Prevention Matters

General Mills plans to reduce the sugar content in cereals that it markets to children. The company will reduce the sugar content of 10 of its cereals to 11 grams or less per serving. Previously, General Mills has made efforts to reduce sugar in several of its cereals, some by as much as 20 percent, and now fortifies all of its children's cereals with vitamin D and calcium. All of General Mills cereals also now provide eight grams of whole grains or more per serving.

According to HealthDay, the move is part of an industry-wide response to complaints from consumers, health experts and federal regulators regarding the nutritional content of foods marketed to children.

Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, says that "the reduction ... doesn't represent perfection but it represents improvement." He says children "deserve to be marketed products that are healthier to them than what is being marketed now"

Today we’re talking with Dr. Kelly Brownell, a professor and director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University. Dr. Brownell led a group of prominent researchers who published an article in the Sept. 17 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine that made a strong public health case for a tax on sweetened sodas and other beverages. The study has generated considerable debate and, while Congress has not yet incorporated such a proposal into health reform legislation that is currently being drafted, Dr. Brownell has continued to press for such steps to be taken at the federal and state levels. To listen to this podcast, click on the media player below. If you don't see a media player, click here.