Breakfast Cereal Reaches All Time Low

Breakfast Cereal Reaches All Time Low

The drive amongst competing cereal makers to provide an increasingly health conscious public with low sugar cereals has just got hotter, with Hubbards launching the lowest pre-sweetened cereal available.

Called Thank Goodness Not So Sweet the cereal contains (6.4 grams) just over a teaspoon of sugar per serving putting it well ahead of any of its nearest rivals.

Hubbards Marketing Manager, Julia van de Coolwijk, said the company had recognised that increasing numbers of people were watching sugar levels in their foods and had moved to meet that need.

"While people might be more conscious of sugar in their diet, at the same time, they don't want to reduce the flavour of their food. This often presents a real challenge to food manufacturers because if the taste isn't right then consumers simply won't buy."

While the quest by food manufacturers to reach new lows in the pre-sweetened cereal market continues, unsweetened cereals could come under the spotlight, given the amount of sugar that some consumers add to them.

New Zealand Dietetic Association Executive Director, Jan Milne, said it wasn't unreasonable to assume that people would be adding sugar to oats and unsweetened cereals to enhance their flavour.

"The amount of sugar added will vary from one person to the next and is dependent on a number of things from personal preference and taste, and clinical conditions such as diabetes and obesity," Jan said.

"When it comes to unsweetened cereals, children in particular need to be watched as all too often they tend to think 'the more sugar the better'. For some people eating a pre-sweetened cereal can give them certainty that they are consuming a set quantity of sugar at breakfast time."

Julia said Hubbards has always maintained an awareness of groups of people with special dietary needs. Eight years ago, the organisation launched a gluten free version of its Thank Goodness cereal.

"More recently, the growing number of diabetics has become a national focus. While there are cereal choices available for them, few cereals offer specific flavour, and are ready to eat (with milk added) from the pack.

"Thank Goodness Not So Sweet contains less than 15% sugar - which is the magic number that diabetics are trained to look for."

When it comes to preventing the onset of diabetes a Harvard study has already identified the importance of eating breakfast. The study which was carried out over an eight year period followed the breakfast eating habits of over 2,000 young adults. It found that those who reported they ate breakfast every day had 35-50% less risk of developing obesity and insulin resistance than those who sometimes skipped it. 1

The kind of breakfast eaten was also important with wholegrain breakfast cereals being associated with lower risk while refined ones were not.

"It, therefore, makes perfect sense that high fibre, low sugar cereals are clearly a step in the right direction when it comes to addressing New Zealand's rapidly growing obesity and diabetes epidemic," Julia said.

"In creating Thank Goodness Not So Sweet, not only are we pleased to be a New Zealand company paving the way in terms of product innovation we're also helping people to make better food choices."

ENDS

1 Source: Periera MA, et al. Paper at 43rd Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention Originally posted 24 April 2003

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