Mary Whiting gives some healthy choices
The packets look terrific: imaginative and brightly coloured, with pictures of funny faces, cartoon and story-book characters, and with all kinds of giveaways and pictures to cut out and collect. Unsurprisingly, children want them. Fine -children's food should look appealing (although packets that offer a 'free' toy with 'six more to collect' could give parents a problem).
But what's inside these seductively designed boxes? I did a mini survey of the sugar content of a few cereals aimed at children and the results (see box) are staggering. Most were a third to nearly half sugar! Only one, Rice Krispies, was much lower, with 10 per cent sugar, although that is plenty, especially as more may be added at home.
Some were also very salty: 0.5 per cent of sodium in any food is considered 'a lot', but half the packets I checked had that amount or more. Of course, wholegrain, low sugar, low salt cereals exist, but where are the 'children's' packets of them?
Does it matter?
Given that young teeth are vulnerable to the acidic, enamel-destroying effects of sugar, these sugar percentages are extraordinarily high. Sugar is also linked to obesity and diabetes, both of which are now increasingly affecting children. Further, sugar can quickly give some children a 'high', which can mean their behaviour becomes quite impossible for several hours after eating even a moderate amount. It might be revealing to find out how much sugar gets eaten at breakfast by some particularly difficult children.
At nursery, carers who feed children sugary foods of any kind are doing neither themselves nor the children a favour.
As for sodium, besides other, long-term risks, it inhibits calcium absorption, a great disadvantage for children who need lots of calcium to build good bone density and sound teeth.
Why do children's carers buy these foods? I can only assume that they don't read the nutrition label, but then this is always a very small panel with tiny print, not prominently placed and not always easily understood by the lay person. Also, of course, there is 'pester power', the manufacturers'
pot of gold. How instructive it is to observe children's behaviour at the supermarket's cereal shelves! Frequently, it is not the adult who chooses the cereal, but the child - and purely, of course, by the pictures on the packet.
Good start
'Breakfast gets the day's work done' is a good motto. Test it yourself: if you normally snatch a quick bowl of cereal or a slice of toast, try a poached or scrambled egg on two rounds of wholewheat toast plus a glass of milk (or hot cafe creme - see below). It is almost guaranteed you will have more energy right through to mid-afternoon and you won't be craving the quick, but short-lived, pick-up of a chocolate bar. The secret lies chiefly in having sufficient protein at breakfast.
Similarly, a good breakfast also sets children up for the day. After a good breakfast - and, importantly, one without sugar - children can be not only more energetic and ready for exercise, but also calmer and generally better behaved. However, if sugary 'children's' cereals are unsuitable, what makes a good breakfast? Here are a few ideas:
* Wholewheat toast with a poached or scrambled egg, sardines, or with cheese, perhaps lightly grilled (cooked cheese is harder to digest).
* An omelette, perhaps with chives, tomato, cheese or ham, and wholewheat toast (use organic 'spreadable' butter for spreading and cooking).
* An omelette filled with banana, nectarine, plum, blackberries or strawberries; plus toast.
* 'Eggy-bread' (bread fingers dipped in beaten egg and fried in butter).
* Pieces of kipper (grilled for seven minutes, skin-side down) with toast.
* A low-sugar cereal (such as crumbled Weetabix, Shredded Wheat, Puffed Wheat, or a mixture, with plenty of milk, but also something else such as toast or bread fingers with cheese, egg or ham.
* Home-made 'muesli': porridge oats mixed with crumbled wholewheat cereals, sultanas, chopped dried apricots (use unsulphured ones from a health shop) plus other dried fruits, and chopped fresh fruit. Prepare the mixture in advance, perhaps in bulk, and add the fresh fruit at the last moment. Eat with plenty of milk and plain, creamy yoghurt. Older children could add nuts and seeds.
* Porridge or Readybrek made with all milk; add a quarter teaspoon of honey, plus sultanas and/or chopped banana; at the last moment, try adding (unsweetened) evaporated milk for an extra creamy taste. If it's made the night before it will taste even better!
* Also provide a small glass of fruit juice. Give milk, perhaps as 'hot cafe creme' (milk heated with a few coffee granules) rather than tea, and preferably after eating.
* Be flexible: why not pizza, cheesy jacket potato or cold chicken if it's available and if that's what the child really wants? This is preferable to some sugary cereals!
If a child really yearns for a particular cereal packet, you could buy one as a special treat and 'dilute it' by mixing it with a low-sugar cereal. If the child adores the packet then keep it, and perhaps fill it with other cereals. Or children could make their own 'personal' cereal packet, covered in clingfilm to protect their art work, into which other cereals can be poured.
Whatever you do, children need your informed and professional judgement to offer health-building foods and to avoid health-damaging ones. Children cannot possibly be expected to know whether a fantastic picture on the packet means fantastic food inside. That's the adults' job.
Also, a calm breakfast time where you sit down together is a good start to any child's day. If this means getting up a little earlier and going to bed slightly earlier, that's another advantage!
Read the label
To work out the percentage of sugar in a cereal, find the nutrition label (usually on the side of the packet but sometimes underneath).
There will probably be two columns, one headed 'per 100 grams', and the other giving grams per serving or bowlful. You need to look down the first column where it says 'carbohydrates of which sugars'. If it says 40, then the cereal is 40 per cent sugar.
As for salt, the label will probably say 'sodium' which is two and a half times stronger than salt, (salt is a mixture of sodium and chlorine: sodium chloride). But sometimes labels can just say 'salt', making it more difficult to compare products.
Manufacturers have been asked to make labels easier to understand by using bar charts, for example - but have refused.
10% is 'a lot' of sugar!
Official recommendations for the general population say that a product that contains 10 per cent sugar has 'a lot', while 2 per cent is considered 'a little'. However, for 'those particularly at risk from dental caries...children, adolescents and the elderly' both figures should, if anything, both be put lower (MAFF, 1998, and the COMA report). NW There are more breakfast and shopping solutions in Mary Whiting's Dump the Junk to be published early next year. Mary Whiting is also the author of Managing Nursery Food available from Nursery World Books (9.99, tel: 01454 617370).