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Rethinking the Cereal Aisle
What's in Your Toddler's Cereal Bowl?
By Teri Brown
It's been a stable of the fast breakfast meal for decades. Parents everywhere have been known to grab that cereal box and pour, hoping that they're making a good choice for their toddler, preschooler or child. It's got milk and grain, right? Doesn't it have to be nutritious? Not necessarily.
Jamie Pope, an instructor in nutrition for the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, in Nashville, Tenn., says it's understandable why breakfast cereal is a top choice for busy parents. "Ready-to-eat cereals are a convenient way to give children a breakfast they'll accept and eat as well as provide energy (calories) and nutrients," says Pope. "Cereals don't require special preparation and they have a longer shelf-life, thus they can always be kept on hand and are easy to grab and for kids to serve themselves."
Because cereal is so easy, it can become a habit. Routine use of low-quality cereals can increase a toddler's risk of developing heart disease, cancer, obesity, diabetes and depression later in life. One of the problems in many cereals lies in the high sugar content.
Dr. Christopher E. Ramsden, author of Nutrition by the Numbers (Applied Nutritional Biochemistry, 2007) and the developer of the Global Nutritional Quality Index, a food rating system that assigns all-inclusive scores to individual foods based on predicted metabolic and overall health impacts, says sugar content is key.
"In addition to standard sugars, many cereals contain large quantities of 'sugar equivalents' in the form of refined starches," Dr. Ramsden says. "These starches are quickly digested and absorbed as sugar, and have similar metabolic and health consequences. Some cereals prominently display 'whole grain' claims despite containing significant amounts of sugars and refined starches."
