Many of us have grown up hearing the mantra that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, yet cereals for kids fall short of that standard. That is the takeaway of my new research study analyzing child-targeted cereals in Canada.

The study examined 103 unique children’s cereals found in the supermarket for their nutrition, nutrition claims and how the packaging worked to capture kids’ attention. It also assessed the cereals using two nutritional criteria: a government-led proposed Health Canada criteria for marketing to kids (unpublished, described in the study) and the food industry’s Code for Responsible Food and Beverage Advertising to Children.

While 88 per cent of products had nutrition claims communicating “health” value to shoppers, these cereals averaged 30 per cent of their calories from sugar, and 96 per cent of them exceeded appropriate sugar thresholds set by Health Canada. Beyond this, using Health Canada’s criteria developed to support “responsible” marketing to kids, not one of the cereals explicitly packaged to appeal to children would be permitted to be advertised to them!

Such findings suggest the need to push aside the cereal bowl and think more seriously about what we are feeding our kids — and about packaging as a vehicle for marketing to children.

Communicating health, selling sweetness

That children’s cereals are high in sugar may seem obvious to some, especially those who grew up in an era when Sugar Frosted Flakes, Sugar Corn Pops and Sugar Smacks lined the store........

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