General Mills Reduces Sugar in Children's Cereals

The Giveaway is CLOSED!  Congrats to Shelly and Grace - please check your email and respond! Thanks for participating.

We've all heard many times that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, especially for young children, but mornings trying to get the family organized and together and out the door on time can be a nightmare, and often that breakfast happens on the run.  A quick pass through the fast food drive-through can easily cost nearly 600 calories for a breakfast sandwich alone or a pancake and sausage breakfast, and that's not counting a drink.  And that 20-ounce non-fat caramel cappuccino you thought would be a good option to pull you through to that mid-morning yogurt, just cost you about the same amount of calories as a glazed doughnut - yikes!

Thank goodness in this hurry up world there are packaged cereals to help us get both our children, and often us fed and out of the door quickly.  The problem? Cereals have been notoriously high in sugar.  Recently, General Mills announced a commitment to further reduce sugar in cereals advertised to kids under 12 to single digit grams of sugar per serving. The company has already been reducing sugar in cereals while increasing key nutrients, such as calcium and vitamin D, and providing whole grain.

Did you know that ready-to-eat cereal eaters also tend to consume less fat, less cholesterol and more fiber than non-cereal eaters? Cereals also deliver important vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients, making cereal a top source of key nutrients in children´s diets.

Other cereal benefits:

✓ Ready-to-eat cereals, including presweetened cereals, account for only 5% of sugar in children´s diets.

✓ Ready-to-eat cereal is the No. 1 source of whole grains in a child´s diet today.

✓ More frequent cereal eaters tend to have healthier body weights and lower Body Mass Index measures.

Studies also demonstrate the benefits of eating breakfast. A 1998 study showed that children who eat breakfast tend to perform better at school. Compared to children who skip breakfast, children who eat breakfast score higher on tests, are less likely to miss class or be tardy, have fewer reported discipline problems, and make fewer trips to the office.

For more information about kids and cereals, please visit Cereal Health and Wellness.

Giveaway is CLOSED!  Good luck!!

I have 2 VIP coupons available to giveaway to 2 lucky readers. Each coupon is good for any one FREE General Mills cereal, up to $6.00 in value! (does not apply to multipacks)

Your comment below is your entry, but you must leave a contact email in your comment to qualify! Simple. Easy. Giveaway closes at noon on Sunday, January 10, 2009 and 2 winners will be chosen at random from the list of comments.


Open to Everybody:


Don't want to wait? Right now if you visit here you will find a $1 off coupon for one of four General Mills cereals so that you can help your family come together at the breakfast table every morning and feel better knowing that the cereal you are eating is a good option.

Disclosure:  General Mills through MyBlogSpark provided me with this information as well as free cereal coupons to evaluate their cereals hoping that I might share my opinions about the importance of breakfast with my readers.