The hidden truth... I watched (loose description of my tv viewing last night) the Channel 4 programme about the amount of sugar and salt in cereals and my flabber was well and truly ghasted..
They got a group of adults to place well known brands of breakfast cereals on a grid which went from low salt, low sugar to high salt, high sugar and every variety inbetween. Needless to say, two well known brands of corn flakes and rice crispies were placed in the low salt low sugar range and actually fell into one of the highest brackets. Now I love my cornflakes, and while I don't tend to now buy the premium well known brands (preferring the supermarket own) I was horrified to think that these were adding sugar and salt to my diet that I hadn't considered.
I don't add extra sugar to my cereals, finding them palatable enough, but even so I might have to reconsider what breakfast cereal to buy, and just to confuse you more, the little nutrition boxes on the sides of the cereal boxes can be really confusing. I prefer the traffic light system that Sainsbug uses on the majority of goods as that is really helpful.
One experiment they did do with a family was to remove all the high sugar cereals from one family with children, and replace it with porridge, fresh fruit and eggs.. in a week they went down from having 300g of sugar from breakfast alone to just 30g under the new diet.
Going back to have another look in my cupboard tonight... guess my shopping list in future is going to be up for discussion..
4 comments:
I don't eat a lot of cereal, but my absolute favorite is store-brand version of Frosted Mini Wheats. I KNOW they're loaded with sugar , but I figure as long as I only eat them occasionally it will be ok.
I read in this mornings papers (on-line) that this salt thingie is a bit of a con. Too much salt may be bad for certain groups of people but for normal healthy adults, the body will rid itself of excess salt and will also make you feel as if you do not want any more salty items. It knows...enough is enough.
You also have to watch out for these labels.....some list Sodium and some list salt. Many people (present company excluded) do not know the difference.
I still can't believe people don't read the labels! Even weetabix has sugar in...
There were no shocks for me in the programme but I was very pleased to see it tackled as a subject, the stuff put in food (especially children's is criminal). That was a great post, really enjoyed it - I love a good rant!
It has become very confusing.
How much salt and sugar should we have?
The body needs both to live.
We have cut our salt nd sugar right down, but I don't feel any better for it!!!
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