Zoom Image
Breakfast with children: tasty, but also healthy?
Photo: Getty Images
They advertise with slogans such as "high in fiber" or "with 50 percent whole grain" for a healthy children's breakfast. But most children's cereals are far from healthy, some packs with a third of sugar content even go more in the direction of sweets than breakfast, the Stiftung Warentest is annoyed.
In a check of 110 products with children's cereals for the magazine "test" (issue 6/2023), the testers cannot recommend 86 because they exceed the WHO guideline values for sugar. Four products also tear the maximum guideline value for fat. According to this, children's cereals should contain a maximum of 12.5 g of sugar and 17 g of fat.
Because there are so many different cereals, the foundation divided them into cereals with cocoa or chocolate, cereals with sugar and/or honey, cinnamon cereals, chocolate pillows with cream filling, colorful rings (such as fruit loops), crunchy mueslis and mueslis, and toddler products.
24 products with a good sugar and fat content come from the category "Mueslis and cereals for toddlers" and "Crunchy muesli and muesli". According to the testers, they contain only moderate amounts of sugar and fat.
In Germany, more than one in seven children is overweight. In an interview with SPIEGEL, pediatrician Sigrid Peter said: "We advise pregnant women on nutrition and explain to them how important a normal weight is for the future of their baby. But as long as huge amounts of sugar are added to all the food you buy, from bread to sausage to muesli, it's a battle against windmills."
wbr/dpa