"Sugar Coated" by Marion Nestle and Lisa Sutherland

To understand how the food business works, merely take a trip down the cereal aisle at your local supermarket.Cereal boxes represent food industry billboards: big, bold, and shouting for your (or your child's) attention, said Marion Nestle, who co-authored Sugar Coated with Lisa Sutherland.Nestle has been collecting cereal boxes since the Reagan Administration, when she served as a nutrition policy advisor in Reagan's Department of Health and Human Services."I made slides of them (cereal boxes) to illustrate teaching points about health claims, food labeling rules, or over-the-top marketing," she said in Sugar Coated's introduction.The book points out that the 120-year-old cereal industry provides a master class in both nutrition (or the lack of it) and persuasion (often aiming ads at kids).Nestle points to the amount of sugar in many cereals as an ongoing problem, along with the inability to convince the industry to stop pitching products to kids.That's not to say all cereal is bad, she said. Shredded wheat, oatmeal and corn flakes are fine, said Nestle, adding, "Cheerios are okay, but they don't have much fiber."What's a consumer to do? "Read labels. Understand labels. Learn to cook," said Nestle.While still occupying prime real estate at the supermarket, problems are brewing, she said. "Big Cereal appears to be in a financial free fall. Sales have been declining for years," said Nestle.In the book's closing, the authors noted, "We hope the cereal continues to reinvent itself--but with better-quality ingredients, less sugar, no artificial colors or flavors, and more organic ingredients in cereals priced so everyone can afford them."