Nov 10 2009

Last week I posted an entry about breakfast cereal or, in my humble opinion, breakfast candy.  In the 1970’s, concerns were raised about the sugar content in breakfast cereals.  The rational response would have been to lower the sugar content.  But that’s not what happened.  Instead, attention was directed to removing the word “sugar” from the names of the products.  The concept of sweetness was preserved without using the actual word.  Across the land, the word “sugar” on the cereal boxes was replaced with “honey,” “frosted,” “golden,” “sprinkles,” and “cocoa.”  Sugar Smacks became Honey Smacks, and Sugar Crisp became Golden Crisp. Sugar Bear became Super Bear; even Mascots, a powerful marketing tool in and of themselves, received new names.  Otherwise, the industry continued to use the same recipes to manufacture cereals that appealed to children and the sugar-saturated American palate.  With time, new markets were established as children grew into adults who had developed a taste for the sweet stuff in their own childhoods.

Here is a list of selected breakfast cereals straight from the shelves at my local supermarket.  If you didn’t know this was a list of breakfast cereals, you might think it was a list of offerings at the local bakery or candy shop.  Note the overt references to foods we typically consider dessert: Chocolate Chip Cookie Crisp, Vanilla Wafer Cookie Crisp, Oatmeal Cookie Crisp, Double Chocolate Cookie Crisp, Cookie Crisp Sprinkles, Honey Bunches of Oats, Honey Nut Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, Cocoa Pebbles, Smore’s Crunch, Smore’s Grahams, Honey Smacks, Frosted Mini-Wheats, Golden Grahams, Cinnamon Life Cereal, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Frosted Flakes, Super Sugar Crisp (also called Golden Crisp, Super Crisp, Honey Crisp), Honey Nut O’s, Honeycomb, Honey Nut Clusters, Honey Graham Marshmallows, Cocoa Puffs, Frosted Flakes, Cap’n Crunch, Count Chocula, Lucky Charms (they’re magically delicious!).  And the frooty (Close your eyes and say “fruit.”) products: Apple Cinnamon Cheerios, Froot Loops, Raisin Bran (one of the higher sugar cereals on the market), Fruity Pebbles, Frankenberry, Boo Berry, Apple Jacks.

Are there any nutritious cereals?  In November 2008, Consumer Reports rated 23 of the top 27 cereals marketed to children as only Good or Fair for nutrition.  Eleven of the 23 cereals they tested contained as much sugar as a glazed Dunkin’ doughnut.

What about Cheerios?  Cheerios is an interesting example of the problem.  It’s billed as a whole-grain product, and the first ingredient in Cheerios (originally Cheery-oats) is, indeed, whole oats.  The next ingredient, however, is food starch.  The third ingredient is modified food starch.  This means that there is probably as much, if not more, food starch in Cheerios as there is whole grain.  Food starch is usually derived from wheat or corn, whichever is cheaper at the time of purchase.  What is starch?  Starch is a simple chain of rapidly digested sugar molecules.  Throughout history it has been used as a thickener, or stiffening or gluing agent.  It’s used extensively in processed foods and is, for obvious reasons, a frequent cause of constipation.  Since it spikes blood sugars, I don’t buy it.

I’d like to discuss one more category of breakfast cereal, products that are marketed specifically to adults.  Their names, Product 19, Fiber 1, Total, and Special K, are reminiscent not of candy but, rather, laboratories.  Each has a vaguely scientific-sounding name, as if to buttress an argument that you should be eating the stuff because it’s scientifically proven to be good for you.  But is it? Did they really reject 18 mixtures, all lined up in identical little ehrlenmeyer flasks, until they got to the 19th one, which turned out to be exactly the right mixture of ingredients to provide everything you need to start your day right?  What’s so special about K?  And what makes Fiber 1 first?  All I know is that none of these has the staying power, or nutritional density, to hold me until lunchtime — four measly hours– without a midmorning snack.

So what are your options?  Speaking from personal experience as a mom now, the first thing I would say is that sudden changes are usually not welcome.  So I would not toss out all the breakfast cereal.  Instead, I would remove it from its original box and put it into a large airtight plastic container.  I would serve it along with more wholesome options, like scrambled eggs, boca burgers, fruit and nuts.  Whole milk, yogurt.  Or I would treat it like dessert, and offer it after dinner.  Also, over time, I would slowly begin to add very small amounts of nutritious foods to the container.  Maybe whole oats.  Peanuts. Sunflower seeds.  Flax seeds, raisins.  Sesame seeds, almonds, dried apples.  You get the idea.  Real food.