Friday, December 11, 2009

Sugar Cereals

General Mills has announced that they will be Reducing Sugar, amounts in their cereals, the ones that we call "sugar cereal".

I suppose this is a good thing, but my feeling is that making junk food cereals slightly less junky isn't the answer to our health food woes. Especially not when it appears (I don't know for sure) that the sugar in the cereals is just being replaced by some sugar substitute (the article said it won't use artificial sweetners, but on the Doug Wright show, there was discussion on the cereals not being noticeably less sweet, with led the host to wonder if they'd be using a sugar derivative (which happens to have the happy side effect of diarhea)).

I buy my kids sugar cereals for camping trips. It's a special treat, it shouldn't be a breakfast food. Kids need foods that will fill them up and provide the nutrients and energy they need for the morning. When my kids eat sugar cereals, they're hungry again in an hour (and I don't think that's a problem stemming from just the sugar in the cereal, I think the cereals are so much air and very little else that they just don't fill kids up for long).

How about instead of trying to put a banana peel on a twinkie, we just eat the bananas.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

"Bananna peel on a twinkie" what a great image.

Charlotte said...

I agree with you 100%. My kids are allowed boxed breakfast cereal 1 morning a week - on Sundays, as a treat. And even then I mix it with non-sugared cereal to cut the damage. The other 6 days a week I cook them something hot. We have theme days (Mondays are Muffins, Tuesdays are Toast & eggs etc.) I'm a big fan of breakfast:)

Criscell said...

Good point! I totally agree with you. What do you feed your kids in the morning? Eggs? Caysja is DONE eating oatmeal--I can't get her to eat another bite.

Alice said...

My kids like oatmeal. They think the oatmeal packets are a special treat and call them "sugar oatmeal". We let them pick what they want in their oatmeal- brown sugar, raisins, applesauce, cinnamon, jam.

They eat that a lot, and cheerios (we mix multigrain and regular). Toast and OJ. Eggs sometimes. Pancakes or waffles (whole wheat) on the weekends.