Thinking inside the box: Is breakfast cereal contributing to the hyperendemic of childhood obesity?

" Thinking inside the box: Is breakfast cereal contributing to the hyperendemic  of childhood obesity?"

Childhood obesity has quadrupled over the past forty years in children aged 6-11. Overweight children are predisposed to an early onset of chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and Type II Diabetes, which is collectively contributing to over 117 billion dollars in health-related costs.  In parallel, sophisticated and persuasive marketing strategies targeted towards children has risen to over a 15 billion dollars in the past ten years. As a result of these aggressive and persuasive marketing tactics, we must better understand the quality and the nutritional value of cereals our children consume. Although high fiber cereals confer to a decrease in Type II Diabetes and obesity, we find that most children’s cereals are denser in energy, sugar and sodium and less dense in fiber and protein as compared to their adult cereal counterparts. Almost one third of weight of children's cereal is composed of highly refined sugars and only 34% of them meet nutritional standards. We will review marketing strategies specifically targeted to children and understand how they influence choice. Historically, token economy was used as a behavioral technique but is now widely used as a marketing strategy. We propose alternative ways that token economy can be used by Public Health professionals. Such strategies include the  use of printed access codes for children to gain access to community health programs within boxes of healthy cereals. We analyse how this in turn, will educate and empower young children about healthy lifestyle choices on an individual basis and in communities at large.