When you hear high sodium food, you usually think salty snacks: pretzels, chips, crackers and the like. You may be surprised, however, that some of the highest sodium foods aren’t salty tasting at all.

We all should be cutting down on our sodium intake, as recommended by the 2010 American Dietary Guidelines, so head to your pantry and see if any of these sneaky sodium-packed foods have found there way into your kitchen.

Breakfast cereals are notorious for not only being packed full of sugar, but sodium as well. Cereals “are more concentrated in salt than 50 to 60 percent of the items in the salty snack aisle,” says Dr. David Katz, founding director of Yale’s Prevention Research Center.

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Looking back on my childhood, I grew up eating a lot of sugary foods for breakfast. From Pop Tarts to Toaster Strudel to Corn Pops, sugar was a big part of the most important meal of the day for me. Of course, at the time, my mom was just happy that I was eating any kind of breakfast before running out the door to school, but now we know so much more about proper nutrition that it’s about time some of the major food manufacturers took at look at cereal’s sugar content. Especially cereals that are obviously targeted to children.

Late last year, General Mills reduced the amount of sugar in its popular cereals Lucky Charms, Trix and Cocoa Puffs. According to The Associated Press, PepsiCo Inc. also launched a new instant oatmeal with 25 percent less sugar. Now you can add another big food manufacturer to the list of reduced-sugar breakfast foods: Post Foods. The company recently told The Associated Press that it will cut the sugar content of its Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles per serving from 11 grams to 9 grams. According to the report, this is in an attempt by all food companies to address consumers’ concerns at the growing childhood obesity epidemic.

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The FTC has been cracking down on misleading advertising claims on food products, and Kellogg’s has come under fire for the second time. In November of 2009, the company Cocoa Krispies sported a label that read “Now Helps Support Your Child’s Immunity.” The Food and Drug Administration quickly asked the company to remove the unproven claims from boxes and ads.

The company made other unscientifically supported claims. For example, they advertised that Frosted Mini-Wheats could improve children’s attentiveness and that Rice Krispies had “been improved to include antioxidants and nutrients that your family needs to help them stay healthy.” The FTC asked the company to change their advising campaigns twice in the past year and a half.

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MultiGrain Cheerios and The Biggest Loser have partnered to help ensure that this is the year those resolutions stick. Using the MultiGrain Cheerios Web site, you’ll have access to tools and information that will make you the at-home Biggest Loser!

All you need is the code from inside specially marked packages of MultiGrain Cheerios to access the helpful weight loss tools that include:

• BMI Calculator
• 7-Day Meal Plan
• Healthy Recipes
• Daily Workouts

MultiGrain Cheerios is part of the healthy diet the Biggest Loser contestants follow. A serving has 110 calories and 16 grams of fiber – that’s one-third of the daily recommendation in just one bowl of cereal.
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Would you eat four candy bars for breakfast? What if your kids asked for this for breakfast, would you let them? The answer is likely no, because it’s candy and we don’t eat that for breakfast. But did you ever stop to think that the things you typically grab for breakfast, for yourself or your kids, might as well be candy? It’s true! Most of our go-to breakfast items have as much sugar as our favorite candies. No wonder our kids can’t concentrate in school and we don’t have the energy to get through a 10 a.m. meeting without bum-rushing the coffee machine.

If you’re looking to make some healthy changes for the new year, we can tell you that changing the way you do breakfast should be a priority. The cliche that it’s the most important meal of the day is very true, and if you can conquer that meal, then you’ll be able to start conquering the others.

We compared 10 of the most popular breakfast items, some of which actually give the illusion of being health foods, to our favorite candies to show you that a cup of yogurt or bowl of cereal is sometimes no better than the treats Santa left in your stocking.
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