"Healthy" Cereal With High Sugar Content

image by kaibara87 on Flickr

Here is a current bugaboo that is bedeviling me as I write this, my soggy plastic cup of sugary cereal staring at me from my desk.

I didn't have much time to get into work today, so I decided to buy my breakfast at a little bodega-type place. Truly healthy options seemed slim, but one item was promising: Kellogg's "Smart Start Antioxidants" (yes, that is the real title) cereal, packaged in a handy, single-serving size.

This cereal seemed to have it all: "Original Antioxidants" in big letters, STRONG HEART posted under that (with a helpful graphic of a heart). On the side of the container was a green "call out" that boasted "Good Source of FIBER."

"MAN!," I thought, "this is the perfect solution to my breakfast dilemma. Just pour in some skim milk and voila!

Except that when I actually took the cereal back to my office and prepared it, I noticed that it had 22 grams of sugar. Indeed, after whole grain wheat and rice, what "Smart Start Antioxidants" contained the most of was sugar.

THE WHOLE POINT OF BUYING A CEREAL WITH PACKAGING THAT PURPORTS TO BE HEALTHY IS TO NOT EAT LARGE AMOUNTS OF SUGAR!

I'm pretty much pre-diabetic, so I can't eat stuff with a lot of sugar in it. Like, I really really can't. Also, I have to cut my sugar content because I have heart issues, which sugar consumption makes worse -- not very "STRONG HEART."

Chewing this cereal -- which appeared to have that nice, beige, "healthy clusters of grain-stuff" look to it -- I could strongly taste the sweeteners. Threw half of it out.

What is this obsession with cereals and sugar? Maybe in caveman days we needed a lot of sugar to store for energy or something, as we made our way just before sun-up to jockey amongst the other animals for our daily nourishment. But there is no need to eat food with that much sugar that early in the morning. I know it was really cool and comforting to eat your Lucky Charms and Frosted Flakes back in the day, but guess what -- that's the mentality that's making childhood obesity and diabetes soar.

My usual go-to for breakfast is old-fashioned oats with a touch of skim milk, egg whites, and maybe a piece of fruit. That fruit = my sugar for the morning.  Know how much sugar those oats have? 1 gram.

If you are going to boldly advertise the health benefits of your food product -- and certainly, all the vitamins and such touted in "Smart Start Antioxidants" must be of some good use (I'm hoping) -- for God's sake find some way to reduce the sugar. Not just for people like me who have orders from her doctor to avoid sugar -- but just for everyone else too.