Nutritionist raps Chicago school breakfast

CHICAGO, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- The Chicago Public Schools should take donuts, sugary cereal and French toast with maple syrup off the breakfast menu, nutrition experts say.

The district began offering free breakfast this year to almost all students, allowing them to choose three items. Many students can be observed with three choices loaded with sugar, fat and calories, the Chicago Tribune reported Thursday.

Kelly Brownell, a researcher at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, says children will eat healthy if they are not allowed to pick unhealthy food. He found children tended to eat twice the recommended serving of sugared cereal but if they could only choose low-sugar cereal they ate it in the recommended quantity.

While children added sugar, they did not add as much as the sugar cereals contain, he said. They also added fruit.

"What this study suggests is that the school system should just offer healthy choices, and then children will eat them," he said. "I see no excuse for the public schools feeding children cereals or other products that are high in sugar."

School officials said the breakfasts meet federal guidelines.