Breakfast for many of us families is a bowl of cereal (often gulped down standing up before running off to work or school). Sometimes, it's even dinner on the craziest days. It's convenient, quick and generally pretty nutritious.
But if you're letting your kids pick the cereal, you may be serving them a less healthy meal than you'd hope.
An analysis in the Journal of The American Dietetic Association found that two-thirds of cereals marketed to children – which meant they had a licensed character or an activity directed towards kids on the box – didn’t meet national standards for sugar content and other aspects.
They also make misleading health claims, like "made with whole grain" or "low in sugar" when in fact they can be just as high in calories or low in fiber as cereals without the health claims.
The ADA suggests instant oatmeal as an alternative – my kid loves the stuff, and the unflavored kinds aren’t sugar laden and good with a topping of fruit. My mother-in-law's trick is to top a healthy cereal with a sweeter kind. And a dietician even suggested serving cereal as dessert, so it's clearly delineated that sugary items like that are treats instead of healthy meals.
The good news is, adult cereals are pretty much OK from a nutritional standpoint, and few cereals, even the super sugary ones, are fairly low in calories even if those calories are empty. So if your kid will eat your bran flakes, let them – they are just as easy and better for you.
