NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -
Breakfast cereals for children
are less healthy than cereals meant for adults, and those
marketed the most aggressively to kids have the worst
nutritional quality, according to a new analysis of 161 brands.

“The cereal the parent is eating him or herself is probably
better than what they're feeding their child,” Dr. Marlene B.
Schwartz of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, the lead
researcher on the study, told Reuters Health.

Schwartz and her colleagues also found that health claims
made for kids' cereals were often misleading. Cereals sold as
“low fat” or “low sugar” were not lower in calories, as parents
might assume, and while brands touted as “whole grain” did have
more fiber, they had just as much salt, sugar and fat as other
brands and the same calorie content.

The food industry and public health authorities are both
encouraging children to eat breakfast, especially ready-to-eat
cereals, the researchers note in their report in the Journal of
the American Dietetic Association. To compare the nutritional
quality of cereals targeted to children and those marketed to
adults, Schwartz and her team looked at 161 cereals, 46 percent
of which were marketed to children. A cereal was put in this
category if it had a character on the box, toys or games
inside, or the company's Web site listed the brand as a
children's cereal.

Children's cereals had more sugar, sodium, carbohydrate and
calories per gram than non-children's cereals, and less protein
and fiber. Sugar accounted for more than one-third of the
weight of children's cereals, on average, compared to less than
one-quarter of the adult cereals. Thirty-four percent of the
kids' cereals met nutrition standards for foods sold in
schools, compared to 56 percent of the non-children's cereals,
Schwartz and her colleagues report.

Parents hoping to choose healthy cereals for their kids
should look for brands containing 4 grams of sugar per serving
(about one teaspoon) or less, Schwartz advised, and should aim
for 4 grams of fiber per bowl of cereal.

As a psychologist, Schwartz says, she urges parents who
want to ban heavily marketed cereals from their homes to stick
to their guns. “My advice to parents of young children is
you've got to just make a decision and stick with it because if
you give in once, you're going to regret it. It's just going to
make your kid nag you even more.”

SOURCE: Journal of the American Dietetic Association, April
2006.