Which contains less sugar, a bowl of cereal or a jam doughnut?

Are cereals good for you?

When you're having your morning cereal for breakfast, do you actually consider what is in it? If you're feeding it to your children, do you study the box to see how much sugar is in each portion?

An investigation in the US has found that breakfast cereals which are marketed at children contain more sugar per serving than a jam doughnut does. Those cereals, have 85 percent more sugar, 65 percent less fiber, and 60 percent more sodium than those aimed at adults, according to a report from Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

"Industry self-regulation is an abject failure," says Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center, to USA Today. "The worst cereals are being marketed very heavily to children."

Cereal companies spend more money than any other packaged food category in marketing their products to children (US$229 million in 2006). With the least nutritious cereals often being the most heavily marketed to children. Among them: Reese's Puffs, Corn Pops, Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Cap'n Crunch.

Showing this is an issue all over the world: In Britain, following a programme shown on Channel 4, 'Dispatches', health campaigners are calling for better labelling on foods containing high levels of sugar, salt and fat, after both Britain and the US found that packages often featured health claims which simply couldn't be justified.

The research

Researchers in Britain discovered a jam doughnut contained 8.6g of sugar while 30g of Kellogg's Frosties were laden with 11.1g of sugar.

Similarly, 30g servings of Nestlé Honey Cheerios, Kellogg's Coco Pops, and Sugar Puffs contained 10.53g, 10.2g, and 10.5g respectively.

The British Heart Foundation accused cereal manufacturers of misleading parents about high levels of salt, sugar and fat in their products. Also claiming companies have exploited loopholes on advertising regulations regarding junk food by targeting parents, and by using websites geared towards children.

The charity's policy manager, Mubeen Bhutta, said, "We feel that more can and should be done to help children and adults identify foods that are high in salt, sugar and fat.

"We want to see a single labelling system introduced across all foods so that parents can make informed choices about what they are buying. I think parents would be very surprised that cereals, often advertised as having health benefits, contain more sugar than a doughnut."

The charity is campaigning for a traffic light system on the packaging off all foods to help consumers identify goods which are less healthy.

The makers

Both Nestlé and Kellogg's rejected the criticisms saying that their products are clearly labelled with guideline daily amounts of nutrients.

A Kellogg's spokesman said: "The reality is a single serving of Frosties or Coco Pops has the same amount of sugar in it as glass of orange juice or a banana.

"It's important to remember that a doughnut contains around 14 times the level of fat as a single bowl of Frosties."

A Nestlé spokeswoman added: "On average cereals contribute less than 10 percent of the average adult daily intake of sugars and less than 6 percent of the average daily sugar intake in children."

April

A study released by Which? back in April said that some children's breakfast cereals are laden with more sugar than a bowl of ice cream. Yet why has it taken until now for more attention to be paid? And why weren't there more changes made?

Using guidelines from the Food Standards Agency, just 8 percent were given a green light for healthy sugar levels, the British paper the Daily Mail reported back in April.

Some 31 of the 100 most popular cereals surveyed contained more than four teaspoons of sugar per recommended serving. One teaspoon contains about 4g of sugar. Just one of the 28 cereals marketed to children was not high in sugar. But even this was relatively high in salt.

Risks of high sugar consumption

High sugar consumption is said to be fuelling the obesity epidemic, which is leading to increased cases of heart disease, and risk of diabetes. It's thought that a sugary diet increases calorie consumption and weight gain - linked to Type-2 diabetes - resulting in unhealthy spikes in blood glucose, which can lead to insulin resistance, a condition that often precedes diabetes.

Research also shows that eating a lot of sugar increases the oxidative stress in your body - the free-radical havoc that damages healthy cells and can lead to premature ageing and cancer.

How much sugar should you be eating?

According to the British Dietetic Association, the recommended intake of 'added sugars' - such as honey, fruit juice, jam, soft drinks and those in processed food, as well as the sugar you add to food - is 10 percent of your total daily calorie intake. This is about 50g a day for those on 2,000 calories. (One level teaspoon of sugar weighs 4g and contains 16 calories.)

Official figures issued by the Department For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (DEFRA) show we're way off this target, with 12 percent of the average British woman's energy intake coming from added sugars - that's about 2.5 extra teaspoons a day.

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