Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Twinkies and Skittles for Breakfast? The Cereals that Damage Kids, Adults

Eating most U.S. cereals for breakfast is akin to eating a heaping bowl of pure sugar. Or a pile of candy bars and Twinkies. 

Just as Big Food corporations planned, U.S. breakfast cereals are designed to hook you as customer-for-life via addiction to a super-sweet, sugary surge to start your day...


Americans now consume 22 teaspoons of sugar a day, on average, added to processed foods. Breakfast cereals are among the highest sources of added sugar in our daily diet.  


Sugar-saturated, carb-heavy, chemical-drenched breakfast cereals take a poisonous toll on personal health, especially that of children. 


Physical health and fitness, dental health, even mental health and focus in both children and adults are proven conclusively to be damaged by high daily doses of sugar.

Yet Big Food corporations aggressively market breakfast cereals, especially to to young children, in greedy hopes of hooking them, too.  Consider these facts: 

  • 181 cereals are directly marketed in the U.S. to kids.
  • Kids' cereals with cartoon characters are among the most highly sweetened of all
  • On average, sugar is 34% of calories in cereals marketed to U.S. children
  • Sugar is more than 50% of calories in many cereals aimed at kids. 
  • More than 60 percent of children’s cereals contain a spoonful or more of sugar in every three spoonfuls of cereal. 
  • (Source - "Children's Cereals: Sugar by the Pound," a research project by the Environmental Working Group) 
Anyone eating a typical serving of kids' cereals would consume more than 10 pounds of sugar just from their breakfast bowls each year.  Cereals marketed to kids have 85 percent more sugar, 65 percent less fiber and 60 percent more sodium than those aimed at adults. 

A box of Kellogg's Sugar Smacks is more than 56% sugar, by weight. Incredibly, a box of one store brand, Lieber's Cocoa Frosted Flakes, tested as 88% sugar.  

Don't depend on the FDA  to protect Americans with warning labels that ultra-sugary breakfast cereals are dangerous to your health.  In the 21st century, federal agencies fiercely protect Big Food corporations over public interest.  

Here's my question:  If you wouldn't eat a heap of Hostess snacks... Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Ho Hos, Sno Balls, Zingers and Honeybuns... for breakfast, why would you eat a brimming bowl of sugary breakfast cereal?

If you wouldn't serve to your kids a mound of Butter Fingers, Skittles, Milky Ways, Hot Tamales and Sour Patch Kids for breakfast, why would you give them a generous helping of cereal loaded with sugar, carbs, fillers, chemicals, and artificial colors and flavors?

Can't your kids depend on you to guard their health and welfare by feeding them nutritiously, rather than carelessly? 

Stop eating and serving sugar for breakfast.  You'll feel better and likely live longer, and so will your kids.  

And as a bonus, you'll thwart Big Food corporations from targeting and harming you, your loved ones and all Americans for the sake of profits. 

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