Whats in your breakfast cereal? C4 Dispatches 26 Oct

Hezzawithkids

Did anyone watch this last night?

Haven't seen it myself yet (will watch on OD later) but OH did and immediately started rummaging around the kitchen checking the ingredients lists on our boxes of cereal. Then he declared that we should only buy own label cereals from now on. I caught one bit that said in effect that pro-biotic drinks are a waste of time, as is the Special K diet.

Any comments/reactions?

freddie_2

Didnt see the prog but when I buy rice krispies I only buy the value ones. Ok they dont taste as great but the sugar content is sooo much lower than kelloggs ones they are better for my 3 year old.
Although I never buy chocolate type cereals anyway, only weetabix or musili or cornflakes.
I done my a level home economics coursework on breakfast cereals and out of loads shredded wheat was the best. I then made recipies with it, including shreaded wheat with cheese melted on top!

lilian1977

I can't believe the sugar content of most cereals, it's pretty disgusting. I have either porridge or fruit with oats and yoghurt. Can't get the OH to stop eating honey nut cornflakes though!

paulwf

Guardian journalist Felicity Lawrence has written a very good book called Eat Your Heart Out which has a chapter on the breakfast cereal industry. She also wrote Not On The Label, both books are essential reading if you care about what you eat IMHO. She also goes into the Yakult/Actimel claims in detail.

I know the program was trying to use the personal angle to get the point across but I found some of the questions to be leading questions, and by using sample sizes as low as 2 it didn't seem to be rigorous research. Still, the conclusions were similar to the ones Lawrence mentions (she gives much more to back them up). Some of the people in the program also seemed to be dumbing down...I'm not sure, I'm a food geek and pay a lot of attention to nutrition so not your average food shopper but I find it hard that everyone appeared to not be able to read a label, these types of programs exposing the food industry come up quite regularly now after all.

The MSE angle? To cut a long story short the food industry takes the cheapest grains...usually those with the greatest agricultural subsidies...and processes them to turn them into a high value item. The huge markup allows for a large marketing budget to make people buy them. In many ways it is similar to the soft drinks industry. As Dispatches touched upon traditional breakfasts such as porridge (or toast that it didn't mention) can be healthier for a fraction of the cost.

Doom_and_Gloom

It really didn't suprise me about the pakaged cereals. It's why I rarely eat anything like that. Porridge with mix dried fruit is just as sweetening than using sugar in it, much better for you and even contributes to part of your 5 a day. Personally I think breakfast should be at least 2 different kinds of fruit/veg such as porridge with mixed dried fruit and a glass of fruit or vegetable juice. It's easier to eat healthily throughout the day than to try and cram it all into a meal or two.

moonrakerz

Sugar is cheap, that is why everything is full of the the damn' stuff. I was looking at Lidl's own brand Salad Cream recently - biggest ingredient ? SUGAR - in salad cream !!!!

Coopdivi

But breakfast cereals have always had loads of sugar in them.

I know many years ago that people used to say there was more goodness in the cardboard box than there was in the contents.

LizzieS_2

I got the honey ? v cocoa pops wrong - I did think cocoa pops would be the worst (yes mine love them).

Mine don't like the supermarket own brands - now I know why (salt/sugar), think I will force toast and eggs instead.

moonrakerz

Coopdivi wrote: »

But breakfast cereals have always had loads of sugar in them.

Puffed Wheat, Shredded Wheat, Weetabix, Porridge, Oat flakes ???

The funny thing is that those without added sugar are the "old fashioned" ones that have been around the longest.

calia12

Forgot to watch the show will do though.
In our house i eat weetabix, tried oatabix and it was horrible, hubby eats crunchy nut cornflakes, the kids 16 and 13 eat weetos they have done for years.
They went through the fad of trying loads of cereals, i remember at one time we had 10 boxes of cereal. Those variety packs of 10 were very good, but were expensive when the kids were little and only bought as a treat.When they are really cheap we still buy lots of them as the kids eat them like a bag of crisps

[Deleted User]

I buy Tescos value porridge oats.The price varies with the time of year between 38p-58p a kilo I cook three quarters of a mug of oats into one and a half mugs of water keep stirring for a few minutes until thickened up, pour into dish ,sprinkle with a dash of salt and pour on some semi skimmed milk and hey presto a filling breakfast in five minutes that will keep you going until until lunchtime.Now and again I will buy tesco's value brand bran flakes at 78p for a huge box.healthy,cheap and very little sugar in them.I have not got a sweet tooth and the thought of eating sugary things at breakfast would make me feel a bit queasy