Sugar is a topical point when it comes to kids’ cereals, and particularly Coco Pops. Here you can find out all the facts for yourself, including exactly how much is in a bowl of Coco Pops. You can also discover the role of sugar in our diet, its true impact on health and how it’s part of The Coco Pops Promise.
DID YOU KNOW?
Sugar is a form of carbohydrate, the body’s main source of energy.
We are listening to what parents are telling us and that’s why sugar is a big part of the Coco Pops Promise. So far both "Coco Pops Moons & Stars" and "Coco Pops Choc ‘N’ Roll" have 9% of the Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) for sugar per 30g bowl. And by April 2011 Coco Pops Coco Rocks will too.
Over the last few years our recipe developers have also been working on Coco Pops Original and by 2012 we aim to have to have this in line with the rest of the range.
So when you see the gold rosette, you’ll know that it is part of the promise.
GDA stands for Guideline Daily Amount. To help make life easy, most of your favourite foods and drinks have a GDA clearly printed on their packaging. At a glance you can instantly find out how many calories, sugar, fat, saturates and salt are in what you're about to eat.
They're called guidelines, because that's exactly what they are – a guide, not a target. The Guideline Daily Amounts that you'll find on the front of pack are based on the recommendations for an average person with an average activity level. But of course, bigger people will need more, as will active people, and smaller people less.
Children do have different needs to adults, so they have different GDAs too. But not as different as you might think. Because they are active, and also growing, they are not vastly different to the 'average person' used on the front of the pack. In fact, for sugar, it is very similar indeed.
| GDA for sugar | |
|---|---|
| Average person | 90g |
| children | 85g |
To keep things simple, however, rather than using two sets of figures on every label, we use a GDA that's based on the average person, which also makes it consistent when comparing products, and because no products are eaten 'only' by children.
Sugar is a form of carbohydrate, which is the body’s main source of energy. There are many different types of sugar in our diet, including table sugar, honey, fruit and even milk sugar. Each has slight chemical differences, but essentially they’re the same. All sugars, like all carbohydrates, provide approximately 4 calories per gram.
DID YOU KNOW?
Breakfast cereals eaten with milk do not increase the risk of tooth decay.
And despite popular belief, the source of one sugar does not make it more nutritious than another. For example, the body doesn’t distinguish between the sucrose in the sugar bowl and sucrose that exists naturally in fruit and vegetables.
No matter what food sugar starts in – a glass of milk, a teaspoon of honey, a bowl of pasta, or a bowl of cereal – all carbohydrates (starches as well as sugar) are broken down by the body in the same way and converted into glucose – the form of sugar which can be used by the brain, muscles and organs.