Many major food manufacturers – including Kellogg’s, General Mills and Post Foods – have been making efforts to reduce the amount of sugar in cereals amid concerns that sweetened cereals contribute unhealthy quantities of added sugars to children’s diets, and some skepticism has remained about whether children will eat lower sugar alternatives.
Researchers at Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity recruited 91 children aged five to 12 for the study from three summer camps in New England. Half were offered a choice of three high-sugar cereals, while the other half could choose between three low-sugar cereals. All the children were also offered low-fat milk, orange juice, strawberries, bananas and packets of sugar.
They found that children in both groups reported ‘liking’ or ‘loving’ the cereal they chose, but children in the low-sugar cereal group were more likely to add fresh fruit – 54 percent versus eight percent – and consumed a greater proportion of total calories from fruit than the high-sugar group, 20 percent versus 13 percent.
Lead author Jennifer Harris said: “Because of the prevalent marketing of high-sugar cereals to children, many parents feel that they are faced with a choice between purchasing high-sugar children’s cereal versus having their child eat no breakfast at all…These findings show that children will eat low-sugar varieties of cereals. And parents can make these options even more nutritious by adding fresh fruit to the bowl.”
Caloric intake was similar for both groups, but children in the low-sugar category tended to eat slightly more than one serving of cereal (35g), while those in the high-sugar category ate significantly more (61g) and nearly twice the amount of added sugar in total (24.4g versus 12.5 g).
Even when offered packets of sugar, the children in the low-sugar cereal group consumed an average total of 0.7 teaspoons of sugar from their cereal, compared with 5.7 teaspoons on average for the high-sugar group, the researchers found.
“Even if parents add a small amount of table sugar, this strategy would reduce the amount of sugar in children’s diets while also promoting a balanced first meal of the day,” said Harris.
The American Heart Association recommends that people of all ages should restrict their intake of added sugars. The researchers said that offering low-sugar cereals to children alongside fresh fruit and sugar, instead of high-sugar cereals, could improve the overall nutritional content of children’s diets.
Source: Pediatrics
Available online here.
“Effects of Serving High-Sugar Cereals on Children’s Breakfast-Eating Behavior”
Authors: Jennifer L. Harris, Marlene B. Schwartz, Amy Ustjanauskas, Punam Ohri-Vachaspati, and Kelly D. Brownell