[fgummett]

CBC News - Health - Marketing of unhealthy cereals to kids 'staggering': Yale study

The least-healthy breakfast cereals are the ones most aggressively marketed directly to children as young as age two, according to a new study from Yale University in New Haven, Conn.

The study found 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.

Of the cereals targeted directly at children, just eight per cent met limits on sugar content to qualify for inclusion in the USDA's Women, Infants and Children program.

None met the nutrition standards required to advertise to children in the United Kingdom.

Interestingly, all cereals marketed directly to children met the food industry's own nutrition standards for "better-for-you" foods.

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.

The study was presented Monday in Washington, D.C., at Obesity 2009, the 27th annual meeting of the Obesity Society, a scientific organization dedicated to the study of obesity.

It's the first of its kind to examine how children are targeted across all media platforms and in stores.

"This research demonstrates just how far cereal companies have gone to target children in almost everything they do," said lead researcher Jennifer L. Harris in a news release.

"The total amount of breakfast cereal marketing to children on television and computer screens, and at their eye-level in stores, combined with the appalling nutrient profile of the cereals most frequently marketed is staggering," said Harris, director of marketing initiatives at Yale's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

Researchers studied the nutrient composition and marketing efforts of 115 cereal brands and 277 individual cereal varieties.

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.

Nineteen brands, which included 47 varieties, were identified as "child brands" because their cereals are marketed directly to children through licensed characters, such as Dora the Explorer.

Cereal companies spend nearly $156 million US annually marketing to children just on television. They also market extensively using the internet, social media, packaging and in-store promotions.

Forty-two percent of child-targeted cereals contain artificial food dyes, compared with 26 per cent of family cereals and five per cent of adult cereals.

The study was highly critical of the food industry's efforts to reduce marketing unhealthy products to children.

"Ceding authority to the food companies to regulate themselves is a mistake," Rudd Center director Kelly Brownell said in a news release.

"The companies want to be seen as public health allies making good-faith efforts to change, but their actions indicate otherwise."

The Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative was supposed to see a reduction in ads and was sponsored by the Council of Better Business Bureaus.

However, researchers concluded the amount of marketing has not change significantly since the initiative began.

"Clearly, there's a lot of room for improvement," said Jim Marks, senior vice-president and director of the health group at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

[sarahspins]

This is not surprising... my kids seem to fluctuate between Kashi Heart to Heart and Multigrain Cheerios. Occasionally they'll want some other variety of Kashi, but none of them really ask for the sugary junk the other companies make.

We also eat our cereal with plain yogurt (I started this because it's easier for toddlers to spoon feed themselves since it's "sticky").. I wonder if that's part of their preference.

[fgummett]

My experience is that children will eat what's in the house... just avoid the marketing and buy what you think is best. I am also sure that they learn from what they see us doing.

I remember when my son was younger and had a bunch of friends over, I'd make popcorn and oatmeal cookies but I'd also make up a plate of fresh fruit and veggie slices (without even asking them)... all the plates were cleared in double-quick time

[dbaratta]

our food in general just is horrible, everything has sugar in it, you really have to dig to find food without, that is why I started eating only foods that nature gives us (mostly, no one is perfect). Fruits, veggie and meat...that is my new diet, no bread at all, very little milk and milk products.

Our food is over processed, the ADA suggests when shopping we stick to the outer edges of the store because that is where you find fruit, veggies, meat and dairy. Inner isles have processed foods, very bad, no nutrients.......

[fgummett]

Great suggestion Poppy. Have you read anything by Michael Pollan..? He has few straightforward rules like that which make a good deal of sense to me...

NYTimes ~ Michael Pollan - Unhappy Meals...

John (xMenace) has link to a video interview with him in his signature Michael Pollan - The Hour...

[xMenace]

Originally Posted by fgummett

Great suggestion Poppy. Have you read anything by Michael Pollan..? He has few straightforward rules like that which make a good deal of sense to me...

NYTimes ~ Michael Pollan - Unhappy Meals...

John (xMenace) has link to a video interview with him in his signature Michael Pollan - The Hour...

A great, simple message. I've watched this many many times.

[cyberus]

Blech ... food marketing for kids OR adults is a push towards the unhealthy.
Regardless whether you are low carb, low fat, etc etc the krud they try to pawn off on us as "healthy" is a joke (mostly), with portion manipulation being (IMHO) the first and worst tool in the food mega-corps toolbox.

[notme]

Something I did for my kids years ago was NEVER buy boxed cereal. However, on their Birthdays, we let them pick one cereal they wanted to try or have has a treat. With five kids, they got to have junk cereal five times a year. They thought it was great, it gave them the opportunity to try a cereal they saw on tv, and they always viewed it as a treat and not a breakfast food.

[Caravaggio]

Unfortunately it's not just cereals - fruit juice, chocolates, cookies, sausages, etc. Numerous ads also address not just the kids but their parents - who if you think about it make the final decision whether or not to buy and serve them to the kids.

I remember reading in the news (a couple of years or more ago) about how some schools in the US allow Coke and other companies making chocolates, snacks or sweetened drinks to "advertise" by donating notebooks, school bags, pencils, folders and other supplies, with the donor's brand or product name. The reason was that public school funding has decreased dramatically, or (for private schools) the school did not want to raise tuition, that accepting these types of "donations" helped the schools provide for the students. I wonder if this practice is prevalent or if it still continues.

[fgummett]

Originally Posted by notme

Something I did for my kids years ago was NEVER buy boxed cereal. However, on their Birthdays, we let them pick one cereal they wanted to try or have has a treat. With five kids, they got to have junk cereal five times a year. They thought it was great, it gave them the opportunity to try a cereal they saw on tv, and they always viewed it as a treat and not a breakfast food.

Great idea Nancy... and things this sweet SHOULD only be a rare treat for children... even being a "super-low-carb elitist" I have no problem with a piece of cake for a birthday... it's the "must-have everyday blueberry muffin with a latte for breakfast" that I see as the problem here

Thinking about it in evolutionary terms, how often did our ancestors come across a honey-bee hive, or a wild field of ripe berries?