Natalie Butler: Today we are talking about lucky charms. They are magically delicious and will give you much more power. But before we talk about lucky charms, obviously that is not a health food, I mean just form the title and just from how they are working the cereal, it's not something that you want to eat as a health food. So my question to you is, what are some healthy cereals out there? So pause the video and let us know what some cereals out there may be you've eaten, may be you're heard about them, and let us know what you think.
Now lucky charms is near and dear to my heart because I ate that growing up and we were pretty much limited to eating on the weekends but I also was growing up so you know that's kind of an interesting comparison there. But yes, that cereal is so addictive and I know a lot of dolls who eat it, kids aren't the only ones that eat it. It's addictive because it has a high sugar content so you know even I wasn't left out. In 1963, General Mills' main two cereals were Wheaties and Cheerios. You know pretty healthy cereals for back then, okay, well the Vice President of General Mills decided that he wanted to stiff up his Cheerios so he started adding shavings of craft circus peanuts to his Cheerios.
Well, for those of you who don't know craft circus peanuts, they are basically marshmallow candies. So he actually was adding candy to his cereal, yes, candy to his cereal. So this gave him the idea and he took the idea back to General Mills and they started to develop the idea of this lucky charm cereal. They came up with an idea to near the concept after our charm bracelet so they began to form the marshmallow shapes into what may be on the time bracelet. They added different colors. Then of course no kid cereal can be popular without a cartoon character, so they invented Lucky the Leprechaun, which is of course its main icon.
So now you have this lucky charm cereal that is marketed to kids. It wasn't created to help kids get more fiber in their diet or help kids get more whole grains in their diet. It was literally just created to appeal to those who want sugar and sugar in their cereals. I just want to make the point that the way that this cereal was developed was literally adding candy to Cheerios, candy. There is something else that's really important to know about lucky charms is that when it first was developed the oats that were separate from the marshmallows and the cereal were just plain oats, they weren't coated with anything.
Well after its initial entrance into the marketplace, the sales failed to meet the expectations, so they, you know the developers took the formula back, they reworked things and they decided that there would be higher sales if they added more sugar to the cereal. So they began to sugarcoat all the oats in the cereal. That's where lucky charms is today.
Lucky charms was the first cereal ever to add marshmallow back to their cereal, which is now pretty much a standard for any kids who are out there. It's also the number one kid cereal and there sales are $115 million every year. In other words, you can pretty much just give your kid candy because that's what it is and they are selling a ton of it every year.
The nutrient fact panel on the lucky charm cereal box says that their serving size is three-fourth of a cup. Now most people do not measure their cereal in the morning. You know people are - they are good to usually even eat breakfast. So the last thing you're going to do is sit there and measure their cereal. If they are pouring it into their the normal bowl people have in their homes, they are just going to fill the bowl up regardless of how many serving sizes the box has.
So I have found in my experience, people are usually eating about two or more cups of cereal at a time. So the serving size in the charm box isn't exactly what people are eating. However three-fourth of a cup serving is 110 calories, 11 grams of sugar, only 1 gram of fiber, and 2 grams of protein. So if you really think about realistically what most people are eating, they are eating probably triple of the serving size.
So they are getting about 330 calories, 33 grams of sugar, only 3 grams of fiber and only 6 grams of protein. And of course the ingredient list has artificial food coloring, artificial flavors, has my favorite mid sugar is mentioned five times on the top four ingredients, how is that possible? And the marshmallow beds are made with, guess what? Sugar, dextrose; dextrose is another form of sugar, corn starch; which is another sugar, gelatin to hold it together. If you've heard the recent marketing about lucky charms made with whole grains, well that is so a marketing ploy.
Before I made this video, I did some of my own research and I went on the lucky charms website and I am actually going to put a link in the description that's right over there. I really want you to see this. You actually have to see this website to believe it. Just listen to some of the things that they have on this website, just really targeting kids. Well, they have this whole site setups geared towards these games for kids and really marketing the cereal and doing it in a fun manner and the kids get to be interactive and all the stuff. So listen to the games that are on there, Berry Mountain Pinball, Magic Pepper Power, Lucky Magic Movie Maker, Blue Moon Breakfast, Pot of Gold, Rainbow Rider and Clover Caramel. Now what kid is not going to want to get on this website, play these games and then go demand that their parents buy this cereal for them.
In other videos I've talked about what sugar does to your body. But basically when you consumer refined sugar, it hits your blood stream so fast. And it causes your blood sugar to spike really high. Then you pancreas has to release insulin in order to bring that glucose down. Well, and then it hits a low point so they may feel exhausted and tired and hungry and start having cravings because your body is like, oh my blood sugar is too low, I need more sugar. Then you go search for food. Then if you don't realize what's happening, a lot of times you can go right back to the same food that you ate that caused the problem in the first place.
So we are giving this stuff to our kids and then we are sending them on their way to school and you know, be good at school or were complaining that they have behavioral problems or you know they are so hyperactive. Well this is one of the first things that we need to eliminate out of their diets, because if this amount of sugar can weak habit on an adult, think about how much it is magnified in a little kid's body.
The main two points now I want to make about this video is one, lucky charms is candy, it's not cereal and even though it is on the cereal oil, it's candy. And the other point is this cereal was created really with a foundation of marketing, it wasn't created to better the health and nutrition of your child. You know, actually with how successful lucky charms has been, it's really considered one of the most successful marketing campaigns in American history ever in the food market. It's used as an example of how well a product can do in the marketplace with effective marketing.
So there you have it, the truth about lucky charms. I thank you so much for watching. I am going to be making a follow up video on how to choose a healthier cereal and please subscribe, leave your comments and I'll see you next time, bye, bye.
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