Breakfast cereals and muesli (loose mixture of rolled oats, wheat or rye flakes with dried fruits, nuts and seeds) have now become life-style products. The replacement of traditional Indian breakfast foods with ready-to-eat products can be looked upon as a status symbol or a way to lessen work in the kitchen.
You may also be the target of catchy adslogans such as ‘breakfast with chocolate taste’ or ‘iron shakthi.’ Or you may be a victim of the ‘buy-me-that’ syndrome where children force you to buy products for the free gifts attached to them, like tattoos.
Kellogg’s, an international brand, makes their product attractive with cartoon characters that appeal to children - Coco the monkey, Tony the tiger, and Toucan Sam the bird.
Are these cereals worth the money? Are they healthy breakfast options? Consumer International (CI) conducted a study on how healthy breakfast cereals really are, following an accusation that they are contributory causes of obesity, diabetes and hypertension, especially among children. The project involved 32 consumer organisations, including the Consumer Education and Research Centre (CERC), Ahmedabad, from countries in Asia, Europe, the Pacific, North and South Americas and Africa.
The international study focused on two globally available brands - Kellogg’s and Nestle - both of which have product variants in chocolate, honey, sugar and fruit flavours. Out of 13 variants (8 of Kellogg’s and 5 of Nestle) studied, all except Kellogg’s Rice Krispies were found to be high in sugar. Krispies, however, was found to be high in sodium content.
The findings of CREC's study were similar. This study covered 10 variants of three brands of breakfast cereals and muesli, which are widely consumed in India for their content or total sugar, fat, and sodium as well as for calories, carbohydrates, protein and iron.
The specifications laid down by the European Regulations on Health and Nutritional Claims (ERHNC) and the scales used by the Food Standards Agency in Britain for the establishment of ‘traffic light labelling’ of foods, were used as standards.
According to these standards the cereals were classified into high, medium and low, based on their sugar, salt and fat content. The test method used was on par with international standards suggested by the International Consumers Research and Testing (ICRT), London. The method was a combination of the procedure laid down by the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC), the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC).
(all measures per 100 gm)
* Fat:
Low = less than 3 gm (per 100 gm) Acceptable = between 2 and 20 gm H igh = above 20 gm
* Sugar:
Low = 5 gm Acceptable = 5-12.5 gm High = more than 12.5 gm
* Sodium:
Low = 0.12 gm Acceptable = 0.13 to 0.60 gm High = above 0.6 gm
The brands tested: Kellogg’s Cornflakes with Real Banana, Real Mango, Real Strawberry and Real Honey, Kellogg’s Chocos, Chocos Smacks, Kellogg’s Froot Loops, Kellogg’s Frosties, and one variant each of two brands of muesli - Bagrry’s SoHealthy muesli and Good Earth classic muesli. Altogether 46 samples were tested, all of which were found to be ‘High’ in sugar. Kellogg’s Frosties recorded the highest with 37.9 gm and Good Earth classic muesli 26.3 gm. But none of the brands had printed the sugar content in percentage or gm on the packs.
Sodium content in most brands was ‘acceptable,’ but five samples bordered ‘high.’ Though Bagrry’s SoHealthy muesli mentioned ‘nil sodium’ and Good Earth classic muesli did not mention the sodium content, both contained 0.2 gm each.
The fat content was ‘low’ except in three brands - Good Earth classic muesli (4.9), Bagrry’s SoHealthy muesli (4.8), and Kellogg’s Cornflakes Real Banana (3.3). The lowest fat content was found in Kellogg’s Cornflakes Real Honey and Real Mango (0.2).
Interestingly, all products had claimed either ‘No Cholesterol’, ‘Cholesterol Free’ or ‘Zero Cholesterol’. Such claims are misleading as cholesterol is a byproduct of fat. Vegetarian products may also contain cholesterol. Though all samples carried nutritional information on their boxes, most of them made some dubious claims. Contrary to Kellogg’s claims of contained 23.3 mg iron per 100 gm, four of its variants - Chocos smacks, Cornflakes Real Banana, Mango and Frosties - contained only 8.7 mg to 12.3 mg of iron per 100 mg.
None of the brands used the ‘trafficlight labelling method’ (red light for high, amber for medium and green for low), which enables the consumer to find out at a glance what is good for him. The CERC did no rating and ranking, as they used to do, because products that were high in calories, protein, carbohydrate and iron (which are good for health), were also high in sugar (bad for health).
The Indian breakfast, compared with breakfast cereals, is far superior. For instance, the per-100 mg calorie-value of breakfast cereals is between 372 and 394, whereas that of idli is 346, dosa 436, wholewheat bread and butter 658, and upma 293.
Beware of the ‘buy-me-that’ syndrome.
Parents should guide their children on food consumption. Schools should organise events and workshops for children on the subject with the active support of parents so that they carry this forward at home. The Advertising Standards Council of India and the Government of India should supervise advertisements addressed to children.
scariameledam@epmltd.com