A new study offers good news for parents who sometimes feel bad denying their kids sugary cereals.
Researchers had found that kids are more likely to eat a healthier breakfast when offered a low-sugar cereal, and they'll report they enjoyed it just as much.
The study involved 91 school-aged kids at New England summer camps. About half were given sugary cereals, such as Froot Loops, Cocoa Pebbles or Frosted Flakes. The others got low-sugar cereals, like Cheerios, Rice Krispies or Corn Flakes. Both groups could help themselves to milk, fruit, juice and sugar packets.
Both groups drank roughly the same amount of milk and orange juice, as well as took in about the same total calories.
But even though the kids given low-sugar cereals added more sugar to their cereal, they still ate less sugar than those eating the sweetened cereals. In fact, the sugary cereal group kids wound up eating almost twice as much refined sugar.
The low-sugar cereal group also tended to eat more fruit at the meal too. About 54 per cent of kids given the low-sugar cereals added fruit to their bowls, compared to just eight per cent of those eating sugary cereal.
When the authors asked the kids how much they liked the different brands of cereals, kids rated the sugary cereals higher. But when asked to rate their breakfast as whole, both groups rated their meals equally highly.
"Children will consume low-sugar cereals when offered, and they provide a superior breakfast option," Jennifer Harris at Yale University and her colleagues write in the journal Pediatrics.
"This result suggests that a parent who is concerned that a child will not eat enough of a low-sugar cereal in the morning could provide a small amount of table sugar as well as fresh fruit for the child to add to the cereal," they write.
"This strategy would be preferable to purchasing a pre-sweetened high-sugar cereal that typically contains 2.5 or three teaspoons of sugar per serving."
According to Statistics Canada, the average Canadian eats about 23 teaspoons (92 grams) of added sugar each day from a combination of packaged and prepared foods. Yet Canada's Dietary Reference Intakes suggest we consume no more than 12 teaspoons (48 grams) of added sugar in a 2,200 calorie diet.
