http://www.guampdn.com/article/20131016/LIFESTYLE/131016001

Halloween-themed cereals lack nutrition

Count Chocula may have finally met his match: nutritionists.

Even as General Mills rolls out a record five Halloween-theme “Monster Cereals” this month, three nutritional experts are speaking out to warn that parents should think twice before carting the seasonal cereals home, adding to the Halloween season’s sugar overload.

At issue: too much sugar, too many dyes and not enough fiber. The cereals, which sell for about $2.50 a box, go by the kid-friendly names of Count Chocula, Franken Berry, Boo Berry, Frute Brute and Fruity Yummy Mummy.

“Amidst Halloween’s tsunami of junk foods, kids certainly shouldn’t be encouraged to consume even more sugar, refined flour and artificial colorings in the form of breakfast cereals,” says Michael Jacobson, executive director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

For major food companies such as General Mills, holidays are a unique opportunity. For the stagnant, $7.7 billion ready-to-eat cereal industry, Halloween-theme cereal is a way to create excitement. But in a nation increasingly concerned with nutrition, some seasonal promotions that have been popular for years are now getting second looks.

“Maybe they hope that moms will be happy the products aren’t candy and snap up the boxes,” says Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition at New York University. “But the cereals sure look like candy to me: sugar and marshmallows.”

General Mills executives declined to be interviewed. But Carla Vernon, marketing director for the General Mills “Big G” cereals line, says, in an email, that 60 percent of the consumption of Count Chocula, Franken Berry and Boo Berry is by adults, not kids.