Over-fortified cereals may pose risk to kids

Your kids could be eating too many vitamins in their cereal. That's the warning from a new report out Tuesday, on food with added nutrients like vitamin A, zinc and niacin.

The Environmental Working Group finds that nearly half of young children eat potentially harmful amounts of fortified cereals and snack bars.

"Fortification in general can help you replenish certain micro nutrients in the diet and we know that healthy cereals reduce certain diseases like heart disease," said Samantha Heller, a dietitian at New York University Langone Medical Center. "But what this report is suggesting is that we are over-fortifying our cereals and making some of our chocolaty, sugary, honey-dipped cereals look healthier than they really are."

Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin that can get stored in the liver. Too much zinc can knock off your copper balance.

"Too much of a good thing is too much of a good thing," said Heller.

Heller also points out that percent daily value is only reflecting the need for adults and not for children. And since these cereals are marketed to children, there is a concern that they are over-consuming these micro-nutrients.

She recommends that children limit vitamin A, zinc and niacin intake to 25 percent of the adult daily value.

Heller told "CBS This Morning": "We don't have any evidence that they're suffering from extra, but we're concerned about it and want the new labels to reflect the changes."