Kids cereals are getting healthier, but food companies are spending a lot more money marketing their unhealthiest options to children, according to "Cereal Facts," a new study published by Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

Companies spent $264 million in 2011 promoting child-targeted cereals to kids, which amounts to a 30 percent increase over spending in 2008, according to the study.

"In the three years through 2011, children's' exposure to television ads for Froot Loops leapt 79 percent; their exposure to ads for Reese's Puffs jumped 55 percent and that for Pebbles was up 25 percent," explains the MSNBC article. "While regular Cheerios and Frosted Mini-Wheats have some of the highest nutrition scores, ads for those products were more likely to be targeted at adults."

The report did offer some praise to food manufacturers for improving the nutritional make-up of most children's cereals, which generally have less sugar and more fiber and whole grains than the same cereals 10 years ago, but said more could be done to make kids' cereals healthier.

Continue at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47924187/ns/health-childrens_health/#.T-e21CtYs4g

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