Does Cereal Destroy Metabolic Health?

Much like I used to do with chocolate milk poured over Cinnamon Toast Crunch, I wanna pour my input over the Kelce brothers cereal controversy. Now, if you haven't been following, Jason and Travis Kelce are famous NFL players, brothers, who are launching a cereal line in collaboration with General Mills composed of their 3 favorite cereals, Reese's Puffs, Lucky Charms, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Pretty good choices, to be honest. Now, the Super Bowl cereal triad has provoked debate and questions like, is it ethical for influential athletes to promote sugar-laden ultra-processed foods for kids? Does the in moderation approach really work? Do we need a social change, a change in norms with respect to how we eat as a society? Is eating like this spinning the roulette wheel on metabolic health? At present, General Mills is marketing this product with statements like this one from Brandon Tyrell, who is senior manager of brand experience at General Mills. He says, "You can now eat and train like the Kelce brothers." And Travis himself, Travis Kelce, is encouraging people, "I'd eat a whole box of Reese's Puffs cereal in one sitting." The controversy exploded recently on social media in the wake of an exchange between Kaylee Means and Jason Kelce that went as follows. Kaylee Means tweeted, "Athletes should stop sponsoring food that destroys kids' metabolic health." To which Jason replied, "I grew up on these products, Kaylee, and I was a perfectly healthy, fit child because I enjoyed them in moderation." Later he said, "There's also room to eat cereal and ice cream and candy in the right quantities in conjunction with a healthy lifestyle." Since then, dozens of news outlets have chimed in. No surprise. On this matter, I too have thoughts that I'm gonna choose to share through the three lenses: that of a child, that of a patient, and that of a scientist. So to begin with, that of a child, my childhood. Jason shared his perspective that he was a perfectly healthy and fit child because he enjoyed these cereals in moderation, in conjunction with a healthy lifestyle. And I can appreciate Jason's position. I myself throughout my childhood was apparently healthy and athletic, and I lived a relatively carefree lifestyle inclusive of, maybe even enhanced by, breakfast cereal, including those prefaced by Jason and Travis. Personally, I loved Cinnamon Toast Crunch as a kid. In a typical day, I could eat as much as a whole box, generally while watching Full House before soccer practice. So I'd be a hypocrite to pretend I didn't have a childhood that was similar to Jason and Travis's. I want to acknowledge that. Nevertheless, my main point is as follows: when you live a life privileged to be free of metabolic disease, there's no reason to challenge the enticing narrative that moderation is key. I certainly didn't. And that these foods—sugary cereals, candies, ice cream—can and should be enjoyed as part of a moderate, healthy, balanced lifestyle. That makes sense, it's enticing, it sounds reasonable. And some may get away with this approach, at least for a time, but not all do. It's like a roulette wheel, and the question is, how long are you gonna keep spinning it? Now, for those who don't know me, my life then took a hairpin turn at the end of college and at the beginning of graduate school at Oxford, where despite an outwardly healthy appearance, by which I mean a normal BMI, I didn't have obesity, I began suffering from inflammatory bowel disease. Now, To what extent the "in moderation" westernized diet I consumed throughout my childhood laid the groundwork for my inflammatory bowel disease, I can't say for certain. That said, I think it's reasonable to assume that the constant stream of processed food, even added beyond my 5-a-day fruits and veg, my sufficient protein, and hitting all my micronutrient RDAs, well, I don't think it did me any favors, at the very least. But what I can say with confidence is that cutting out this category of foods I'll here call Kelsey-approved-in-moderation foods was necessary for my recovery. It was only through the elimination of all sugar and processed carbohydrates in my diet that my disease eventually went into clinical and histological remission, where I've been now for over 5 years. So through my n=1 journey, combined with what I've seen clinically, During my subsequent years in medical school at Harvard and through clinical extracurriculars and through simple cultural observation, I am personally convinced that in moderation messaging is not working, at least not on a population level. Rather, it just provides license for amplifying the consumption and normalization of frankly metabolically harmful foodstuffs. In summary, moderation is normal. But eat a normal standard American diet, and you'll get normal standard American diet results. And who wants that? Finally, I'll take the position of a scientist. And I mean no offense when I frame it up this way, the Kelsey brothers aren't academics. Jason himself admits, "The only thing Travis and I know more about than football is cereal." But let's just acknowledge that as a premise for what I'm about to share, since their clapback, the Kelsey brothers' response if it does come, will not be informed by experience or deep exposure to metabolic health sciences. I think that's fair framing. No shade, seriously. We have different expertise, and on the football field they could definitely crush me, but metabolism is my house. With that, I will say that I have delved into the literature on the sorts of foods that the Kelsey brothers are now promoting. I have been shocked by the depth and complexity of damage that these foods can have on our bodies. At this point, I could wax eloquent for an hour or two, citing top basic science journals about the impact of specific ingredients on the microbiome, adipocytes, insulin resistance, various brain circuits, and so on. And I could try to weave these together, these data points together into a matrix kind of resembling that which I see in my mind's eye right now. But I'm not sure, one, I have the vocabulary. Nor would most readers have the patience to bear with me through all of that. So instead, I'm gonna pose a few simple observations to you and ask you to think like a scientist and evaluate hypotheses. The simple observations are three. First, the message of moderacy, in moderation, and balance have been core to dietary recommendations for decades. But despite these messages, The metabolic health epidemic, including those of obesity, and the mental health epidemic have gotten progressively worse. And also elimination of Kelsey-approved in moderation foods, the candy, the sugar, the cereals, the ice cream, has shown clinical promise for the treatment of not only obesity, but for a broad range of metabolic disorders. Now, for the hypotheses. The null hypothesis would be in moderation works, it's just that people don't consume in moderation, and/or there are other confounders which the unfortunate trajectory of our nation's metabolic health can be attributed. The alternative hypothesis is that the message of in moderation actually doesn't work, and we need to try something new, including not normalizing Or normalizing not eating Honey Nut Cheerios, Reese's Puffs, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Lucky Charms definitely all at once as part of a balanced breakfast. At scale, the only way to test these hypotheses is to implement change. And we, the world, Americans, the nation, everybody with metabolic health problems, the population of the developed world, are the guinea pigs. And whether or not any individual celebrity wants to be part of that social change, that social experiment, or get rich off of selling sugar to children, well, that's their right. I personally know what I'd choose. Then again, who am I to challenge the beautiful synergy among the three greatest cereals of all time, not to mention the synergy between Big Food and Big Pharma? Take a step back and consider, isn't it convenient that foods like this are being pushed on the tail of societal shifts whereby weight loss drugs are being pushed for the treatment of obesity for children as young as 12? And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this isn't a complex problem and that this doesn't require nuanced discussion. In fact, I think nuanced discussion is essential. But what I am saying or pointing out is there is a dysfunctional incentive structure, and population health, especially that for children, is clearly not the outcome for which we are optimizing. Money is. In closing, I'll reinforce this isn't a black and white issue. I'm all for individual choice and living your best life, but for doing that in an informed manner, and I don't think most people are sufficiently informed. And for those wanting to get into the nitty-gritty and the metabolic deep dives into the primary literature on some of these topics, I will post some of my recent videos covering processed food, weight loss, and metabolic health below. So in closing, stay curious and and let's try to have a conversation. In the end, I'm not gonna judge the Kelce brothers for their business decision. I feel everyone has the right to make their own informed choice, but I also don't feel the majority are sufficiently informed to make that choice.