2 posts tagged “cereal”

This past weekend, during my regular trip to the grocery store, I went in search of healthier cereal. You see, about a month or so ago I read the label on my Rice Krispies and was distressed to find that it contained High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), which is just unnatural and bad for the body. I was completely taken aback, and vowed to only buy cereal that was HFCS-free.

Well, I found Kix, my other standby, was HFCS-free, so I was happy... for a while. But I wanted other cereal, too.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to find cereal that doesn't contain HFCS? Just about everything by Kellogg's has HFCS, with the exception of Vanilla Shredded Wheat and Strawberry Shredded Wheat. General Mills has a few cereals that do not contain HCFS (Kix, regular Cheerios), and Kashi is very good about their cereals.Just about everything else depressed and saddened me.

Now, I know that proponents of HFCS are saying that HFCS is no worse than cane sugar or maple syrup. Here's my stance on this, though: the less refined the ingredients I put into my body, the better off I think I am. Now, I'm not going to get all crazy and start growing my own wheat and mill it myself, but I can at least read my food labels, see what I could potentially be eating, and start making choices to inclue more whole foods and fiber into my diet.

And if it means spending a little more on Jones Soda (which converted their soda recipes to include cane syrup instead of HFCS) instead of Pepsi or Coke, so be it.

I love cereal. I went grocery shopping today and got a box of generic Rice Krispies, some Cookie Crisp, and some Kix. In the house, we still have Corn Chex, Wheat Chex, Boo Berry, and Kellogg's Corn Flakes. But there are just some days that you don't want anything else to eat but cereal.

This morning, my husband opened up his box of Boo Berry (it's really too sweet for me) and exclaimed, somewhat dismayed, that they changed the cereal. I didn't really know what he was talking about; it was never a cereal I ate. But he said that it used to only be the little Boo ghost cereal and marshmallows. Now it's got all sorts of other stuff in it.

Why do cereal companies have to change the cereal? It's something I don't quite understand. I remember back in the day when Lucky Charms consisted of "pink hearts, yellow moons, orange stars, green clovers, and blue diamonds". Then they brought in the purple horseshoes. Then came the red balloons. Then the orange stars became shooting stars. Now the moon has some special design that's uncovered when you add milk. It used to be a key. Now I think it's a star or a face or something. And on and on and on.

The cereal aisle itself is intimidating. Not only are there what I call the "Big 3" of the cereal manufacturers (Kelloggs, Post, General Mills), but there's the generic store brand and the generic Quaker Oats and/or MaltoMeal versions of the Big 3 cereals. It's a wonder I only have 7 varieties in my house!