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| Wednesday, 19 July 2006 09:46 | | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk
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New research suggests that breakfast cereals can contain the same amount of sugar as a chocolate bar and almost as much fat as sausages.
A study by the consumer group Which? found that more than three-quarters of cereals it tested had high sugar levels, a fifth had high levels of salt, while seven per cent were high in saturated fat.
Sue Davies, the magazine's chief policy adviser, said: "While manufacturers have made some efforts to reduce salt levels in breakfast cereals, we still found lots of products with high levels of salt as well as high levels of sugar.
"Despite their healthy image, some cereals also have high levels of fat and saturates. With so much public concern about obesity and diet-related disease, we're particularly concerned that most cereals marketed to children are still high in sugar, and many are high in salt, too”.
Mrs Davies added: "We want manufacturers to make further cuts to salt levels, reduce fat - including saturates - and sugar and remove all unnecessary trans-fats, as well as marketing their products more responsibly.
"They can also help consumers make easier, healthier choices by applying the Food Standard Agency's traffic light labelling system to their products. That way people can identify cereals high in fat, salt and sugar at a glance."
The Association of Cereal Food Manufacturers said breakfast cereals contributed a "nutritionally insignificant" amount of fat to the average diet, while salt levels had fallen in cereals by a third between 1998 and 2005.
"On average, cereals also contribute less than six per cent of the average daily sugar intake in children," a spokesman said.
"There is no evidence to show that breakfast cereals make a significant contribution to energy, fat or sugar in the diet of the UK population.
"Furthermore there is no evidence to show that reducing energy density or the sugar content of breakfast cereals would make a change to the population's body weight”.
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