My 12-year-old son Felix pours himself a second serving of Lion, a chocolate and caramel flavoured cereal based on Nestle’s bestselling confectionary bar. “I got the milk to cereal ratio wrong,” he insists at the sight of my raised eyebrow, as his sister Rosie, 14, grabs the box. “It doesn’t taste overly unhealthy,” she says, between mouthfuls. “But it probably is.”
She’s right. Just one 30g bowl contains 7.3g sugar – almost a quarter of the government’s 30g daily sugar guidelines for children aged 11 and over. And I defy anyone else’s tweens and teens to stop at that serving size.
Lion, along with KitKat, Nestle’s other similarly sugary, ultra-processed chocolate bar cereal spin-off, is impossible to miss in my local supermarket. Although neither is marketed at children, they certainly appeal to mine.
But should they be in the breakfast aisle at all? “There is no way that feeding your children sweets, which is effectively what these cereals are, is a good way to start the day,” says Dr Alex Richardson, founder of Food and Behaviour Research, a charitable organisation researching the link between food and mental health.
They’re not the only cereals failing our children’s health.
Last month The Food Foundation’s annual Broken Plate Report found only three per cent of breakfast cereals marketed towards children were classified as low in sugar (5g or less per 100g), down from seven per cent in previous years and, the charity said, “a move in the wrong direction.”
While there is increasing awareness of the need to lower childhood obesity rates, and supermarkets are making efforts to push healthy food – my local Morrisons, for example, offers children a free piece of fruit per visit – when it comes to what we feed our children for breakfast, it seems we have a collective blind spot.
Although the £1.7bn a year breakfast cereal market is in decline, due in part to our desire to eat more healthily and increased tendency to grab food on the go, children’s breakfast cereals constitute the biggest sector, worth around £474m.
It’s not hard to see why. They’re convenient, largely affordable, and calculatedly amenable to kids, allowing us to send them off to school in the knowledge they have at last eaten something.
Besides, many of the boxes contain illustrations of wheat, alongside claims of “wholegrain health” and assurances of added vitamins and iron. How bad can they be?
“Companies are good at showing how breakfast cereals contain key micro-nutrients for children,” says Dr Kawther Hashem, Head of Research and Impact at campaign group Action on Sugar. “That’s all good and well but they don’t have to come with 50 per cent of their (daily) sugar intake.”
In fact, “sugary cereals are about the worst way to start the day” adds Dr Richardson, with the ramifications on children’s mood as severe as on their physical health, because they create early morning blood sugar spikes followed by a crash, leading to the release of the stress hormones adrenalin and cortisol which disrupt focus: “In the classroom, they’re going to have trouble sitting still. They will be agitated, brain fogged, not able to think and behave normally.”
Attempts have been made to reduce the sugar content of cereals. In 2016 the government introduced a voluntary “sugar reduction scheme” encouraging food manufacturers to reformulate their products to contain less sugar.
Kellogg’s cut the sugar content of Coco Pops by 50 per cent and Rice Krispies by 20 per cent. A spokesperson for Kellogg’s parent company Kellanova told me it had reduced sugar and salt by more than a third across its children’s cereal range “and, as a result, none of these products are high in sugar, salt or fat according to government guidelines.”
It stressed that cereals “can play an important role in balanced diet for children and, as the market leader, we are committed to helping families make better choices in the morning.”
A spokesperson for Nestle Cereals, meanwhile, said some of its cereals “are developed to meet the demand of consumers who want an occasional, indulgent breakfast option, as part of a balanced diet” but over 80 per cent of its cereal sales come from non HFSS (high in fat, salt and sugar) products such as Shreddies and Shredded Wheat.
They said Nestle has cut 516m teaspoons of sugar from its portfolio between 2010 and 2020 and is “proud of the sugar and salt reductions we’ve achieved as part of our long-term commitment to improve the nutritional value of our cereals.”
But in a cut-throat market, manufacturers must think of clever ways to keep us buying. In 2023 Nestle launched KitKat, with 7.4g sugar per 30g serving. “Over the last few years, we’ve seen quite a few sugary products coming from brands that were progressing but have introduced what I would say is more confectionary – snack foods put in the breakfast food aisle encouraging consumers to have it for breakfast,” says Dr Hashem. “It seems ludicrous that they would add vitamins and minerals and justify this as a suitable breakfast option.”
And although government regulations on junk food promotion prevent high sugar cereals from being promoted in prominent supermarket locations such as checkouts, aisle ends and entrances, I notice Kellogg’s has a huge promotional display of Crunchy Nut (11g sugar per 30g bowl) in my local Morrisons foyer, before the barriers to enter the store.
From October, breakfast cereals will be included in the government’s ban on HFSS television advertising before 9pm. But there are no restrictions on the use of animation and cartoon characters – think Frosties’ Tony the Tiger or Coco the Coco Pops monkey – to promote the boxes themselves.
In 2023 Action on Sugar found 47 per cent of cereals and yoghurts packaged to appeal to children contained one third of a four-to-six-year-old’s daily maximum sugar allowance, and when I visit my local supermarkets, it is the unhealthiest options in lurid packaging that leap out. “Why don’t we see that type of packaging on porridge, or the healthiest of breakfast cereal options?” asks Dr Hashem, who says “all chocolate-based cereals should be in the chocolate aisle. They should be consumed as a snack [not a breakfast].”
Certainly Kellogg’s Krave, with chocolate flavoured filling (7.5g sugar per 100g) – evokes, well, cravings, surely more synonymous with confectionary than a nutritionally balanced breakfast, while Allegro’s Oreo O’s appeals to my son because he’s a fan of the American biscuit it’s based on.
“If my children come to the supermarket with me that’s exactly what they want,” agrees nutritionist Laura Southern, mother of three children – a 15, 13, and seven-year-old. “While few of us would eat a KitKat for breakfast, if it’s repackaged in cereal form by a brand we trust we think it must be okay.”
Dr Richardson believes a tax on added sugar in cereals and other foods, similar to the levy introduced on soft drinks in 2016, would be “a good idea” and says the government must do more to limit our consumption and not kowtow to lobbying from “the big food companies. They have an awful lot of influence. Do you ever see adverts for omelettes for breakfast?”
Eggs, she says, are “a great quick breakfast food” and her own breakfast choice: “Starting each day with protein helps control your blood sugar.” Cheese on toast with wholegrain bread or an “old style continental breakfast” of cheese, fish or cold meats with salad are other good options, she adds, and if your children do eat cereal, she recommends wholegrain versions that haven’t been stripped of their fibre, such as Shredded Wheat and All Bran.
Southern feeds her children a mixture of sugar free and regular puffed oats by Rude Health, porridge sprinkled with seeds and Crunchy Nut Cornflakes as “a very occasional treat.”
Certainly, not all cereals are a nutritional disaster. Scientist and nutritionist Dr Frederica Amati recently described Weetabix as one of the better options: “Technically it’s a UPF, but it doesn’t contain a raft of additives and is also rich in fibre — a nutrient of which most of us don’t eat anywhere near enough.”
Dr Hashem feeds her young children supermarket Weetabix equivalents and plain porridge with milk and suggests we choose low sugar options where possible. But in a world of time pressure and pester power, she sympathises with parents: “It’s so difficult to decipher the claims, the colourful packaging – you think hopefully it’s going to be okay for my child.”
By nutritionist Laura Southern, founder of londonfoodtherapy.com
NESTLE KITKAT
24.7g sugar per 100g
They say: “The delicious taste of chocolate & wafer, now for breakfast.”
Southern says: A picture of a grain of wheat on the box wrongly suggests healthiness. The sugar content is shocking – one small bowl contains one third the daily sugar allowance of a child aged ten, while added ingredients such as emulsifiers have been linked to poor gut health and an increased risk of diabetes.
NESTLE SHREDDIES
12.5g sugar per 100g
They say: “unlock your morning energy.”
Southern says: Yes, these are high in fibre because they’re made from wholegrain wheat and while they are lower in sugar Shreddies’ second, third and fourth ingredients are sugar, invert sugar syrup and barley malt extract – all different types of sugar. The added B Vitamins and Iron are synthetic and, as with all cereals, less likely to be absorbed by the body than those contained within food itself.
MONDELEZ OREO O’S
27g sugar per 100g
They say: “Start your day with a playful twist.”
Southern says: You’re eating confectionary for breakfast. The highest in sugar of all these cereals, the ingredients only state Oreo Os are made from wheat, which usually means white refined flour, lower in fibre than similarly sugary cereals.
WEETABIX
4.2g sugar per 100g
They say: “There’s no better way to start your day!”
Southern says: The lowest in sugar, and one of the healthiest cereals, but I’d try to avoid giving your child Weetabix every morning, especially if they’re eating sandwiches for lunch and pasta for dinner – too much gluten in wheat can be abrasive on the gut and doesn’t make for a varied diet.
NESTLE CHEERIOS
17.7g sugar
They say: “brings a good balance of nutrition and taste to your family’s breakfast table.”
Southern says: The combination of oat, wheat and barley flour make this a higher fibre cereal, and the sugar content isn’t shocking, but Cheerios are reliant on three different types of sugar to hold their distinctive shape.
KELLOGG’S RICE KRISPIES
7.9g sugar per 100g
They say: “made with natural grains and added goodness.”
Southern says: Rice Crispies aren’t hugely processed, and are relatively low in sugar, but the fibre content is also low so this isn’t good for supporting blood sugar levels.
KELLOGG’S CORNFLAKES
8g sugar per 100g
They say: “Natural grains. Added goodness. No artificial colours or flavours.”
Southern says: Cornflakes are made from maize rather than wheat so provide a different fibre to most cereals, bread and pasta, supporting gut health, and the minimal ingredients make it a less processed option. In addition to being cheaper, some supermarket own-brand versions contain less sugar than Kellogg’s Cornflakes so it’s worth shopping around.
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