Pediatric Professor Suggests That Maybe Sugary Cereal Isn't So Bad! Huh? Oh Goodness, Parents, Don't Get Deceived!

Note from Connie: SUGAR SHOCK! Blog contributor Jennifer Moore was utterly astounded -- as I was -- upon hearing these remarks from a respected peditatric physician and professor. Since I'm in the middle of a major project (moving), I'm letting Jennifer expound on this.

Suary cereal isn't so bad for your kids, claims Keith-Thomas Ayoob, Ed.D., an associate clinical professor of pediatrics and Director of Nutritional Services at the Children's Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, in a mind-boggling opinion piece on the ABC News website.

Why? Because cereal is a "vehicle food," meaning it's something kids often eat with other things their bodies need, like milk and fruit. Dr. Ayoob also notes that cereals are also fortified with essential vitamins and minerals in greater amounts than you find in nature.

"Mother Nature doesn't usually put precisely 'a third of 10 essential vitamins and minerals into a single serving of a food," he says.

True, but Mother Nature doesn't put a bunch of fake preservatives and high fructose corn syrup into a single serving of food, either. (Click here and here to see what I mean.)

Besides, pediatricians routinely advise parents to give their kids a multivitamin every day -- like mine did, because of my 4-year-old's penchant for pickiness -- and these multivitamins often have 100% of a kid's recommended daily allowance of several important nutrients. So the idea that kids need to get a chunk of their vitamins and minerals from sugary cereal just doesn't hold water. Surely Dr. Ayoob must know this. 

Dr. Ayoob goes on to say that even the sweetest cereals (which he defines as those with 15 grams of sugar per serving) have less of the stuff than sodas do, and American kids drink so much of those empty calories that it's a bigger issue than overly-sweet cereal.

I find this editorial very peculiar, especially from someone who's devoted his career to the health of kids.

Yes, kids drink too much soda, and soda is undeniably a total waste as far as nutrition goes.

But ultimately the fact that soda is worse is irrelevant, in my opinion. It's not like the vitamins and minerals in the cereal make the added sugar magically disappear or inactivate it somehow, and excessive amounts of sugar just aren't great for growing kids (or adults, for that matter) regardless of where it comes from.

And given that there are low-sugar, kid-friendly cereals out there, like the very popular Cheerios, that are also full of vitamins -- and even he acknowledges that 15 grams of a sugar is an awful lot for a kid to eat in one sitting -- Dr. Ayoob's position is even more puzzling. I mean, can't we try to get our kids to avoid both sugary cereal and soda, or is Dr. Ayoob saying we can't walk and chew gum at the same time?

Dr. Ayoob ends his piece with some tips on how to cut down on the sugar in cereals: mixing a sugary brand with a whole grain variety; adding fresh or dried fruit; and if your kid absolutely must have sugar, putting just one spoonful on top after the milk has been added, so the sugar doesn't sink to the bottom of the bowl and make you wait until the end of your meal for the sweet stuff.  (Oh boy.)

As a parent, I'm very aware how tough it can be to get kids to eat healthy foods, especially if they're hooked on less-than-ideal stuff. I'm certainly in favor of parents taking small steps to cut back on their children's sugar intake, and in that sense mixing whole grain cereal with sweet stuff is reasonable. And of course, adding fruit is a great idea.

But Dr. Ayoob loses me when he advises us on how to maximize our enjoyment of a needless spoonful of sugar in a bowl of cereal. Considering our growing childhood obesity problem, you'd think a nutrition expert would shout from the rooftops that we need to steer our kids away from sugar as much as we can.

Overall, Dr. Ayoob's stance is a pretty odd one for a nutritionist to take, I'd say.

To learn about the dangers of over consuming sugary cereals and other processed sweet foods, check out Connie's book SUGAR SHOCK!

By Jennifer Moore for the SUGAR SHOCK! Blog