Last week, General Mills made a dramatic splash in nutrition circles when it announced it would reduce the amount of sugar in its cereals for kids to “single digit” levels. While sugar reduction is commendable, it still does not make the cereals a good choice for breakfast. And the decrease is not substantial enough. Some cereals have already seen their sugar content lessen by 1 gram or 2 (8%-15% decrease), but cereals are still at the 3-teaspoon-of-sugar per serving level.

Take Lucky Charms as an example. “Magically delicious Lucky Charms cereal features frosted oats and colored marshmallows.” Why should kids be getting marshmallows for breakfast every morning? Aren’t these treats reserved as occasional treats for roasting over a fire at summer camp or a family outing?

We took a deeper look inside Lucky Charms to find out just how good they are for our children. Read more…

General Mills, one of the big 4 cereal manufacturers, including brands such as Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Trix, and Wheaties,  announced yesterday that it will reduce the added sugar in its products. More specifically, the sugar in cereals advertised to kids will be reduced to “single digit” levels, according to the press release headlines. Reading the fine print of the comapny’s release, which basically extols General Mills as the best thing to happen to healthy diets since the invention of food processing, we learn that “by spring General Mills cereals advertised to children will all have 11 grams of sugar per serving or less.”

What you need to know:

The first thing you should know is that “11″ is not a single digit. 11 grams of sugar is still almost 3 teaspoons of sugar, and that’s for serving sizes for 4 year olds.

Nonetheless, General Mills should be commended for taking a step in the right direction. If all manufacturers follow suit, maybe in 2011 they can do another down round, and reduce added sugar to 1 teaspoon’s worth.

Here are two further improvements that General Mills can make:

- remove artificial colorings from all cereals. Red 40 and others have been linked to hyperactivity in children.

- stop using BHT to preserve freshness. BHT is also suspected of causing hyperactivity and cancer.

What to do at the supermarket:

Your children do not need a sugar rush first thing in the morning. Look for cereals that contain less than 6 grams of sugar. You can always add more at home.

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