Breakfast cereals, a heavily marketed, highly processed mainstay of the American diet, especially among children, are becoming less healthy, filled with increasing amounts of sugar, fat and sodium, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Network Open. The study also found that cereals’ protein and fiber content — nutrients essential for a healthy diet — have been in decline.
The findings, based on an analysis of 1,200 new or reformulated cereal products introduced in the United States between 2010 and 2023, are likely to add fuel to the ongoing debate about the relationship between processed food, mounting childhood obesity and the rising prevalence of chronic diseases.
The debate has gained greater prominence in the months since health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. began using the federal bully pulpit to excoriate ultra-processed foods as part of his “Make America Healthy Again” campaign. Mr. Kennedy, who has declared that “sugar is poison,” last month announced that the Department of Health and Human Services would work to remove some artificial dyes from the U.S. food supply, citing concerns about their impact on children’s health.
Shuoli Zhao, a professor of agricultural economics at the University of Kentucky and a co-author of the new study, said the findings were especially notable given evolving consumer awareness about the links between excess consumption of sugar, salt and saturated fat and chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension and cancer.
“What’s most surprising to me is that the healthy claims made on the front of these products and the nutritional facts on the back are actually going in the opposite direction,” he said.
The analysis, based on data gathered by the marketing consultancy Mintel, did not identify brand names, nor did it capture information on purchasing and consumption habits. The vast majority of the 1,200 products it analyzed were relaunches of existing cereals, including so-called reformulations that alter a product’s taste or nutritional content, Professor Zhao said.
The study found that the total fat content per serving of newly launched breakfast cereals increased nearly 34 percent between 2010 and 2023, and sodium content climbed by 32 percent. Sugar content in the newly introduced products rose by nearly 11 percent, according to the analysis.
So-called ready-to-eat cereals are the most commonly consumed food product among children aged 5 to 12, according to Department of Agriculture data, and nearly a third of all American children eat cereal each morning. In contrast, only 15 percent of children have fruit with their breakfast, and just 10 percent consume eggs, according to the data.
Kellogg Company, General Mills and Post Holdings, the three largest makers of breakfast cereals in the United States, did not respond to requests for comment.
Peter Lurie, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nutrition advocacy group that was not involved in the study, said he was surprised to learn that large food companies have not made a more concerted effort to reduce the sugar, salt and fat content of their breakfast cereals.
“It’s extraordinary that, at a time when Americans are becoming more health conscious, a product often marketed as offering a healthy start to one’s day is actually getting less healthy,” he said.
Although the category is not inherently unhealthy, many nutritionists take a jaundiced view of American breakfast cereals given the sky-high sugar content of some products, like Lucky Charms and Cap’n Crunch.
Dr. Josephine Connolly-Schoonen, executive director of the nutrition division at Stony Brook Medicine, said the findings of the study highlighted the dilemma many parents face when navigating supermarket aisles.
“It reinforces my belief that the food marketplace is very confusing, and that’s not by accident,” said Dr. Connolly-Schoonen, who was not involved with the study. “The food industry engineers the confusion.”
Her breakfast recommendations to parents include overnight oats, fruit, eggs, peanut butter and whole grain breads. “We need to continue to try to break through the noise and give very strong messages about what is healthy, and that includes whole foods; foods that look like they did when they were alive,” she said.
Some of the cynicism voiced by nutrition experts stems from the fact that many food companies offer healthier versions of the same cereal brands in Canada and in Europe. More recently, the sugar and sodium content of breakfast cereals served in American schools has also been declining, a result of federal legislation passed in 2010 that set new nutrition standards for the meals, which sustain 14 million students each day. Stricter limits on sugar content go into effect this summer, and the standards tighten even further in 2027, according to the School Nutrition Association.
Diane Pratt-Heavner, a spokeswoman for the association, said she hoped food companies would begin voluntarily offering those healthier school-based products to the general public. “If we’re encouraging kids to eat healthier at school,” she said, “then we want them to be eating healthier at home too.”
Andrew Jacobs is a Times reporter focused on how healthcare policy, politics and corporate interests affect people’s lives.
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