General Mills Adds Calcium to Breakfast Cereals

General Mills (Minneapolis) has announced that it will begin to fortify its children's cereals with calcium. The move comes at a time when America seems to be locked in a losing battle against calcium deficiency.

New research reveals that the problem is more prevalent than previously believed. Seven out of 10 children age 18 and younger fail to get the calcium they need, according to an analysis of USDA food consumption surveys. The shortages also begin when kids are still toddlers—only about half of all children age five and younger meet the current recommendations for calcium.

General Mills hopes adding calcium to its most popular children's and all-family ready-to-eat breakfast cereals will help close the calcium gap. By the end of the year, the company intends to fortify more than 500 million boxes of cereal with calcium. Each serving will provide 10% to 15% of the Daily Value for calcium. This level is sufficient to classify the cereals as "good" source of calcium.

"It is shocking that the children of this country have such a significant deficit in calcium," said Barbara Levine, Ph.D., R.D., founding director of the Calcium Information Center at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. "Childhood and adolescence is a time when the body is able to stockpile calcium to last it a lifetime, but the youth of America is squandering this one-time-only opportunity."

During the prime bone-building years of 9 to 18, young people need 1,300 mg of calcium each day. The National Food Consumption Survey shows that children are drinking less milk, once a primary source of calcium, while consumption of soft drinks is increasing, according to the USDA. This trend has left many young people with diets deficient in calcium. In particular, USDA data indicate that nine out of 10 teen-age girls fail to consume the calcium they need.

Studies show that nearly 90% of children in the United States regularly consume ready-to-eat cereals, making it an excellent candidate for delivering added calcium to children's diets. And since cereal is eaten with milk, the combination can help deliver a significant portion of a child's daily requirement for calcium.