Kellogg’s is waging a war here over Tigre Toño and Sam el Tucán.
A 2019 policy requires companies that make unhealthy foods to include warning labels on the front of any boxes they sell in Mexico to educate consumers about things like excess sugar and fat. Any food with a warning label — like Kellogg’s Fruit Loops or its Frosted Flakes, which typically contain more than 37 grams of added sugar in a 100-gram serving — is also banned from including a mascot on its packaging.
Damn, that’s really good. Sounds a little bit like the plain packaging laws many countries have on cigarettes, which have proven to be extremely effective in the decade since they were first rolled out. It’s obviously a bit more limited, but it’s still a great move.
I was about to ask… Do people actually not know these things are unhealthy?
Some people really don’t. They grow up with commercials telling them that the cereal is “part of a balanced breakfast” without understanding that that means the cereal should be a small part of the breakfast.
It’s also the case that not all cereals are created equally. Most of Kellogg’s most famous cereals are stuffed full of sugar, but they do have some options that are relatively healthier, like their All-Bran Wheat Flakes. And from other companies, there are some actually-healthy options. Australia’s most popular cereal is probably Sanitarium’s Weet-Bix, with just 3 g added sugar per 100 g. And even healthier than that is my preferred breakfast cereal, Uncle Toby’s Vita Brits, an otherwise-similar product with 0 g added sugar. Both Weet-Bix and Vita Brits are high in fibre and made from mostly whole grain wheat.
The poms have a version of Weet bix, too. Weet bix have to be commended for their marketing though, I still remember all the ads I’d see growing up if sports stars espousingvthe benefits of em. And they pump a lot of money into kids sport (do they still have the kids try-athlon series?) Kinda crazy given how marketing around food is these days.
Yeah the poms call theirs weetabix (not sure how it’s spelt). Dunno where precisely it sits health-wise relative to Vita Brits or Weet-bix.
Honestly I’ve never noticed that much marketing from Weet-bix. The cereal I most associate with sport is Nutrigrain, which is a much more sugary cereal (though not as bad as ones like Cornflakes or Rice Bubbles). I recall Nutrigrain being particularly associated with Iron Man races (the weird surf lifesaving Iron Man, not the triathlon).
My packet of Sainsbury’s own-brand Wheat Biscuits (same stuff, but only £3/KG), says 4.4g of sugar per 100g without milk.
As the ingredients say 95% of it is wheat, and sugar is 3 down the list from there, it’s probably about 2g of added sugar too.
I’m old. There used to be a number of “how many do you do?” campaigns with cricketers, soccer players etc for Weet bix. And yeah, nutri grain has been sponsoring that tournament since the 80s. It’s basically trash though, when it comes to nutrition. Rice bubbles and corn flakes are also fine enough sugar wise, both are below 10%. Not much else going for them though as they are both low in fibre.
Oh huh. Both of those are the ones I first think of when I think “sugary cereal”. They’re what I might buy occasionally as a treat. Are people actually buying and eating as their main cereal the ultra-sweet cereals like Crispix and Frosted Flakes? 🤢
Yes, there are many people who do not realize they are unhealthy.