Chicago Public Schools breakfasts are big on doughnuts, sugary cereals

Nutrition experts cringe at free breakfasts' high sugar content

http://www.chicagotribune.com/healt...9591,full.story

And this is worse than a bowl of cereal how?

I can think of one way it's worse — most little kids can't/won't plow through 600 calories worth of plain whole-grain flakes or oatmeal. With some milk on it and even allowing them a little sugar to sweeten, most of them will stop at a bowl. That's 400 fewer carb calories.

Obviously, if you're serving Corn Pops or Froot Loops, all bets are off, but my bet is that even then most of them would consume fewer carbs. Of course, it'd be better if we weren't offering the crack-like sweet baked goods and Froot Loops.

Being guilty of giving my kids oatmeal and grits, I can't be too judgemental I suppose. Looking at the carb count in 1 serving of total cereal, it's 22 grams of carbohydrate. Most kids (and adults) will eat at least two servings, so that's 44 grams, with 6 grams of that being carbohydrate. Now, if we add in some skim milk, say one cup, that's another 12 grams of carbs right there. This is a very low fat breakfast, so there's nothing to slow that enormous sugar hit that will happen very soon after eating this healthy breakfast.

Calorie wise, it may be a bit lower, but since there is no fat, it wouldn't surprise me if the cereal were worse. Of course, I'm sure the doughnuts use seriously crappy fats, so that's a point in the cereal's favor I guess. But both are horrible. And if you make the cereal what kids will actually eat, it goes off the charts.

My son had a friend sleep over on hallowe'en who actually left our house without breakfast because we had no cereal. My husband made French toast, offered to make eggs . . . no dice. This kid would rather starve than eat anything other than sugar bombs for breakfast.

Yeah, I agree with you that two bowls of cereal with skim milk isn't the ideal breakfast. Given that, though: add it all up and that boy who's eating three "MVP Breakfast" (gosh, what a terrible name!) doughnuts would still be better off instead with two servings of Total and skim milk.

The doughnuts have 100-110 g carbs and little protein, and 600 cals; the Total and milk is 56 g carbs (about 6 of which are fiber), 12 g protein, and 280 cals.

Of course I'd rather he were eating an egg scrambled in butter, a cup of full-fat yogurt and some blackberries, at 16-20 g protein, 26 g fat, and 380 cals. But if his choices are the Total or the doughnuts, then let him have the two servings of Total.

I think we both have to agree that in either case, few things could be worse metabolically than the fat-sugar double-whammy of a doughnut or a Pop-Tart.

BTW, thinking about your son's picky friend, and the photo with that news article. Our American kids are notoriously inflexible about some things. Why are they serving 6-year-olds a big heap of waxy, mealy whole Red Delicious? I liked apples as a kid, but even I wouldn't bother with one of those. Too difficult to eat, too tasteless.

If they really wanted the apples and oranges eaten, they'd drop one of the junk choices and spend the extra money on single-serving packs of pre-cut Fujis and orange slices. Ideal, no, but better than what they have right now.

Part of the problem is obviously the limited budget and cooking facilities they're working with. I don't know what to do about that.