Breakfast cereal for children with lots of sugar

Children's cereals: sugar bombs instead of healthy breakfast in cereal

18/12/2012

Breakfast cereals - especially in children are the so-called „cereals“ very popular and therefore often an integral part of the family breakfast. But as healthy and rich as these may seem at first glance, when choosing the „right“ Parents should take a closer look at the little ones. As the market check of the consumer organization foodwatch from Berlin has shown, products addressed to children in most cases contain almost double the amount of sugar compared to cereals marketed for adult consumers.

Consumer organization foodwatch takes a close look at 180 products
foodwatch had examined 180 products from a total of seven providers for children and adults, including the large, conventional manufacturers Nestlé, Kellogg's, Kölln and Wurzener, as well as the biotech company Dennree and the two discounters Lidl and Aldi (North)..

The test revealed something astonishing and frightening at the same time: all children's products contained significantly more sugar than adult products. While adult products contained an average of 20 grams of sugar per 100 g, children's cereals even contained 30 g per 100g product.

Parents are duped by industry
This result is surprising and, in principle, in sharp contrast to what manufacturers suggest to parents through advertising. Because "producers of children's food are particularly responsible," says Anne Markwardt, food expert at the consumer organization. The addition of vitamins and the use of whole grain cereals supposedly healthy products are presented and so the „Parents and grandparents [...] pretend that the sugar bombs in the muesli look are a balanced breakfast.“ criticizes Markwardt.

"The industry is irresponsible to children's health," the foodwatch expert said, instead of actually offering children a healthy breakfast, manufacturers would choose a different route - one that seems more promising: "More sugar pure and on the pack colorful cartoon characters and competitions - so fix the manufacturer even small children on their sugar flakes. "

The first years of life decide the taste
Because the taste is actually shaped primarily in the first years of life. Anyone who has consumed a lot of sugar early on is simply used to the sweet taste of food and drink in the rest of their lives - and in many cases would not want to do without it. Obviously, obesity has become one of the biggest health problems in the world - especially for children, the numbers would rise steadily: even 15 percent of the children would be considered too fat in this country, 6 percent even as obese (obese).

More profit from sugared children's food
But health-promoting foods can make less money. For the industry sugared cereals are a lucrative business, so foodwatch, because the margins are significantly higher here than in fruits and vegetables.

Aldi and Nestlé big in the (sugar) business
The fact that children make more money with their sugary products than healthy foods seems to have been discovered by the traditional manufacturers Nestlé and Aldi: on average, 35 grams of sugar per hundred grams are found in children's discounter products in which for adults, on the other hand „just“ 20 grams. At Nestlé, children's products contain on average 32 grams of sugar per hundred grams, compared to 17 grams in adults. "Those who think that would already be large amounts of sugar in the supposedly healthy breakfast cereal, is wrong: As a leader in sugar could the test make the Honey Bees Wurzener, which represents a real sugar bomb with 48 grams of sugar per hundred grams of flakes.

Protest against Nestlé
Such a check leaves its mark - and this is currently being felt especially by the world's largest food company, Nestlé: In an e-mail protest that runs on the foodwatch website, more than 30,000 consumers have already demanded changes to the recipes. According to foodwatch, Nestlé announced that it would lower the sugar content of its flakes marketed to children in Germany from 2013 - to a maximum of 28 percent.

Unrealistic projects on the part of industry
For foodwatch, however, these are only empty promises - because 28 percent of sugar would still correspond to the sugar content of many cakes and pies, so the criticism. In addition, Nestlé only this year a new product on the market, which again has an immense amount of sugar, namely 34%, hidden in the „Kosmostars“.

As a result, food marketer Anne Markwardt, foodwatch expert, has only one solution to the problem with over-sweetened cereals: „We finally need a legal sugar limit: Only those cereal flakes that contain a maximum of 10 percent sugar may be marketed to children.“ (Sb)

Also read:
Yogurt, sesame and rice bran oil lower blood pressure
Foodwatch: Lots of sugar in children's cereal
School children: more power through breakfast
Structured daily routine protects against overweight
More concentration through healthy breakfast
Many children go to school without breakfast
Every third child does not have breakfast

Image: Martina Friedl