4 ms·

I don't understand cereals, practically all of them are complete garbage foods. Why do people buy into them?

by formerly_proven 5y ago

smabie 5y ago
I like garbage foods! And so do others
- forty 5y ago
  Perfectly reasonable. However it's another thing to give them to your kids.
  - notJim 5y ago
    Kids like them too!
Steltek 5y ago
Oh man, you don't know the half of it. John Harvey Kellogg developed breakfast cereal to keep you from jerking off. He originally didn't include any sugar: it was just tasteless plant crap in a bowl. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/32042/corn-flakes-were-invented-part-anti-masturbation-crusade https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/32042/corn-flakes-were-i...
jeffrallen 5y ago
Mmmmm, müsli.
Viliam1234 5y ago
People have various intelligence and various education. Some do not understand nutrition, and assume naively that garbage would not be sold as food, especially for kids.
- freyir 5y ago
  Smart, educated people do things that are bad for then all the time. And eating cereal (in moderation) is pretty far down on the “bad things” list.
dylan604 5y ago
It's easy to understand why the kids like them: they are full of sugar. Hard to damn a kid for that. What is easy to damn are the parents that relent to the tantrums that do the providing/enabling. It's also easy for young kids to make a bowl for themselves without needing any parental assistance. The kid loves that, and frankly, so do the parents that are buying it if it allows them to sleep in or pay attention that much longer to their social feeds.
- CGamesPlay 5y ago
  > so do the parents that are buying it if it allows them to sleep in or pay attention that much longer to their social feeds. Man, what an uncharitable take. I bet they also like that the kid is learning how to prepare food for themselves independently. Or that they have time to do something like make themselves breakfast before dropping off at school and going to work. Further, I bet a lot of these parents also aren't as nutritionally educated as the people in this thread seem to be (for a lot of consumers "healthy" and "fat free" are interchangeable).
  - dylan604 5y ago
    Meh. I didn't say that all parents do this because of that reasoning. I also didn't attempt to say that some do it for that reason. You can't deny that it is true for some while I will stipulate it's not all nor the sole reason.
  - Symbiote 5y ago
    The "adult" cereals have the same advantages, with a lot less sugar. My parents would only buy the relatively plain ones -- Weetabix, Shredded Wheat and so on. The first time we went to the USA I was 12. We bought colourful cereal for the novelty of it, but the next morning I could barely eat it. It was insanely sweet! (Presumably with HFCS, which I wouldn't have experienced before.) Unsurprisingly, there was no pressure from my parents to finish the bowl, or the rest of the box.
  - oblio 5y ago
    > I bet they also like that the kid is learning how to prepare food for themselves independently. Around the world, from what I've noticed, you can also find the plain old' actual cereals. You know, wheat, corn, etc. based stuff that's not full of sugar. A kid can definitely learn how to prepare their own food using that :-)
throwawayboise 5y ago
Quick and easy no-prep meal.
SV_BubbleTime 5y ago
Anecdote my childhood… my mom always did the shopping. One day my dad takes me and when it comes time to get a cereal I pick Cookie Crisp, because YOLO I’m not going to get this opportunity again! We get home. My mom sees I selected the cookie cereal and yells at us. We should both know better! She wanted to see Fruit Loops, our commonly purchased cereal. I was only like, eight, but read all the little words in the white box and their amounts. They were practically the same. Didn’t matter. Into the trash the box went. In her head it was no better than Chips A’hoy crushed up in a bowl. Cookies! For breakfast! The Fruit Loops however, we’re clearly some healthy option, because, you know, FRUIT. My mom is not dumb at all, but seemingly never put an ounce of thought into this. So I’m torn that everyone should know they’re all sugar, and I have a clear example of people just not ever really considering it.
- utexaspunk 5y ago
  You mean Froot
  - midasuni 5y ago
    Isn’t that a Mandela effect claim?
- Symbiote 5y ago
  It Britain it's common for there to be "traffic light labelling" on processed food. It makes the nutritional value of these products very obvious, as it's facing you on the shelf. Although this article says it's less useful than I thought, and might be replaced with something else. (Though it's a food industry publication.) https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/health/has-traffic-light-health-labelling-reached-the-end-of-the-road/647830.article https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/health/has-traffic-light-health-...
tshaddox 5y ago
I'm not sure what you mean by "buy into them," but people buy them because they taste good.
mortehu 5y ago
If eaten with milk, at least it contains half the recommended daily amount of calcium, which can be a real challenge to provide in adequate amounts.
- oblio 5y ago
  You can put a lot of stuff in that milk, including the actually healthy cereals. Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muesli#/media/File:Muesli.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muesli#/media/File:Muesli.jpg
the_doctah 5y ago
There's plenty of cereals that are healthy-ish
jdavis703 5y ago
I wasn’t allowed sugary cereals as a kid, so let me weigh in as an adult: sweet cereals just taste good to most people. We’re hard-wired to enjoy sugary food.

I don't understand cereals, practically all of them are complete garbage foods. Why do people buy into them?

smabie 5y ago

I like garbage foods! And so do others

forty 5y ago
Perfectly reasonable. However it's another thing to give them to your kids.
- notJim 5y ago
  Kids like them too!

Steltek 5y ago

Oh man, you don't know the half of it. John Harvey Kellogg developed breakfast cereal to keep you from jerking off. He originally didn't include any sugar: it was just tasteless plant crap in a bowl. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/32042/corn-flakes-were-invented-part-anti-masturbation-crusade https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/32042/corn-flakes-were-i...

jeffrallen 5y ago

Mmmmm, müsli.

Viliam1234 5y ago

People have various intelligence and various education. Some do not understand nutrition, and assume naively that garbage would not be sold as food, especially for kids.

freyir 5y ago
Smart, educated people do things that are bad for then all the time. And eating cereal (in moderation) is pretty far down on the “bad things” list.

dylan604 5y ago

It's easy to understand why the kids like them: they are full of sugar. Hard to damn a kid for that. What is easy to damn are the parents that relent to the tantrums that do the providing/enabling. It's also easy for young kids to make a bowl for themselves without needing any parental assistance. The kid loves that, and frankly, so do the parents that are buying it if it allows them to sleep in or pay attention that much longer to their social feeds.

CGamesPlay 5y ago
> so do the parents that are buying it if it allows them to sleep in or pay attention that much longer to their social feeds. Man, what an uncharitable take. I bet they also like that the kid is learning how to prepare food for themselves independently. Or that they have time to do something like make themselves breakfast before dropping off at school and going to work. Further, I bet a lot of these parents also aren't as nutritionally educated as the people in this thread seem to be (for a lot of consumers "healthy" and "fat free" are interchangeable).
- dylan604 5y ago
  Meh. I didn't say that all parents do this because of that reasoning. I also didn't attempt to say that some do it for that reason. You can't deny that it is true for some while I will stipulate it's not all nor the sole reason.
- Symbiote 5y ago
  The "adult" cereals have the same advantages, with a lot less sugar. My parents would only buy the relatively plain ones -- Weetabix, Shredded Wheat and so on. The first time we went to the USA I was 12. We bought colourful cereal for the novelty of it, but the next morning I could barely eat it. It was insanely sweet! (Presumably with HFCS, which I wouldn't have experienced before.) Unsurprisingly, there was no pressure from my parents to finish the bowl, or the rest of the box.
- oblio 5y ago
  > I bet they also like that the kid is learning how to prepare food for themselves independently. Around the world, from what I've noticed, you can also find the plain old' actual cereals. You know, wheat, corn, etc. based stuff that's not full of sugar. A kid can definitely learn how to prepare their own food using that :-)

throwawayboise 5y ago

Quick and easy no-prep meal.

SV_BubbleTime 5y ago

Anecdote my childhood… my mom always did the shopping. One day my dad takes me and when it comes time to get a cereal I pick Cookie Crisp, because YOLO I’m not going to get this opportunity again! We get home. My mom sees I selected the cookie cereal and yells at us. We should both know better! She wanted to see Fruit Loops, our commonly purchased cereal. I was only like, eight, but read all the little words in the white box and their amounts. They were practically the same. Didn’t matter. Into the trash the box went. In her head it was no better than Chips A’hoy crushed up in a bowl. Cookies! For breakfast! The Fruit Loops however, we’re clearly some healthy option, because, you know, FRUIT. My mom is not dumb at all, but seemingly never put an ounce of thought into this. So I’m torn that everyone should know they’re all sugar, and I have a clear example of people just not ever really considering it.

utexaspunk 5y ago
You mean Froot
- midasuni 5y ago
  Isn’t that a Mandela effect claim?
Symbiote 5y ago
It Britain it's common for there to be "traffic light labelling" on processed food. It makes the nutritional value of these products very obvious, as it's facing you on the shelf. Although this article says it's less useful than I thought, and might be replaced with something else. (Though it's a food industry publication.) https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/health/has-traffic-light-health-labelling-reached-the-end-of-the-road/647830.article https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/health/has-traffic-light-health-...

tshaddox 5y ago

I'm not sure what you mean by "buy into them," but people buy them because they taste good.

mortehu 5y ago

If eaten with milk, at least it contains half the recommended daily amount of calcium, which can be a real challenge to provide in adequate amounts.

oblio 5y ago
You can put a lot of stuff in that milk, including the actually healthy cereals. Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muesli#/media/File:Muesli.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muesli#/media/File:Muesli.jpg

the_doctah 5y ago

There's plenty of cereals that are healthy-ish

jdavis703 5y ago

I wasn’t allowed sugary cereals as a kid, so let me weigh in as an adult: sweet cereals just taste good to most people. We’re hard-wired to enjoy sugary food.