Are there an nutrients in those sugary childrens cereal?

Probably not
But who cares, the lucky charms marshmallows are awesome

That type of overprocessed food is the reason that we have a burgeoning obesity problem among children. You can add vitamins and minerals to snake venom, and that doesn’t make it healthy.

Cream of Wheat and Oatmeal are really easy to make, and you can add a little honey and/or raisins.

Cheerios are just oats, if you don’t get the sweetened kind.

Some people don’t like Kashi, others love it.

But why serve your kids early death?

I believe there are some in my Cinnamon Toast Crunch :)

…But in general, no, not really

Not a lot. But there are some.
Cinnamon Toast Crunch has 25% daily value of Calcium, and 10% of vitamins A, C and D.

Though, they say there are 11 servings worth in a box. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten 11 days of breakfast out of one box of cereal

@Sarcasm I get like 5 servings…

Let’s see…I have three kinds of cereral in my kitchen. They all say one serving is ¾ cup, and also include nutrition facts if you pour ½ cup skim milk on it. Considering most people eat more than ¾ cup cereal with more than ½ cup milk, and not everyone uses skim milk (I buy 2%), the nutrition facts can be misleading.

That said, Cruch Berries has 12g sugar, 1g protein, and 25% DV of six vitamins and minerals (without milk). It has 100% DV of folic acid. No vitamin A, C, or calcium. 100 calories. No dietary fiber.

Honey Nut Cheerios has 110 calories, 9g sugar, and 10–50% DV of the listed vitamins and minerals, plus 2g protein. 2g fiber. (without milk)

Berry Berry Kix has 100 calories per serving, 8g sugar, and 10–25% DV of the listed vitamins and minerals, plus 1g protein and 1g fiber. (without milk) It’s also made with no artificial preservatives or flavors.

Too bad I don’t have any “grown up” cereal to compare it too. Usually when I buy breakfast cereal, I look at the sugar content. It if has more than 13 grams, I don’t buy it at all. My kids get to pick the cereal they like, but the rule is no marshmallows and no chocolate. That rule is hard for me because I looooooove Lucky Charms. And Cocoa Puffs. My kids don’t eat cereal for breakfast more than once or twice a week, but they do like to snack on it dry now and then.

I read somewhere once that the vitamins and minerals added to cereral are usually in the form of a powder, which comes off in the milk. This is why you should always slurp the milk out of the bowl when you’re done with the cereal. :)

You could check the nutrition facts on the side of the box.

@pdworkin

There’s a such thing as controlling intake of food like that. Eating it once isn’t going to kill you. I had cereals like Lucky Charms sometimes when I was a kid and I’m skinny as fuck.

My younger brothers (twins) grew up eating sweetened cereal every single day (sometimes more than once a day). They are the picture of health: lean, trim and muscular. I, on the other hand, was only an occasional cereal eater and don’t look nearly as good as my brothers do.

There’s gotta be something good in those sweetened cereals.

There are nonogenarians who smoke. So what?

@pdworkin

What I mean is that parents who let their kids eat that cereal every now and then are not “sentencing them to death”. That’s ridiculous.

That’s true. My point was more that Big Agriculture is deliberately pushing fats, sugars and salts on all of us, and that as a general rule there are healthier things to eat.

Earlier in the last Century, and going back many, many years, Americans ate much differently, (locally, seasonally, unprocessed foods, no antibiotics, grass-fed unpenned cattle, etc.) and did not have the well-documented, undeniable obesity and other nutritional health problems that we, as a nation, have today.

There are SO MANY aspects of life that have changed in 50 years.
Yes, kid cereal is unhealthy, but it isn’t the one and only direct link to obesity, diabetes and young deaths.

I agree. If you look at my OP it says “that type of overprocessed food”. it does not merely address cereals.

@pdworkin

One thing I want to know is how come countries like Japan and South Korea, which are completely modernized and full of packaged food and all that, are two of the skinniest countries in the world?

Because they eat largely rice, and use meat and fish as a flavoring condiment.

I’m going to let this go because I don’t wish to be argumentative. I don’t really disagree with the main points that you guys are making, but I think there is a much larger issue here. I hope I haven’t been disagreeable.

I ate chicken hearts on a stick in Brazil for breakfast. They were delicious and full of protein.

Ok well that wasn’t cereal. I enjoy any oat or granola cereal that has dates and almonds in it.

I think it’s a law that kid’s cereals have to be fortified with vitamins & minerals. I’m not certain of that, but I’m sure I learned that somewhere along the way.

I’m surprised that nobody has already written something I heard years ago about there being more nutrients in the package than in the cereal itself. I guess I’m cynical enough to believe that. Adding some fruit, like as sliced banana or similar, might be a good compromise?

Sugar is a nutrient too. What you probably mean is low-glycemic carbs plus protein plus unsaturated fats in nuts plus vitamins plus fibers plus minerals and other trace elements.

Typically high quality cereal is low in sugar. They might be a little more expensive.