Mintball wrote:On the general subject – some breakfast cereals, specifically marketed at children, have MORE than 30% sugar? WTF? Cereals are shîte anyway, but they are, generally speaking, marketed as and considered to be a healthy breakfast. I knew it was difficult to find a cereal without added sugar and salt – there are very rare exceptions – but such figures are absolutely crazy. I also know – because I bother to examine ingredients when buying anything that has them – that ingredients are listed in order of amount in the finished item. But more than 30% of a product – and one that's aimed at children? That's a f**king joke. Even I wouldn't have guessed there was such vast amounts in any cereal. Lets name a specific brand - Frosties. Try eating a supermarkets own brand of cornflakes and because they are cut right down to a specific price band you'll find a fairly bland product that goes soggy quickly in milk and has all the consistency of eating thin cardboard. Now pour yourself a bowl of Frosties, I can barely bring myself to eat them on the rare occasions that I do, they taste so badly of saccharin that that is all you taste, they may not go soggy so quickly but thats because they have an emulsion of an artificial sweetener on them which leaves an aftertaste that lasts for hours. I was speaking to a client of mine at work just yesterday and afterwards wondered what it was they did for a living, they manufacture wheat biscuits, granola and muesli which is sold through various supermarket own brands, seems to be quite a "whole" product so I may have to give them a try.

Mintball wrote:On the general subject – some breakfast cereals, specifically marketed at children, have MORE than 30% sugar? WTF? Cereals are shîte anyway, but they are, generally speaking, marketed as and considered to be a healthy breakfast. I knew it was difficult to find a cereal without added sugar and salt – there are very rare exceptions – but such figures are absolutely crazy. I also know – because I bother to examine ingredients when buying anything that has them – that ingredients are listed in order of amount in the finished item. But more than 30% of a product – and one that's aimed at children? That's a f**king joke. Even I wouldn't have guessed there was such vast amounts in any cereal. Lets name a specific brand - Frosties. Try eating a supermarkets own brand of cornflakes and because they are cut right down to a specific price band you'll find a fairly bland product that goes soggy quickly in milk and has all the consistency of eating thin cardboard. Now pour yourself a bowl of Frosties, I can barely bring myself to eat them on the rare occasions that I do, they taste so badly of saccharin that that is all you taste, they may not go soggy so quickly but thats because they have an emulsion of an artificial sweetener on them which leaves an aftertaste that lasts for hours. I was speaking to a client of mine at work just yesterday and afterwards wondered what it was they did for a living, they manufacture wheat biscuits, granola and muesli which is sold through various supermarket own brands, seems to be quite a "whole" product so I may have to give them a try.

My mother used to give us Cornflakes or Rice Crispies for breakfast. That, a piece of toast and a glass of milk. So what would be considered a 'sensible' breakfast, certainly back in the '60s and '70s. But she'd never have Frosties or the Crispies with added sugar – precisely because of the sugar. But I doubt she really considered the sugar that was in the ordinary version anyway.

I think cereals are dire. These days, I have a couple of soft-boiled eggs or an omelette; sometimes a kipper. Far better – tastewise too.

But I do buy cereals for tb – and it's a mare trying to find ones that do not have sugar (and salt) in them. Even many of the muselis and similar cereals, which really are marketed as healthy, have loads of sugar.

The marketing is extraordinary: look at yogurts that are marketed as 'low fat' – in other words, 'look, this is healthy', yet there'll be sugar in that too. And high fructose corn syrup is in so much, in items that people are not likely to expect – as the glaze on a pizza base, for instance. Well who looks at a pizza and expects masses of sugar in it? So you've got this vast amount of sugar that nobody expects, even when they're making an effort to eat reasonably healthily.

I'd avoid most 'granola' products if I were you, being a North American thing it tends to be absolutely full of sugar. Awful stuff. Eating in the USA is a fricking nightmare if you want to avoid sugar, and that is continuing to spread over here.

In the days when I worked 9-5 I always had a bowl of muesli to start the day - oats, nuts, seeds, big juicy chunks of dried fruit, and I'd normally mix some of the wife's bran flakes in there and perhaps some other fruit on top - a banana, apple, strawberries, blueberries, maybe even a dose of Greek yoghurt. Whatever. Lovely.

But the problem was in amongst the couple of dozen 'healthy' muesli products, only one or two had zero sugar - almost every one had had sugar chucked in, often the second or third highest content ingredient. I think Jordan's Natural Muesli was my preferred option.

Why parents think starting your kids off on a massive sugar rush (and subsequent comedown) is a good idea, I'll never know.

Same as Mintball, I tend to go for eggs these days - poached is my preference.

I have cornflakes. Failing that, Weetabix/fruit crunch/ crunchy nut cornflakes / shredded wheat/ Cheerios / Dorset cereal. Sometimes, at weekends, I have a cooked breakfast too.

Oh yes, Crunchy Nut Cornflakes - definitely a guilty pleasure, but not something anyone should eat every day. We only ever had it at Xmas as kids. Otherwise it was Shredded Wheat, Weetabix or Corn Flakes. Or toast.

Two of which contain sugar.

Cornflakes:

Maize, Sugar, Barley Malt Flavouring, Salt, Glucose Fructose Syrup, Niacin, Iron, Vitamin B6, Riboflavin (B2), Thiamin (B1), Folic Acid, Vitamin B12.

Shredded Wheat:

British Whole Grain Wheat (100%)

Weetabix:

Wholegrain Wheat (95%), Malted Barley Extract, Sugar, Salt, Niacin, Iron, Thiamin (B1), Riboflavin (B2), Folic Acid.

As a comparison:

Frosties:

Maize, Sugar, Malt Flavouring, Salt, Calcium Carbonate, Glucose-Fructose Syrup, Niacin, Iron, Vitamin B6, Riboflavin (B2), Thiamin (B1), Folic Acid, Vitamin B12.

Neither Kellogg's product gives an indication of the amount of sugar as a percentage of the product. And indeed, both not only contain sugar, but also glucose fructose syrup – and that's the biggest demon of the lot. With the Weetabix, the maximum it could be would be under 5%, you can work that out.

Oh I know, but they're still some of the better options.

(sugar content per 40g serving):
Kellogg's Coco Pops - 14.8g
Kellogg's Crunchy Nut Cornflakes - 13.6g
Kellogg's Coco Rocks - 12.8g
Weetabix Minis Chocolate Crisp - 11.3g
Nestle Cheerios - 8.6g
Kellogg's Special K - 6.8g
Nestle Shreddies - 6.2g
Kellogg's Rice Krispies - 4g
Kellogg's Cornflakes - 3.2g

In mentioning Special K, you've perfectly illustrated how so many foods that are specifically marketed as 'healthy' – even as aids to weight loss – are anything but.

It's the same with yogurts that are specifically marketed as 'low fat' – yet contain sugar.

Yet they get away with telling such lies and people get blamed because they believe that that bowl of Special K, say, is a sensible, healthy option.

As I said, it's a kipper for me these days, or eggs for breakfast. And they do leave you feeling sated until lunch, even though we have, in effect, been educated to imagine otherwise.

Just looking again at those figures – do you know if they include the glucose fructose syrup or is it just the 'sugar sugar'?

Not to excuse products that are really high in sugar but the whole point of break fast is to give the body a boost to start they day, to break the overnight fast. The small amounts of sugar in things like weetabix and cornflakes (and don't forget the sugars in milk in the form of lactose) would not be an issue if we had an active day, what many of us do is eat go to work and have a largely sedimentary job.

Try (if you haven't already) Jordans Natural Muesli. The only sugars it contains are those naturally occurring in the sultanas, and it has no added salt.