfast alternatives for eating a healthier breakfast in their report. The EWG report on Children Breakfast Cereal is available online as a PDF.
By: Jason Chang
Health Reporter