Eleventh Bit of Media—Part of a Balanced Breakfast

Pop tarts, delicious though they
may be, are not a good source of
most of the nutrients one should
have for breakfast

I'm willing to bet that no use of weasel words has ever been so deadly.  Literally. If you eat a sugary cereal, you may be getting a good portion of carbohydrates, protein, even fat if you use the right kind of milk. But notice the words "part of." They indicate that sugary cereals are not to be the only thing you need to eat for your breakfast to be balanced. Without some fruit- or vegetable-like source of vitamins and minerals, most cereals could hardly make up a balanced breakfast.

The words "whole grain"
make this product more
appealing to parents

And with only the breakfast foods often marketed using this phrase comes an inordinately large amount of simple carbohydrates and the risk of diabetes and obesity. I'm not saying these products are the only causes of such ailments or that they are a definite cause for every person who eats them. I only say that eating them in large quantities instead of balancing intake among many food-groups  is an unhealthy habit that is promoted by its advertised health.

And cereal-makers don't stop at "part of a balanced breakfast." If you've ever seen a commercial for one of them, you've probably heard someone mention calcium, vitamin D, or whole grains, as seen left. The companies that produce these foods are so bent on getting parents to buy products that they are willing to advertise health even as they load their cereals with unhealthy oils and sugars.

All of this deceit angers me because of how obvious and yet prevalent it is. As seen above, the advertisers have left obvious gaps in their descriptions of products, and left particularly deceitful weasel words in instead of making definite statements. And yet no one has done anything. There is no public outcry, or if there is, it isn't anywhere near loud enough. There seem to be no regulations at all on something so simple and so essential to the health of our children. That the media would try to sell something so dishonestly is not a big surprise. This happens a lot. But that so few people seem to have caught on disturbs me greatly.