What does your Child's Cereal Say about Nutrition? Sugar and Obesity

Colorful cereal boxes decorated with cartoon characters may call out to your kids. Yet a recent report conducted by the Environmental Working Group shows that many children's breakfast cereals are loaded with unnecessary sugar.

"When you exclude obviously sugar-heavy foods like candy, cookies, ice cream, soft and fruit drinks, breakfast cereals are the single greatest source of added sugars in the diets of children under the age of eight," said nutritionist and EWG consultant Dawn Undurraga, co-author of the organization's new report, "Children's Cereals: Sugar by the Pound," via a press release. "Cereals that pack in as much sugar as junk food should not be considered part of a healthy breakfast or diet. Kids already eat two to three times the amount of sugar experts recommend."

Researchers examined over 1,500 cereals, including 181 specifically marketed to children. A re-examination of 84 cereals from a similar report released in 2011 showed that the sugar level in those cereals was 29 percent, on average.

Study authors found that children's cereals typically contain about 40 percent more sugar compared to adult cereals. Only 10 meet EWG's standards for low sugar. In fact, researchers noted that many brands still have the same amount of sugar as three Chips Ahoy! cookies. The serving sizes for most of the cereals are also "unrealistically small," giving many children the chance to overeat.

"The [EWG] report rightly raises substantial concerns about added sugar and potential associated risks of obesity, which remains epidemic in US children and costly to society," said Dr. Leonardo Trasande, an associate professor at the Department of Population Health at NYU Langone Medical Center, via CBS News. "In 2008, we documented that the annual health care expenditures attributable to obesity in children were $2.9 billion."

Statistics show that more than one third of children and adolescents are overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Taking sugar out of the equation can help to combat the obesity epidemic, particularly for children.