Healthy Cereals in the UK?

[cookiecate]

Just read this news report. I should say this is something that is happening on UK super market shelves, I don't know if other countries are having similar problems. I find this amazing a shocking, quite disgusting in fact.

Little effort appears to have been made to reduce sugar in children's cereals nearly three years after a damning report, a consumer watchdog has said.



Which? said it was worrying so many high- sugar cereals are still marketed to children



A study by Which? said there had been some "positive progress" since it reported on the healthiness of breakfast cereals in 2006.
But it said sugar levels were "shockingly high" and it was "particularly worrying" that so many high-sugar cereals were still being marketed to children.
A survey by the organisation of 100 cereals bought in January from the main supermarkets - excluding hot cereals and muesli - found a lower proportion of high-sugar cereals overall compared to 2006. But only 8% qualified for a Food Standards Agency "green light" for low levels of sugar with 31 out the 100 cereals examined containing more than four teaspoons of sugar per recommended serving. Only one of the 28 cereals specifically marketed to children was found not to be high in sugar, the consumer group said.
Many brands thought of as healthy, such as Kellogg's All Bran, Bran Flakes and Special K failed to impress the Which? researchers. The watchdog said starting the day with a recommended serving of Special K would be "almost the sugar equivalent" to waking up to a serving of Tesco Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake Premium Ice Cream.
The report, Going Against the Grain, said there had been some "positive progress" since 2006, with the most progress made in reducing salt levels. Only eight out of the 100 cereals were classed as high in salt in 2009, compared with almost a fifth of the 275 sampled in 2006.
There were also some individual examples of good practice, the report said, such as Weetabix reformulating its cereals so they were a healthier choice and could be advertised to children.
Cereals were also still labelled inconsistently, the report said, with many manufacturers and some shops still not using the Government's "traffic light" labelling scheme.
The system of listing percentage Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs) can be helpful, the report said, but Which? research had shown the majority of people found the traffic light system the easiest to use to compare products.
The report further called for a ban on marketing cereals high in sugar, salt or fat to children. It was "disappointing", it added, that cartoon characters were usually used to promote "less healthy" cereals to children.

This report is from the UK

[chinadoll]

I cant say I am totally surprised, but the Special K was unexpected as a high sugar cereal. No wonder I always liked it.

[ziggy]

i have read that cereals dont deserve to be called food

and ya its an abomination how its marketed to unknowing children


when i was a kid i ate 2 - 3.5 bowls of cereal in the morning almost every day along with all the other unhealthy high carb food i was gaining weight fast

then i got lactose intolerant and started drinking lots of soy milk drinks for my cereal instead of milk and got bigger man boobs cause of the health hazardous effects of soy

then down the road i got up to 330 pounds and also got alot of life threatening illnesses from my high carb diet

then i started to walk alot and bearly managed to put my life threatening illnesses on hold where i could somewhat survive but not get any better

then i started the Atkins diet with the walking and with in 6 months my illnesses were cured and with in about 15 months i lost 100 pounds

i would have lost 100 pounds sooner if it was not for the whole wheat wraps which i started eating around 250 pounds and that stalled me for many months xD

[cookiecate]

ziggy, that is great to hear you did so well good for you.

In the UK they have "diets" that encourage you to eat 2-3 bowls of cereal every day instead of meals. You are right it is an abomination to start children out addicted to sugar before there milk teeth have fallen out.

Thank you for your comments.

[not2late]

Here's the "healthy cereal" scam in the US. Some school systems offer breakfast to school children. An acquaintance of mine is the head of food service for my local school system. A couple of years ago, I got a hold of the school breakfast menu that claimed to be "healthy". On it were sugary cereals like Sugar Smacks, Trix, etc. I asked my acquaintance why all these sugary cereals were on the menu and the amount of sugar in each serving couldn't possibly be healthy for anyone. He replied that those cereals are healthy because they contain whole grains! It didn't matter what the sugar content was, as long as they contained whole grains, they were considered healthy food.

[cookiecate]

This kind of thing really makes me mad. Here in the UK they advertise a french type yogurt especially for children, it is a very small portion. It turns out that it contains around four spoonfuls of sugar in each pot.

It appears to me that terms like "Whole Grain" "No added sugar" and "Healthy Option" should be looked at very carefully. Since hubby was diagnosed with diabetes I scan every label and am just appalled at the amount of hidden sugar that is loaded into different foods, simple foods like salad dressing and baked beans.

I imagine that a lot of schools choose Kellogs and Nestle because they offer huge discounts on bulk buying.