3 comments

1. 

   Comment by Radar323 on January 23, 2010 at 12:59

   I’ve been reading your posts and was looking at my son’s Cap’n Crunch Crunch Berries. Checked the ingredients and, lo and behold, no HFCS. Matter of fact, none of the Cap’n Crunch cereals have it.

   http://www.capncrunch.com/cc_products/crunchBerries.aspx

   So, good on Quaker for that one, at least.

2. 

   Comment by Marcus Croman on January 24, 2010 at 06:27

   Yes, it is good that they don’t have any HFCS, it’s a start, but there’s more to look at…

   Per serving, which is 3/4 cup ( I would guess hardly anyone eats 3/4 cup), there is 180mg of sodium. 8% of an adults RDA. They put sugar in it. Then they put Brown sugar in it. Then they put Maltodextrin in it. So now it’s so sweet, nobody can eat it, so they put salt in it. So much that it’s the 6th ingredient in the list. The “berries” aren’t really berries, they are corn pop like things that are infused with strawberry concentrate and then artificially flavored and colored to look like something tasty.
   Yellow #5 – Tartrazine. Causes allergic reaction in asthmatics and hyperactivity when mixed with sodium benzoate (a common preservative). The UK has phased it out.
   Yellow #6 – Causes hyperactivity and is banned in Norway and Finland. It’s classified as a category 3 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer
   Red #40 – Causes hyperactivity in children and was phased out in the UK.
   Blue #1 – Is one of the colorants that the Hyperactive Children’s Support Group and the Feingold Association recommends to be eliminated from the diet of children.

   So, it is good that they have taken a stand and used sugar instead of HFCS, but that doesn’t mean that sugar is good. If you can avoid it, then avoid it. Have your son try MultiGrain Cheerios or Post Lightly Frosted Shredded Wheat or even the Post Honey Nut Shredded Wheat.

   What I hear from most parents is that their kids just won’t eat the healthy stuff. Trust, me, they;’ll eat it. You have to put your foot down and get through the temper tantrums and refusal to eat and not give in. Eventually, they’ll get hungry enough they have no choice but to eat it. You’re not torturing them or abusing them but it is definitely an uphill battle that we as parents are fighting. We’re outmanned 100 to 1 but we are not unarmed. Yes, Crunch Berries taste good in to a child, if it tastes good then it must be good for you. It’s an education opportunity for parents and their children. They are at the perfect age to show them the importance of reading labels and knowing what they are eating. It’s not worth feeding our children poisons just so they will eat something. In our house, that’s just not an option.

   We used to have these “fruity” cereals in the house and the transition to ones that don’t was a breeze, but we have fairly easy kids. They spot the Crunch Berries in the store and want them but we tell them “no, they aren’t good for you.” and explain why and they let it go.

   Thanks for following our posts and our progress, I’ll be putting one up soon about food coloring. My wife made Kyrie a birthday cake that is all organic and uses natural food coloring. There’s only 1 reason these companies use synthetic food coloring.

   Money.

3. 

   Comment by Radar323 on January 25, 2010 at 18:20

   Interesting to know. And sad.

   We have a rule in the house that on Mon-Fri, he has to eat “healthy” cereals: oatmeal, various Cheerios, some Post cereals, fruit & grains cereals … things like that.

   On the weekend, he usually gets one morning of sugared cereal (which is when the Cap’n Crunch or Pop-Tarts, etc., come into play) and one morning of prepared breakfast (waffles, eggs, bacon … something actually prepared by our own hands). Seems like a decent compromise, so far.

   Otherwise, I’d have to give up my beloved Boo-Berry on Saturday mornings, and I don’t know that I could deal with that.

   Keep up the posts. I’ve already learned more than I knew before.