"Kids’ Breakfast Cereals as Nutritional Façade"
The American Medical Association started warning people
about excess sugar consumption over 75 years ago
based in part on our understanding that “sugar supplies nothing
in nutrition but calories, and the vitamins provided by other foods
are sapped by sugar to liberate those calories.”
Hence added sugars aren’t just empty calories,
but like negative nutrition—the more added sugars one consumes,
the more nutritionally depleted one may become.
Given the totality of scientific evidence, the FDA decided
to make processed food manufacturers declare
"added sugars" on the nutrition facts label.
The National Yogurt Association was livid,
opposing the added sugars declaration, since they needed “added sugars”
to increase their products’ palatability.
The junk food association questioned the science
whereas the ice cream folks seemed to imply consumers would be
too stupid to use it so, better leave it off.
The world's biggest cereal company, Kellogg, took a similar tact,
opposing it so as not to confuse the consumer,
and should the FDA proceed with such labeling against their objections,
added sugars should at most be communicated in a footnote.
See, their goal is to provide consumers with useful information
so they can make informed choices.
This from a company that describes their Froot Loops as
packed with delicious fruity taste, fruity aroma, bright colors.
Made with whole grains and ’lightly sweetened,’ a good source of fiber.
Lightly sweetened?
Froot Loops has more sugar than a Krispy Kreme doughnut...
Froot Loops is more than 40% sugar by weight.
The tobacco industry used similar terms such as “light,” “low,” “mild”
to make their products appear healthier
before they were recently barred from doing so.
Now, sugar interests are fighting similar battles over whether their
“healthy,” “natural,” “lightly sweetened” terminology
is similarly deceptive.
But just look at all those vitamin and minerals they added.
That was one of the ways the cereal companies
responded to calls for banning sugary cereals.
General Mills defended the likes of Franken Berry, Trix, and Lucky Charms
for being fortified with essential vitamins.
Sir Grapefellow, I learned, was a grape flavored cereal
complete with sweet grape starbit marshmallows,
but don’t worry it was “vitamin charged.”
Sugary breakfast cereals, said Dr. Jean Mayer from Harvard,
are not a complete food even if fortified with eight or 10 vitamins.
“I think your point is well taken,” replied Senator McGovern,
“these products may be mislabeled,
perhaps more correctly called candy vitamins than cereals.”
Plastering nutrient claims on the box can create a “nutritional facade,”
acting to distract attention away from unsavory qualities
such as excess sugar content.
The majority of parents have been found to misinterpret the meaning
of claims commonly used on children’s cereals,
raising significant public health concerns….
Ironically, cereal boxes bearing low-calorie claims
were found to have more calories on average than
without such a claim; so, it’s like the cereal doth protest too much.
Even candy bar companies are getting in on the action,
bragging about their protein content, because it has some peanuts,
but it’s also a candy bar, with 50 grams of sugar,
just like Froot Loops could be considered breakfast candy,
as the same serving would have 40….
Given research suggesting consumers believe front-of-package claims,
perceive them to be government-endorsed,
and use them to ignore the Nutrition Facts Panel on the back,
there’s been a call from nutrition professionals to consider
“an outright ban on all front-of-package claims.”
The industry’s short-lived Smart Choices label
was met with disbelief when it was found adorning
qualifying cereals like Froot Loops and Cookie Crisp.
The processed food industry spent more than a billion dollars
lobbying against the adoption of more informative labeling,
a traffic-light approach, railing against the suggestion
that “any food might be too high in anything.