How To Create An Obese, Sugar-Addicted Child
October 29th, 2009
According to CBC News, new findings from Yale University show, “…that cereals marketed directly to children have 85 per cent more sugar, 65 per cent less fibre and 60 per cent more sodium than cereals marketed to adults.”
It could be easy to dismiss these finding as a blatant statement of the most obvious facts, but I think it’s extremely helpful to get the raw numbers laid out like this. Maybe people will start to wake up and realize the garbage they are feeding their children.
It can also be easy to push back and dismiss these findings saying, “Come on, sugary cereal is just a part of growing up.” However, scientists recently demonstrated, getting hooked on sugary foods can permanently alter your taste buds. I am certain that had I not been raised on Frosted Flakes and Rice Krispes with a cup of sugar poured on top, I would probably would not have grown up to make cookies and cream milk shakes that filled the entire blender several times a day. And, if that were the case, I also probably would not have ended up with a crazy roller coaster weight problem.
Our kids today are no different. If we want to do away with childhood obesity, we need to stop writing off things that are killing them as a part of the culture of growing up. Cap’n Crunch was introduced to the market in 1963. Smoking cigarettes in school classrooms was still an accepted practice back then. Today, we know second-hand smoke causes cancer, so people don’t do that anymore. Yet, we now also know that sugar leads to diabetes and obesity, but for some reason we still gladly start our kid’s days with just that.
Does anyone else see the disconnect here? Can we look around at the state of our children’s health and realize that sugar addiction is killing them MUCH faster than second-hand smoke ever did?
Here are a few shocking statistics as the CBC reported them in the side bar of the story…
Cereals the industry classifies as ‘better-for-you’ foods:
- Cocoa Puffs: 44 per cent sugar.
- Cap’n Crunch: 44 per cent sugar.
- Froot Loops: 41 per cent sugar.
- Lucky Charms: 41 per cent sugar.
- Cinnamon Toast Crunch: 32 per cent sugar.
Key findings:
- The average pre-schooler sees 642 cereal ads per year on television alone, almost all for cereals with the worst nutrition rankings.
- Companies make heavy use of online marketing in the form of websites and “advergames.” The General Mills website, Millsberry.com, averages 767,000 unique young visitors a month who stay an average of nearly 24 minutes per visit while Post Foods averages nearly 265,000 young visitors monthly on its site, Postopia.com.
- Kellogg — the most frequent in-store advertiser — averaged 33.3 promotions per store and 9.5 special displays for its child and family brands over the four-week period examined.
- General Mills markets to children more than any other cereal company. Six of the 10 least-healthy cereals advertised to children are made by General Mills, including the advertised cereal with the worst nutrition score: Reese’s Puffs, which is 41 per cent sugar.
Tags: Target: Children
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Sugar Addiction |
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