Cereal Day

What the day is

Cereal Day is observed on March 7. The breakfast cereal began as an austerity product and became one of the most heavily marketed foods in the shop.

Origin and background

It came out of nineteenth-century American health reform, developed at sanitariums promoting plain vegetarian eating. The early products were deliberately bland, on the theory that rich and stimulating food was bad for the body and the character. Corn flakes emerged from that setting, and the commercial split that followed, between the reformers and the businessmen who saw the market, set the industry going. Sugar-coated varieties arrived in force in the 1940s and 1950s, aimed squarely at children.

The shelf is worth reading carefully, because the marketing sits where the nutrition claims are. Products advertising whole grain, added vitamins or fiber content can still carry a great deal of sugar, and the two facts are not in tension: fortification is cheap and does not offset the sugar. The useful comparison is per hundred grams rather than per serving, since manufacturers choose the serving size and the stated portion is frequently smaller than anyone actually pours.

The physical engineering is real too. Most cereals are extruded, the same process that puffs corn snacks, and the coating exists partly to slow the point at which the piece goes soft. Sogginess is the industry's central texture problem, and the fat and sugar on the surface are a water barrier as much as a flavoring.

One piece of history worth knowing: the cereal box became one of the first products designed around children influencing a purchase, with the back of the box treated as advertising space aimed at whoever was sitting in front of it.

How to take part

• Compare sugar per hundred grams rather than per serving.
• Weigh what you actually pour once, which is usually well above the stated portion.
• Mix a sweetened cereal half and half with a plain one.
• Eat it as an evening meal without apology. It is what most people do anyway.
• Read the back of the box, which was designed to be read exactly like that.