When I was growing up Coco Pops were "Just like a chocolate milk shake only crunchy". Today they are marketed as full of essential vitamins and minerals that your growing kids need and love to eat. This type of marketing is really aimed at relieving parents stress and reservations about giving their children sugary, nutritionally deficient foods.
Looking up the ingredients list of coco pops on the Kellogg's website, I found this:
"Whole white rice (59%), sugar, cocoa (3%), salt, minerals (calcium carbonate, iron, zinc oxide), flavours, barley malt extract, dextrose, vitamins (vitamin C, niacin, thiamin, riboflavin, folate)."
So lets have a look at the ingredients individually.
Whole white rice
I'm not quite sure what's 'whole' about white rice. White rice is basically brown rice with the husk, bran and germ removed, all the parts of the rice grain with the vitamins and minerals. White rice has far less fibre, vitamin E, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6, folacin, potassium, magnesium and iron than brown rice. The crazy thing is white rice is then often fortified with some of these nutrients synthetically to make it "healthy". The benefit of using white rice is that it keeps longer. Apparently even the bacteria know it's not as good for you.
Sugar
Notice how they forgot to include how much sugar is in coco pops. That's because they are 36.5% sugar. So 1/3 of your breakfast is sugar. Not all sugars are bad though. Muscovado or rapadura sugar, which are simply dehydrated sugarcane juice, still contain many of the nutrients which keep the plant alive, ie phosphorus, calcium, magnesium potassium and iron, and can be good for you. The sugar in coco pops refers to white sugar, or sucrose (fructose and glucose - so also see dextrose below), which doesn't have any of these other nutrients... Noticing a theme yet?
Cocoa
It may surprise you that cocoa can be considered a health food. Cocoa has very high levels of flavonoids, which are very good for your cardiovascular system, and three times more antioxidants than green tea. Cocoa also contains magnesium, iron, chromium, vitamin C, zinc and other minerals. So what's the catch? Well these health features of cocoa refer to raw cocoa since heating and processing any food reduces the nutrient levels of that food. And before you reach for that chocolate bar what else does it have in it? Even just the addition of milk to cocoa negates many of these benefits.
Salt
Table salt, Sodium Chloride, is essential for human life. We need between 500mg and 1000mg of sodium per day. A 30 gram serve of coco pops (and I'm pretty sure kids eat more that that) contains 238mg's. Too much sodium can lead to heart disease, kidney disease, and stroke. Sea salt is obtained by evaporating seawater and also contains magnesium, sulfate, calcium, and potassium, and is therefore better for you.
Minerals
These are all good, but wouldn't it have been nice to have got them from the actual food?
Flavours
I can't tell you anything about these because the food flavouring industry is shrouded in lots of secrecy. They could be natural or synthetic, but my guess is synthetic because it is much cheaper and easier to control. Unfortunately Australian food labelling laws don't really empower us to make the healthiest choices in this respect, something the big food manufacturers are very happy to maintain.
Barley Malt Extract
Barley malt extract is a common flavour used in breakfast cereals, and adds soluble fibre to the food, which is a good thing. It can make you gassy though.
Dextrose
Dextrose is a form of glucose, more sugar. Our bodies use glucose as a primary energy source. When we have too much in our blood our pancreas releases insulin and the glucose is converted to glycogen and stored in the in the liver, fat cells and muscle cells. Unfortunately if you have too high a level of insulin for too long the body starts to ignore
it and your pancreas produces more and more insulin. Eventually the pancreas becomes worn out which is called diabetes type 2, a very bad outcome. It is a good idea to limit your intact of glucose.
Vitamins
Obviously vitamins are extremely important to to our health and that is why they are added to coco pops. Food scientists believe that because the chemical structure is the same, whether natural or man-made, the health benefits are the same. I, disagree. Foods grown in nature (I know that is an absurd statement, how can food not be grown in nature?) have a perfect balance of nutrients that have evolved with humans over thousands of years. I find it extremely arrogant to believe that we know enough to be making food healthier than what nature can provide. For example the list of discovered beneficial phytochemicals (plant chemicals) is growing.
Now I know that I have picked on coco pops here but I have just used them as an example on why it is important to read the ingredients label and ignore the nutritional label. At least coco pops don't have preservatives, hydrogenated oils,
or any of the thousands of other "numbers" that are added to many processed foods.
Healthy Breakfast Choices
While coco pops might be a nice monthly treat, although I can think of better ones, don't be fooled into thinking it is a nutritious breakfast. Here are some healthy breakfast options you can enjoy.
- Fruit
- Homemade smoothies
- Porridge
- Weetbix (with fruit on top)
- Apple Crumble and Yoghurt
- Or even a Chocolate Milkshake
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