What’s a busy mom to do? Some days getting the kids ready and out the door to school can be a whirlwind of activity. I am so not a morning person, therefore getting up at the crack of dawn on a school day to cook a full course meal is not happening! My boys love the quick, and the easy, so cereal very often fills the bill. If you saw my pantry you may be shocked to see no less than 25 boxes of cereal in it at any given time!
Now many of us probably struggle with that fine line between healthy breakfast and convenience. Some studies have shown that kids do benefit from eating breakfast, performing better in school, so we know they need to eat something! Cereals can be a quick way to get them to eat something before heading out the door. Add some fruit on top or on the side and that is even better! Here is a Cereal & Health guide provided by General Mills.
General Mills has recently committed to lower the amount of sugar in cereal advertised to children under 12 to single digit grams per serving. In addition they are increasing key nutrients like Vitamin D and calcium, along with providing whole grains.
Some other cereal benefits:
- Ready-to-eat cereals, including presweetened cereals, account for only 5% of sugar in children´s diets.
- These cereals are often the #1 source of whole grains in a child’s diet.
- More frequent cereal eaters tend to have a healthier body weight and lower BMI measurements.
Recently I went on a quest to find some of the new lower sugar cereals to have my boys and I do a taste test. We were provided some free coupons* from General Mills and MyBlogSpark in order to try some products. In my area we did not find too many with the single digit grams of sugar, so I think either my store is still selling out of current inventory or the products have not rolled out everywhere yet.
One product we did try that has only 8g of sugar per serving was Berry Berry Kix, part of the Big G family of cereals. Now my boys have never eaten Kix cereals before, so they could not compare before and after taste, but I do recall having Kix myself long, long ago. For me the taste was less sweet than I expected, but was satisfying. Actually I preferred it to the taste of some of the other children’ s cereals I have tried. Of course I am not the target audience, but I suppose if Mom thinks it is not too sweet then it may pass muster and make it to the shopping list. Bubba was the first to try it, and he really enjoyed it, no mention of it not being sweet enough! Score! AJ is not a fan of corn cereal, so he did not really have strong opinion, it was just okay, no mention of not being sweet enough, but he probably will not eat it again. He likes some of the other cereals better.
The other cereals we tried were still in the double digit grams of sugar range…Lucky Charms Swirled (11g), Cinnamon Toast Crunch( 10g) and the new Wheaties Fuel(14g). All of them were big hits for Bubba, he especially likes Lucky Charms and the new Wheaties Fuel. AJ’s top pick was Cinnamon Toast crunch…although he loved the cool new packaging on the Wheaties Fuel boxes. I thought the Wheaties Fuel tasted great, with a nice solid cinnamon flavor that was not overshadowed at all by a sugary taste. Cinnamon Toast Crunch was less satisfying for me, both in taste and texture. I would choose the new Wheaties Fuel if I were looking for a cinnamon flavor. Younger children are probably not the target audience for this cereal, though.
I did noticed on the shelves that Honey Nut Cheerios had 9g sugar, so even though they are not as heavily marketed to children, they may be another alternative. We will be looking to see if the lower sugar versions of some more General Mills children’s cereals arrive soon in our stores.
If you want to try some of the General Mills cereals here you will find a coupon for $1 off one of four children’s cereals: Trix, Cocoa Puffs, Lucky Charms or Cinnamon Toast crunch.
So is cereal a hit in your house? What kinds do you like?
Do you struggle with the sugar issue? Have you noticed any of the new General Mills cereals in store near you?
*Disclaimer: General Mills via MyBlogSpark provided us with coupons good for free products in order to test some of their Children’s Cereals, and asked if we would pass along our thoughts on the products.
