I have some news for you that may just come as a bit of a shocker, so you may want to brace yourself before reading this.

Many of the breakfast cereals marketed to children have a lot of sugar in them.

I know, I know.  It’s hard to believe, right? I mean, who would have thought that food containing marshmallows or designed to look and taste like chocolate chip cookies might have high amounts of sugar? Besides, all the commercials I watched about breakfast cereal when I was growing up told me that cereal could be part of a balanced breakfast. That means it has to be good for you! Never mind the fact that those statements were made over a scene that included a big glass of orange juice, some toast, and a side of fruit as well.

The fact of the matter is that it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that a large number of cereals are basically desserts marketed as breakfast food. Bill Watterson wouldn’t have come up with Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs if he didn’t have plenty of real world examples to base them on. In what could only be described as an extreme case of marketing fail, several breakfast cereals with high levels of sugar were marketed as “smart” breakfast choices for a brief time earlier this year (the campaign has since been dropped). Realizing that, perhaps, it might not be wise to try and spit in our faces and tell us it was raining, General Mills has taken the radical approach of actually reducing the level of sugar in many of the cereals that they market to children.  I must admit to being amused by the fact that cereals like Frankenberry and Booberry are not included in the list of products affected by this change. This is likely due to the fact that only nostalgia riddled Generation X adults like me eat that crap.

What is most interesting about this announcement is that General Mills did not say how they were reducing the level of sugar in their products but that they would not be using artificial sweeteners to make up for the difference in taste. My theory? There won’t be one. Many of the cereals on the market are likely to have far more sugar in them than they actually need to improve the flavor of the product. Like many mass produced foods available today, cereal is one of those products that is simply designed to make your brain crave a sugar rush so that you’ll want to eat (and buy) more of it. By lowering the level of sugar in breakfast cereals kids may actually start choosing what they want to eat for breakfast based on taste and not the desire to fulfill an addiction.

Perhaps if the need to satisfy a sweet tooth is taken out of the equation parents will find it easier to work with their kids to make healthier breakfast choices. A good breakfast is a key component in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and starting your kids off with a breakfast that has a little less sugar is a good step towards developing healthy habits that will stay with them for their whole lives.

For that matter it’s a pretty awesome thing for those of us who still enjoy the occasional bowl of Fruit Loops ourselves.