Parents Beware while selecting cereals for Kids

It is a scientifically proven fact that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and for many, cereals make up for the basic ingredient. But did anyone take time to wonder if it is actually as healthful as it is thought to be?

Markets everywhere are flooded with cereals coming from many brand names in beautiful colorful and cartoonish structures to lure kids. How many of us actually take a look at what the product actually has on its ingredients list to offer? Is it a true nutritious pack or just another harmful combination of fats, sodium and sugar?

Consumer Reports revealed on Wednesday that widely marketed breakfast cereals are unacceptably high in sugar content by weight and most of the brands fall in Fair category when rated according to their nutritional value. The revelation is based on a 32 country survey supported by International Consumer Research & Testing and Consumers International.

About 27 popular cereal brands were verified for the nutrition content they offer and the content they actually hold and what an eye-opener it was, only 4 got rated as Very Good and remaining 23 as Good or Fair.

The brand that topped the ratings according to the Consumer Reports was General Mills Cheerios which contained 3gm fiber and 1gm sugar per serving. A few others on the list with high fiber and low sugar are Kix, Honey Nut Cheerios and Quaker Oats Life.

And those that topped from the bottom were the ones containing about 50% of sugar content by weight like Kellogg's Honey Smacks and Kraft Foods Inc’s Post Golden Crisp, and about 9 more brands that contained 40% sugar content.

Long before, it has been proved scientifically that unacceptably high level of sugar can poison the liver and lower fiber content can shoot up the insulin level in body causing hormonal imbalance which encourages overeating tendencies in kids and hence lead to high cholesterol, heart ailments and diabetes.

Besides high sugar levels another concerning issue used as rating basis of cereals under study by the consumer association was the sodium content. Cereal low in sugar were also kept in bracket of Fair rating if they were found to constitute of high sodium content in them, for e.g. Kellogg's Rice Krispies- it had only 4gm sugar but got Fair rating due to its high sodium content and 0gm fiber content per serving.

Yet another astonishing fact pointed out by the survey was that the cereals marketed in US are formulated with more of sugar content as compared to same cereal variety and brand being marketed in other countries like Kellogg's Honey Smacks which contains 55% sugar content when marketed in US whereas only 40% when marketed in Switzerland, Germany and Slovenia.

The Consumers International would also suggest WHO to lay down restrictive guidelines for advertising and selling of eatables high in sugar and sodium content being marketed worldwide.

In the interest of public health the consumer group has recommended that before purchasing cereals one must go through the ingredients list mentioned at the back of the box and buy the ones high in fiber and low in both sodium and sugar (also named as–fructose, corn syrup, dextrose and maple syrup). Cereals are the masses first obvious choice for breakfast and can do wonders if chosen wisely and combined with milk and fruits.

According to Consumer Reports kids who take healthful breakfasts have in general superior nourishment, lesser weight problems and enhanced cognitive performance. A healthy choice could be plain oats or bran which is higher in fiber content and lower in sugar.