Thursday 25th October - Breakfast of Champions ????

This topic has been mulling around on my desk for about three months and has been the conversation with many different people. Teachers, students, Mothers, Fathers, Marketers, Nutritionists, Dieticians, Fitness Professionals and there is always a confusion of myth-information so finally I decided to respond.

It's true.
Contrary to common belief I don't always act straight away - I know you are shocked :-)

But, to support this my book should be an insight into that intention. Over the last four months the content has changed (as I have learnt more through dialogue with others) and been revised accordingly with the project structure including the marketing strategy needing to evolve to suit the various changes and issues that have happened.

Then there was Universe telling me to slow down and make it better (read that as not one but two computer hard drive crashes). Yeah who would have thought it.

Now back to the issue of breakfast cereals and are they really the health benefit we think they are.

I grew up in a different time from the youth of today. We had less access to the abundance of food choices (fast or otherwise) and subsequent mass market appeal of food in our time poor society. This influences our choices definitely. Add to this the confusion that "today's parents" are feeling about health, dieting, weight issues and you have an obesity crisis looming.

I think that it has arrived.

This breakfast cereal issue has been a huge problem for me for so many years with many thousands of clients as the more I learn the more I realize that in principle that cereals are a healthy choice. However, it is how that has been manipulated into being a poor nutritional choice through marketing that brings both confusion and problems.

So what are the issues with cereal ?
First off they used to be about starting the day by "breaking the fast". Good premise. But look at what the Marketers have done with today's TV adverts and you could not be blamed for thinking that you can become a sports star, lose weight, get healthy, increase bowel movement (they say that is digestive health but I tell it like it is) all by consuming a bowl of "energy loaded, wholegrain added, protein enriched, improved digestion, fibre filled nutrients".
Why would you eat anything else ? (*sarcasm)

Then there are the larger issues of poorly understood nutritional content and reading those labels that are based upon the product meeting suggested nutritional guidelines verse one of the real issues of the amount of actual cereal consumed or recommended serving size.

Individuals consume way too much and add too much sugar (for taste ?????) and then Mum in her infinite goodwill (trying to meet her child's daily intake of fruit) suggests adding some fruit on top which makes for not only a calorie laden experience but a definite blood sugar crash about 10am.

I have seen this first hand when I go to schools or talk to the teachers. They tell of two types of children, the first who do have breakfast and are getting "sugar crashes" by 10am. Then there are the others who get no nutritional input to start their day from having no food in the morning so now we have the same outcome of "poor attention through having way too much or way too little food.

Think of it this way, what do you feel like doing when you eat too much ?
It is the common mistake that everyone makes on Christmas Day. We eat a lot then have to have a "nanna nap" to recover while our body goes into massive storage mode to ease the "bloated feeling".

I want to create some reasonable thought process for this issue and hope that before all the "soapbox experts" come to get me that we can agree that dialogue is good.

If the recommended serving size for a food is 30-45g then that is all that is needed. Forget how little it appears to be and change your thought process to be what am I going to do to "burn off this energy". If you are going to sit in front of your computer / or sit still in the classroom, then don't CARBO LOAD.

If you want a compounding reason for how this could impact on the childhood obesity issues then look no further than what is NOT described in the cereal nutritional panel. By that I mean where is the warning that too much of this sugar laden product may not be productive for the child's learning ability.

If the suggested serving size is only 30g which is a very small amount, why have they now started to increase that to 45g which is still very small and is providing even more confusion for consumers. I get asked why they have done this and haven't found the answeer so if you know then tell me and I will share it.

Put that amount in a bowl and EVERYONE says "hey I need more than that". But no you don't. Reality is that they CARBO LOAD up with large bowls of cereal to use a term normally reserved for athletes. Oh yeah that is why they select Sporting Heroes to market their wares and peddle their illicit products to the young and aspiring.

Who normally has to pick the cereals .... Mothers who have asked their children what they want. Mothers don't want to have to throw that food away as it is waste of good food and hard earned money so it becomes a game of compromise.

One of my friends has a great method. She tells her children they can pick whatever they want, but it can't have more than 5g sugar per serve. Try that and see what choices are left. It works because the children then are not only learning that we don't need excess sugar but it is their choice for breakfast.

Here is another issue that I have.
One major multi-national cereal company has evolved one of their staple cereals into being "wholegrains". Really it's all marketing spin. Not the value of wholegrains but the addition of this NEW RESEARCH for cereal companies. Cereals were wholegrains before "processing" took away that valuable husk and pounded it into nutritional waste. Now they are re-adding it and calling it evolution. Everyone is talking about Wholegrains and it is proving popular with consumers so let's add it.

We won't remove the old product just create and add another option. Like we are cornering the market. Really who would think that ? If they were serious, they would remove the lesser product from their range.

So I went to their website and checked out the nutritional profiles of the "lesser product and the new updated version". What I found was quite interesting.

Old product supplies no wholegrains but has 50% of your daily folate requirements.
New product supplies wholegrains but only has 25% of your daily folate requirements.

Old product supplies 118 cals per 30g serve.
New product supplies 157 cals per 30g serve.

Old product supplies 25g of carbohydrate with 2.4g coming from sugar.
New product supplies 31g of carbohydrate with 5.4g coming from sugar.

This is of course a snapshot but it's not a great one for the updated "NEW healthier version". So you lose out on Folate which is very important source for anyone who is getting pregnant as it has reduced markedly the incidence of Neural tube defects which can result in malformations of the spine (spina bifida), skull, and brain (anencephaly).

What is Folate ?
Folate helps produce and maintain new cells. This is especially important during periods of rapid cell division and growth such as infancy and pregnancy. Folate is needed to make DNA and RNA, the building blocks of cells. It also helps prevent changes to DNA that may lead to cancer. Both adults and children need folate to make normal red blood cells and prevent anemia. Folate is also essential for the metabolism of homocysteine, and helps maintain normal levels of this amino acid.

Wow that seems like a great thing for us to get more of not get less of !!!

I want you to start to understand that the human machine is an ecological and biological society that YOU are the master of. You can cause it harm either through ignorance or through wilful intent.

It may be your life but it's not going to last long if you don't begin to realize that your actions will definitely result in an internal global catastrophe if you don't start to care.

**Tony steps down off his soapbox. Screen fades to black !!