I’m not, now, nor have I ever been a parent. But I was once (a long, long time ago) a kid. Likewise, I’ve had a fascination with the concept of kids’ breakfast cereals, and the leisurely approach some folks take to it…
Technically, cereals are the seeds of grain plants which have received more or less processing by middle-men before landing on your breakfast table. But by the time the cereal makers get through with them these days, you’d never recognise them as such.
A matter of awareness
They may be cooked or ‘raw’, sweet or ‘natural’, whole-grain or threshed off. But proper cereals have definitive characteristics that allow them to qualify as, ‘part of a healthy breakfast’. Other ‘parts’ – as with any balanced meal – are supposed to include fresh fruits and veggies, and proteins.
As adults, it’s up to us to be aware of the good and bad stuff that may or may not show up on our own breakfast plates. But that awareness may not extend to what we’re we’re putting in front of our kids. And I, for one, have been asking more questions lately than I’ve been getting satisfactory ans-wers for…
Now, a research team writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has published new findings confirming what many of us have suspected: the ‘cereals’ we feed out kids for breakfast have become less and less healthy over time.
Major ‘longitudinal’ study
The team analysed every new children’s cereal product launched in the United States between Jan-uary 1, 2010, and December 31, 2023. They identified more than 1,200 cereals specifically aimed at kids launched during this 13-year period. these included ‘new and improved versions of some products, that received new formulations or packaging over the survey period.
Researchers specifically, “examined the nutritional content of each cereal, including total fat, sodium, carbohydrates, sugar, protein, and dietary fiber per serving, while also assessing the nutrient con-tent over time, and adjusting for serving size changes that occurred throughout the years”
What they found
According to an abstract of the official study findings, “The team identified significant changes in the nutritional values of these cereals, including a 33.6 percent increase in total fat per serving, a 32.1 percent increase in sodium, and a 10.9 percent increase in sugar content. The only constant was total carbohydrates, which remained ‘relatively stable’ over the time frame.”
However, “the team [also] reported that protein content ‘decreased significantly’ from an average of 1.97 grams per serving to 1.69 grams, as did dietary fiber, which fell from 3.82 grams to 2.94 grams,” per serving.
The takeaway
The study report authors warned their findings showed a, “concerning nutritional shift,” adding that, “children’s cereals contain high levels of added sugar, with a single serving exceeding 45 percent of the American Heart Association’s daily recommended limit for children.”
The study reports goes as far as to suggest that the changes in nutritional content in the products studied were not accidental: “These trends suggest a potential prioritization of taste over nutritional quality in product develop-ment, contributing to childhood obesity and long-term cardiovascular health risks.”
Independent expert, Dr Josephine Connolly-Schoonen, Executive Director of the nutrition division at Stony Brook Medicine, agreed with the JAMA researchers, telling the The New York Times that the findings, “[reinforce] my belief that the food marketplace is very confusing, and that’s not by acci-dent,” alleging that, “The food industry engineers the confusion.”
My take
As I said… The new study confirms my suspicions that today’s sweetened, cartoon-enabled, ultra-processed children’s ‘breakfast cereals’ are even less nutritious now than they were when my Mom and her contemporaries started asking pointed questions about them decades ago. In fact, some may be outright unhealthy and even dangerous to growing kids.
Do what do we do about the alleged ‘engineered confusion’ in the cereals sector? Obviously, the manufacturers have much to answer for. And the government agencies that regulate them have much work to do…
~ Maggie J.