Eek of the Week: Food Spin Machine: Sugar in Cereal

Breaking news: the three people left on the planet who didn’t know kid’s sweetened cereals are almost as much sugar as grain have now been clued in, thanks to a study just published by Consumer Reports.

But the spin that makes MY head spin is this, from a Kellogg’s spokeswoman quoted by Reuters:

“To put Consumer Reports’ information in perspective, yogurt contains more sugar and sodium than a serving of Honey Smacks cereal (25 grams of sugar vs. 15 grams of sugar in Honey Smacks).”

Hello? As the Reuters report did not go on to point out, a serving of plain whole milk yogurt contains 12 (Brown Cow) or 13 ( Stoneyfield) grams of sugar, and if that sounds similar to Honey Smacks it’s only because comparing servings is another great way to lie. As described on their respective labels, a “serving” of yogurt is 8 ounces; a “serving” of Honey Smacks is 27 grams, just a hair under 1 ounce.

That gives yogurt 26 grams of sugar per pound, honey smacks 240 grams of sugar per pound, and the lady from Kellogg’s a nose that makes Pinocchio’s look petite.

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2 Comments »

  • ruralway Said,

    There are times when my local natural foods store in combination with my farmers market and my home garden can’t provide all that we think we need and I venture into the ‘supermarket’. Our local one isn’t too bad. They are almost progressive in their offerings. I am the shopper though, who reads every label and will reject those items I deem unworthy due to sugar/trans fat or faux ingredients. It is challenging and I spend way too much time there selecting and rejecting. Now that I am cooking for the dogs (don’t ask), choosing meat is a new time-taker as we are vegetarians and I’ve forgotten how to shop for meat. And I am also one of those shoppers who will sneakily glance at other carts as they go by to see what others buy. Oy. Sometimes I just want to slap them in the head. I want to pull out my soap box, climb up and speak those hallowed words from Mr. Pollan-Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.
    But just a few weeks ago as I was placing organic milk in my cart, a fellow shopper stopped me and thanked me for buying that brand of milk and supporting organic dairies-turns out her family belongs to the coop that produced the milk. I had a big smile on my face as we parted, and I thought, there is always hope.

  • leslie Said,

    Hope indeed RW. Thanks for taking the opportunity to buy milk from a local dairy. Local meat would be great too, if you can find it. Dairy products and meat are the two most important foods to buy local if you want to preserve open space and keep farmland farming.

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