I know this might seem like a strange topic, but hear me out. A deluge of rain in the last few weeks has seen an army of hungry black ants take up residence in our kitchen. These guys get into everything, and they have a very sweet tooth (well, I’m not actually sure if they have teeth, but that’s beside the point).
Much to my displeasure, my good wife had bought a packet of honey coated corn flakes as a treat for my daughters. These sit in the pantry cupboard next to my collection of cereals such as oats, bran flakes and shredded wheat.
You can probably guess what happened next. After the rain, the honey coated corn flakes were completely infested with black ants, to the point where they seemed almost drunk from the sugar binge.
Fortunately for me, my oats, bran flakes and shredded wheat remained untouched. The little guys turned up their respective noses (or antlers) at my whole grain smorgasbord.
This led me to take a closer look at the nutrition information tables to compare the sugar content between these breakfast cereals per 100 grams serving:
- Honey coated corn flakes – 31.7 grams of sugar
- Bran flakes – 7 grams of sugar
- Oats – 3 grams of sugar
- Shredded wheat – 2.1 grams of sugar
It won’t come as a surprise to many that cereals like honey coated corn flakes are so high in sugar that sugar actually makes up one third of the ingredients. That’s more sugar than a serving of ice cream. I hope ants don’t get diabetes.
Some other cereals marketed towards children contain even more sugar. It’s almost like inviting the kids to have dessert at breakfast.
So, I’m sorry ants (and to my daughters), but your sugar feast is over. There are much better ways to start the day.
What’s your favourite breakfast cereal? Do you check food labels to work out how much sugar is in breakfast cereals?