The Most Important Meal of The Day...
Many children eat high sugar snacks and meals throughout the day. This
can set the scene for serious health problems in later life, including type
2 diabetes and obesity, not to mention rotten teeth.
Type 2 diabetes, previously a disease of adulthood, is becoming more
common amongst Irish children and young people.
Our work in schools has highlighted the fact that children commonly
consume lots of sugar during the day -chocolate, sweets and bottles of fizzy
drinks. To make matters worse, many children's breakfast cereals are packed
full of sugar. One of the most popular cereals amongst Irish children is
Kellogg's Coco-Pops, so we went down to the local supermarket and carried
out some simple research into this popular cereal. Nutrition labels are
often hard to understand - especially when you're standing in a supermarket
- so we analysed the labels for you.
We found that Coco-Pops contains a whopping 34% sugar. Yes, this product
is more than one-third sugar!
According to the Kellogg's website, we can "Improve general health and
alertness by eating a healthy breakfast with Kellogg’s". We think that many
of the cereals that Kellogg's promotes to children are simply high sugar
junk foods that should be avoided. Even Special K, which Kellogg's promotes
as a way to help you "look good and feel special" contains 17% refined
sugar.
The
Kellogg's website also includes misleading nutritional information. It
states that carbohydrate is "The energy giving starches in food like bread,
potatoes and pasta; a carbohydrate rich diet keeps you going for longer and
helps fight fatigue throughout the day. It’s also rich in fibre." In fact,
that is only half the picture - there are two types of carbohydrate...simple
and complex. Starches are complex carbohydrates, and a diet rich in
complex carbohydrates (found in potatoes, wholemeal bread, oats, etc) is
indeed pretty healthy. On the other hand, a diet high in simple
carbohydrates (sugar!) is not healthy. The World Health
Organisation state that there is convincing evidence that high intake of
sugar promotes weight gain and obesity, as well as other problems like type
2 diabetes. We all know that sugar rots your teeth.
Strangely, the Kellogg's nutrition website does not mention "sugar" at
all. This is surprising, since refined sugar is such a major ingredient in
Kellogg's products. Sugar is NOT a necessary part of the diet...it has no
nutritional value other than providing energy, which could just as easily be
provided by other healthier foods. We think that by leaving out important
information about sugar, Kellogg's are misleading consumers. At 34% sugar,
the best thing you could do with Coco-Pops is to leave them on the shelf!
If this wasn't bad enough, the box of Coco-Pops cost us
€4.37, or €7.28 per kg.
The same amount of branded porridge oats cost €1.44, and unbranded porridge
oats cost 90c per kg. Coco-Pops are 8 times more expensive than the
equivalent amount of unbranded porridge oats. So we're feeding junk to
our kids, and paying through the nose for the privilege.
We focused on Kellogg's simply because our surveys show that their
products are very popular amongst children. Our work with parents
highlighted the fact that many parents are unaware of the poor nutritional
content of products like Coco-Pops. With their advertising, Kellogg's has
also been guilty of hyping up the health benefits of breakfast, and tying
this in to high-sugar products like Coco-Pops. These cereals usually have
cheap added minerals so that the manufacturer can claim that they are high
in calcium.
Many other brands are just as bad - for example, Sugar Puffs contain 35%
sugar. While eating poorly now and then is not going to kill anyone, we
shouldn't be encouraging children to make poor food choices, as this can
lead to health problems in later life. High sugar breakfast cereals should
not be on the menu.
Low sugar alternative breakfasts include:
