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Published on Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Is there anyplace worse for grocery-shopping parents than the cereal aisle?
''But, Mom, it has vitamins and minerals and whole grains. It says so right on the box.''
Yes, that may be true, but all those bright-colored boxes of cereal featuring leprechauns, tigers and other cartoon characters also have a lot of sugar, salt, fat and calories.
After analyzing 161 brands of cereals, researchers at Yale's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity found that kids' breakfast cereals are less healthy than brands meant for adults. They also found that kids' cereals that are marketed the most aggressively have the worst nutritional quality.
This is important because public health and food industry initiatives are encouraging kids to eat breakfast cereals, because so many middle- and high-schoolers skip breakfast.
''Health professionals need to encourage not only breakfast, but a healthy breakfast,'' Dr. Marlene Schwartz, lead author of the study, said in a Yale news release. ''This is hard because the breakfast cereals marketed to children are the least healthy choices.''
When nutrients per gram were compared, children's cereals were higher in calories, sodium, carbohydrate and sugar, but significantly lower in fiber and protein. They also found that the majority of children's cereals, 66 percent, failed to meet national recommended nutritional standards for foods sold in schools.
''In other words, children's cereals have too much of the nutrients you don't want and too little of the nutrients you do want,'' Schwartz said.
One other interesting finding: Boxes that claimed ''low fat'' or ''reduced sugar'' had the same amount of calories as cereals that made no such claim.'
''People may assume that a low-fat or reduced-sugar cereal will help children limit the calories they are taking in, but this is not the case,'' Schwartz said.
Parents should look for cereals that contain four grams of fiber per bowl and four grams or less of sugar per serving.
Smart shopping
For anyone trying to stay healthy, decisions made at the grocery store are crucial. Bad choices in the snack aisle or frozen-food section can sabotage a healthy diet.
This week, Aultman Hospital's Weight Management program will help shoppers make healthy decisions with its free one-hour Supermarket Smart tours.
The tours will be held at North Canton Fishers Foods, 8100 Cleveland Ave. N., from 1 to 3 p.m. today, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and 9 to 10 a.m. Saturday.
Registration is required by calling Aultman Weight Management at 330-491-1670.
Skin-cancer screenings
Area dermatologists, in conjunction with the Cleveland Dermatological Society, will provide free skin-cancer screenings from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday on the first floor of the Ambulatory Care Center at Akron General Medical Center, 400 Wabash Ave., Akron.
Appointments are required by calling 330-344-2462.
Health fair
Students from the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy will offer The Body and Beyond, their annual health fair for the community, from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday in the Ralph Regula Conference Center at the NEOUCOM campus, 4209 State Route 44, Rootstown Township.
The free public health fair will have screenings, a relaxation station, anatomy lab, expert presentations on important health topics and children's activities. For information or to register, visit http://www.neoucom.edu/bodyandbeyond/.
This event originally was scheduled for March, but was postponed because of bad weather.
Tracy Wheeler can be reached at 330-996-3721 or tawheeler@thebeaconjournal.com.
Is there anyplace worse for grocery-shopping parents than the cereal aisle?
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