Breakfast is important for good health, but will just any breakfast do? Scientists at Yale University examined the impact of serving children high-sugar cereals. Such products are heavily advertised directly to children, and some experts argue that even heavily sweetened cereals are better than no breakfast at all.
The researchers recruited youngsters from summer camps to be randomly assigned to choose their favorite of three high-sugar cereals or three low-sugar cereals. They found that kids liked the low-sugar cereals as well as the highly sweetened ones, and both groups consumed the same total amount of calories for breakfast. Children eating unsweetened cereal ate more of their calories as fruit on their cereal, while those consuming presweetened cereal got more of their morning calories as table sugar.
