Current Health News – Marketing Unhealthy Cereals to Children is Not the Problem

A study about children’s health released by Yale University in Washington D.C. at the annual meeting of the Obesity Council, shows that the most unhealthy breakfast cereals are the cereals most often marketed to children.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. This is a perfect storm of nutritional badness guaranteed to cause health problems in anyone who consumes such a mixture regularly.The authors go on to indict cereal manufacturers for targeting children with advertising and in-store promotions. They suggest self-regulation of advertising is not effective and stronger regulation would be in order.But the question arises, does advertising force parents to purchase products? Do advertisers force parents to feed their children nutritionally bankrupt food? Or is that a choice parents make and follow through with on their own?The fact is, children do not purchase breakfast cereal, parents do. Cereal companies do force parents to put candy-like breakfast products in the pantry to the exclusion of much healthier foods. Cereal companies do not force-feed these products to little Johnny or Jill, parents do.While cereal manufacturers deserve no praise, the problem is NOT the nutritionally bankrupt cereal. The problem is PARENTS BUY IT AND FEED IT TO THEIR CHILDREN.The problem is NOT advertising. The problem is parents buy these ridiculous products masquerading as food, feed it to their little darlings, and then wonder why there are so many overweight kids and why their children are over weight and illness-prone.The solution is NOT government control or increased regulation. There are already a zillion government regulations in all areas of life that, for the most part, do nothing but raise taxes, inhibit freedom, drive up costs and create more problems than they solve.The solution to the “great cereal advertising crisis” is for parents to accept responsibility for their childrens nutritional welfare and not leave it up to the advertising department of a cereal company.The solution is for parents to learn the basics of kids nutrition and learn which foods are healthy and why, and which foods destroy health regardless of how catchy the slogan is or how cute the animal mascot happens to be.My grandchildren have no taste whatsoever for the nutritionally bankrupt sludge many children live on because my children, the parents, understand the basics of nutrition and know without doubt that a diet of high carbohydrate foods makes you fat and destroys your health and they know why this is true. And because they understand the basics of how protein, carbohydrates and fat affect metabolism and how metabolism determines your and your childrens health, they are never hypnotized by dancing lions or cute bears into buying boxes of nutritional junk trying to imitate healthy food.We all think we know everything about everything, but we do not. And if our knowledge of nutrition comes primarily from advertising or from an unschooled recitation of the same old pop-nutrition advice that has resulted in 68% of America being overweight, then we are doomed.Without an ACCURATE understanding of what food does when you put it in your mouth, chew and swallow, you simply cannot make an informed nutritional decision and you are forever at the mercy advertisers claims. And advertisers are in the business of selling things, not producing the healthiest possible products. And no amount of regulation will change that.The ONLY way to make good choices for your children or yourself is to be informed. Learn the basics of diet, nutrition and metabolism well enough that you can apply them when you eat out or when you purchase items at a grocery store you intend to prepare and feed to yourself and the people you love and care about most.Children do not buy breakfast cereal, parents do. Regulating advertising will not make children healthy, parents making informed choices and helping their children develop healthy eating habits will.