Parents: Before you crack down too hard on your kids' daily consumption of the latest sugary breakfast cereal, you may want to consider a study culled from the December issue of Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

From February 1998 through February 1999, more than 2,000 households in the United States kept a two-week food diary. Included in the study were 603 children ages 4 to 12 years, divided into three groups: those ingesting ready-to-eat cereal eight or more times within two weeks; those consuming cereal four to seven times; and those eating three or fewer servings. The results were evaluated in terms of the notoriously "unforgiving" body mass index (BMI), which for the first group (those eating cereal the most frequently) showed 80 percent falling within appropriate standards.

Contrary to this, only 52.6 percent of the children who consumed relatively little cereal for breakfast maintained an appropriate BMI. Now of course, Dr. Albertson represents the Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition (formed by General Mills, one of the world's leading cereal companies), but the message is still clear: Cereal - or any breakfast food containing even the minimum of nutritional ingredients - is better than nothing at all.

Have you taken your children to see your doctor of chiropractic yet? In addition to starting them on the road to health with regular chiropractic adjustments, your chiropractor can discuss nutritional strategies to keep you and your kids fit in an increasingly unfit world.

Reference:

Albertson AM, Anderson GH, Crockett SJ, Goebel MT. Ready-to-eat cereal consumption: Its relationship with BMI and nutrient intake of children aged 4 to 12 years. Journal of the American Dietetic Assocation December, 2003:103(12).

For more on pediatric health, visit www.chiroweb.com/find/archives/pediatrics/index.html.