Presented for your consideration, the simple, Cheerio. Not fancy. Not my first choice for breakfast grain, but not awful. One gram of sugar in a 27 gram serving. For this compulsive eater, that’s not a problem. Note also 3 grams of fiber and 3 grams or protein. Also, not bad.
Presented for your consideration, the American agri-whore* creation below. You’ll be relieved to learn that this product, which is one third sugar, is still made from whole grain oat, just a whole lot less of it. So much less that not only is the sugar up 900%, the protein and fiber are both one third what they were.
I prefer not to be negative, so I won’t call this junk food. In fact, it’s not junk food. What is junk is the name. Essentially General Mills has taken a respected healthful cereal brand and capitalized on this long standing brand identification, to make a competitor for it’s own Count Chocula(12g sugar) and Cocoa Puffs (11g sugar).
I find it moderately humorous, or is it sad, that original Cheerios includes reduced serving sizes for children under 4. Chocolate Cheerios have no such suggestion. Maybe they’re concerned about the fiber content in the original formula. Maybe not.
* I did a Google search on Agri-Whore. One hit but the site was down. Can I claim it for my own?
3 users commented in " Cereal Killer "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI love chocolate. I hate chocolatey flavored stuff. So looking at the first Cheerios box makes me think, “Yum!” I love the nutty-toasty-salty-sweet flavor of my non-brand oat-ring cereal. I even use it as a popcorn and potato chip replacement. Whole grain happiness in little Os.
That second box, of the chocolate ones, makes me feel queasy, like it is an abomination of some sort. That said, I like chocolate. I like the super-dark chocolate cookie wafer of an Oreo, but I hate that light-brown nasty “Cheep Cook-eaz” store generic. I just . . . I can’t put the wonderful light nom of my oat rings together with the richness of chocolate. They don’t “go”, you know?
Oh well. It’s like having a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. Unfortunately, all I see is that nasty “cherry” flavor when I look at that medicine.
I think they’re both pretty junky and neither would work for my food plan. But, as you know, that’s a very personal thing. No judgment about others using it, but neither are okay for me.
I seldom ate(eat)Cheerios. Mostly, they were a busy food for my daughter who, when small, loved them. I always preferred large glazed Cheerios, opps, donuts, when she went for the small one.
I don’t make them a regular part of my food plan but I will eat them if they’re the only starch within reach at a time I should have a starch. I’ll eat (sit down now) the odd small ration of potato chips if that’s what there is and I’ve not managed to steal the Cheerios from some mom’s purse.
We all have our own plans which work for us. Mine includes more food then it used to. It’s not better, just better for me. Part of my recovery has been testing SOME boundaries. Never alone. Never in secret. Some time back I added whole wheat toast to my food plan. Carefully. Noting my feelings. My hunger. I really enjoy my whole wheat toast. I don’t crave it. I don’t do crazy stuff with or for it, but I love it like I love all my abstinent foods.
While writing this comment, Second Chance by Shinedown came on my Pandora stream. I don’t remember hearing it before. Loved it. Got his lyric which works for right now:
Please don’t cry one tear for me
I’m not afraid of what I have to say
This is my one and only voice
So listen close, it’s only for today
Cool. Peace.
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