Nestle Scores Heart Ticks on Cereal

By | January 22, 2011

Nestle Scores Heart Ticks on Their Breakfast Cereal

What a relief –  we can rest easy that the cereal we are eating for breakfast is healthy!

Or can we really trust this big red tick that implies that the food we are eating is healthy for us?  I don’t think so. The heart tick has nothing to do with the sugar content in food.

I am not sure how they can justify that the only thing that helps our heart to be healthy is low fat and high fibre and totally ignore the fact that cereals such as the Nestle Milo Cereal have 34.1 grams of sugar per 100 gms cereal!

What?

More than a third of the Nestle product is sugar.

Sugar is known to be a cause of diabetes.  High sugar intake increases insulin resistance in the body.  Insulin resistance  is a known cause of inflammation in the body.  Inflammation is a known underlying cause of cardiovascular disease.  How can anyone justify that much sugar in a product which now has a tick of heart safety approval?

Is there something wrong in this picture?

Nestle Cereal looks like food but is it really?

Nilani Sritharan is the nutrition manager with Cereal Partners Australia, which produces both Nestle and Uncle Toby’s told ABC News that their products were a ‘healthier choice for breakfast”.

I wonder what she was comparing them to?  Bacon and eggs fried – with fried bread on the side.

Yes perhaps heathier than that.. but certainly not healthier than a good quality yogurt with fresh fruit, or perhaps a freshly made vegetable and fruit juice, or even a fruit salad.

Please really examine labels before you buy this rubbish.  Check out the percentage of sugars, sodium, and other additives.. look at the degree of processing this product – which at sometime in its life used to be a grain.. has been through to make it shredded – fluffed, puffed, shaped, sugared preened and prodded to become the fancy little cereal lump in your bowl of milk in the morning.

There are many more healthy choices for your breakfast – that important meal where you break the fast of the night.  Give your body a  chance to start the day with some high quality nutrition.  Your energy levels will thank you for the whole day through.

The heart ticks on the Nestle products are no indication of a healthy meal.