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Breakfast Cereal: Sweet Treat or War Crime on Children?
Kellogg’s, General Mills, and Post have probably contributed half or more of the child obesity epidemic
Somehow, during and post-pandemic, the supermarket oasis of unhealthiness, aka the kids’ cereal aisle, has gone full Willy Wonka. Oh for the days of simple sugar coated rolled grain like Frosted Flakes. Now there’s box after box of crunchy processed wheat squares stuffed with chocolate or peanut butter goo. There’s a colored, fun-shaped marshmallow in almost every box.
What’s next? Actual candy in the box like “Sweeties,” the fictional favorite cereal of dimwitted Luther on the 90s sitcom Coach? Luther got jittery if he didn’t have his morning bowl of Sweeties, complete with “crushed lollipops.”
When I saw the show, I thought, “That’s ridiculous. They’d never put actual candy in the box like that.”
How wrong I was.
In the meantime, the cereal aisle has split in two, with mass market, obviously unhealthy and sugar-laden (I mean laden) choices on one side, and supposedly “healthy” alternatives on the other.
Neither side of the aisle is a good choice for parents prioritizing their child’s health.
