Cereals help churn out young slaves to sugar

The story below titled Twinkies for Breakfast? Kids’ Cereals Fail Industry’s own Lame Nutrition Guidelines was written by Michele Simon, public health lawyer and author of Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back. It originally appeared on her site on December 7th and I’ve received permission to repost it.

I chose to reblog her entry because I very much respect Michele’s work and I very much believe that bleached sugar cane is an evil addictive substance that ruins health and dumbs down society. Sugar is subtle. But it is everywhere. 

When I engage in conversation with strangers and suggest they cut down on sugar, they look at me with a bewildered look on their face. For instance, I asked a 19-year old Hispanic bouncer whether he knew bees were disappearing while at a Hollywood dance club called Music Box on Saturday evening. He did not. I then told him I thought it was in his best interest to learn about our current agricultural landscape. I also assumed he drank soda and consumed sugar and suggested he cut it out of his diet.

“That’s impossible, that’s a big part of what I eat,” he said. 

Oh boy. Just as bad as the other young bouncer who immigrated from the Congo who told me he ‘didn’t give a shit’ that the club didn’t recycle. 

These are the kinds of people I want to educate about food justice and food awareness and the state of our planet!

A surplus of sugar in a diet contributes to asthma & mood swings; it also nourishes nervous disorders, delivers diabetes, hastens hypertension, and creates inflammation in the body, adding to arthritis. 

Sugar raises insulin levels, which inhibits the release of growth hormones, which in turn depresses the immune system. And influx of insulin then promotes the storage of fat, so that when you eat sweets high in sugar, you’re making way for rapid weight gain and elevated triglyceride levels, both of which have been linked to cardiovascular disease.

I also think too much sugar makes you stupid.  

A little sugar is okay but the problem is that many are slaves to sugar!  Sugar stimulates the release of the feel-good neurotransmitter DOPAMINE (among others). When you eat sugar, you crave MORE sugar. That is why companies put so much. Companies trick and manipulate our minds so we BUY more. Simple.

Most Americans today consume an astounding 135 pounds of sugar per year, on average. Prior to the turn of this century, the average consumption was only 5 lbs. per person per year! Sugar is in everything from cereal to condiments. 

The fact that the food industry puts so much damn sugar in foods is unacceptable not to mention perverse. Click here to find out more about White Satan!

As a child growing up in an Egyptian home in Montreal, Canada there was never a shortage of my favorite cereals: Shredded Wheat, Fruit Loops and Honey Nut Cheerios. Did my parents know what they were doing? Was it any wonder that I was chubby? 

That was in the late 1970s. We’re now on the verge of 2012. What’s the excuse? We know better? Why does the Cereal Industry continue to serve children the equivalent of Twinkies to start their day? 

Read on! 

Twinkies for Breakfast? Kids’ Cereals Fail Industry’s own Lame Nutrition Guidelines by Michele Simon

Today the Environmental Working Group (best known for its “Dirty Dozen” list of pesticide-laden produce) released a not very surprising report detailing the insane amounts of sugar in children’s cereals. Kellogg’s Honey Smacks, at nearly 56 percent sugar by weight, won the top prize, packing more sugar (20 grams per cup) than a Hostess Twinkie.

This, despite the company’s “commitment to responsible marketing,” in which the cereal giant pledged to “apply science-based Kellogg Global Nutrient Criteria to all products currently marketed to children.”

Not federal guidelines, not scientifically-derived criteria, but rather, “Kellogg Global Nutrient Criteria?” Corporate-speak translation: Kellogg gets to define its own nutrition criteria. (Using capital letters must make up for the lack of science.)  The company conveniently sets the bar at 12 grams of sugar per serving, while some serving sizes are ridiculously low at 3/4 cup. This trick allows Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes to squeak under at exactly 12 grams per serving.

But back to Honey Smacks, which is so high in sugar it doesn’t even fit under Kellogg’s own lame limit. But the company has that covered too. You see, the food company “pledges” claim only to not advertise foods to kids that don’t fit the nutrition criteria, but says nothing about not manufacturing them in the first place. So explains Kellogg’s: “Products that don’t meet the Nutrient Criteria will either be reformulated or will no longer be marketed to children under 12.” Why bother making your products healthier when you can just claim to not market the junk food instead?

But as any good ad man will tell you, package design is a crucial component to marketing. And one look at the Honey Smacks box tells us this is no adult-oriented product. Moreover, research has shown how strongly cartoon characters can influence children’s dietary preferences. Of course, that’s why company’s like Kellogg’s invest so much in brand icons like Tony the Tiger: they know kids respond through strong emotional bonds.

The processed food industry must be scared that such a popular and well-resourced organization as the Environmental Working Group is now taking aim at them. (The group boasts more than 1 million supporters.) In my inbox this morning arrived a very defensive email from the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, the lobbying group that defends Big Food by touting their responsible marketing to kids. They claim:

All of the cereals our participants currently may advertise to children are wholesome, containing a rich package of vitamins and minerals, such as calcium, fiber, vitamin D and iron. More than 60% contain at least a half serving (8 grams) of whole grains per serving. These cereals are an excellent breakfast choice, particularly when consumed with low fat or skim milk and fruit.

Not to waste too much time deconstructing this silliness, but really, “wholesome”? When you have to dig that deep for such a BS term you know you’re in trouble. And that“rich package” of vitamins is added back in artificially after the companies strip all the natural nutrients. Finally, note the qualifier, “may advertise to children,” to presumably set apart brands like Honey Smacks as outliers. Except that it’s not.

EWG also found 56 (out of 84) brands contain more than 26 percent sugar by weight. Also, only 1 in 4 cereals would meet the federal government’s proposed (i.e., science-based) nutrition guidelines for marketing to children. A whopping 82 percent of General Mills’ brands don’t meet the federal rules. (No wonder Big Food has been fighting the federal proposal so hard.)

Also, as the study notes, Honey Smacks is hardly Kellogg’s only offending brand: “Apple Jacks and Fruit Loops, which Kellogg’s markets aggressively to children, contain more sugar than the industry’s recommended 38 percent limit.” Indeed, 21 (of the total 84) children’s cereals contain more sugar than the limit recommended by the industry’s own nutrition standards.

But at least they are wholesome.