A study in "healthy cereal"

Several months ago I fell in love w/ Fiber One cereal. I tried two or three different kinds and decided I liked the "Honey Clusters" version the best. As the box reads, they are "lightly sweetened whole grain flakes with honey clusters".

I've been on a roll with this cereal! Every morning for breakfast: egg whites, grapefruit and Fiber One Honey Clusters! (When I fall into a rut I just get comfortable and stay there for a while. I move in, bring a lamp and box of tissue with me. And then I hang out until I just can't hang out any longer!)

But back to the cereal...

All of a sudden the packaging changed! But I didn't notice it at the store. And I didn't notice it at home. It was subtle. In fact, I didn't notice the changes until this morning, sitting at my desk, eating my breakfast. I emptied the previous box of it's last little crumbs and pulled the unopened box out of the drawer. (Yes, I keep a drawer of food at my desk - you know you do too!)

Let's take a quick look. What's the first thing you noticed?!

Side by side you can see there are slightly different colors of graphics on the box. Some of the fonts have changed, etc. General Mills has made a change in serving suggestion... add strawberries now, instead of bananas.

The old box (on the left) has a 2008 seal of approval on it from the American Culinary ChefsBest organization. In tiny, tiny, tiny little yellow letters it reads "The ChefsBest Award for Best Taste is awarded to the brand rated highest overall among leading high fiber (8 grams per serving and above) cereal brands by independent professional chefs." (One quick question, isn't it 2010 now?!)

The NEW box (on the right) does not have that award seal on it anywhere (front or back) and now instead reads "Excellent Source of Antioxidant Vitamins A & E". OK... so what else is different?

In taking a closer look... the "new" flakes look a little different from the old ones. The NEW flakes on the right (lighter in color, more golden-looking and much less "whole-grain" looking) also seemed to be shaped differently. They now look more like little rounded bowls than the former flakes which looked more like... well, flakes. The OLD flakes had jagged edges, were much thinner and less uniform in shape. The new "flakes" are all very uniform in shape, are thicker and don't taste as "honey-ey". Hmm... me no like!

(Wait a minute... my English teachers would all string me up by my toes right now. But, you're following me... right?!)


So, let's take a look at what else is different. Let's look at the nutrition facts...




The panels look a little different too... here's a quick comparison:


Summary
Good changes: Less sodium, more vitamin A, more vitamin D and now with 70% of your suggested daily value of Vitamin E!

Bad changes: the new cereal only has half of the potassium the previous version had, now has more carbs, and now with less protein! (Not to mention it tastes like a different cereal!)


Hmmm.... I'm not sure how this is adding up so far. Good change? Or bad change so far?

Another good thing to note... "high fructose corn syrup" is no longer listed as an ingredient. Instead they list sucralose. I can live with that. (This is most likely why the new flakes aren't as "honey-ey" as before.)

A quick search on the internet tells me that sucralose is better for you than high fructose corn syrup... not to mention the calorie difference.

That's good... I guess...

But now that I know so much about what I thought was healthy cereal... I think I'll be watching out for something else altogether. I'll picking up my lamp and my box of tissue to find another rut to live in for a while.

I'm afraid this morning's reading/learning experience may have ruined all of my eating plans for this weekend. I'll be too busy cleaning out the living space for my new rut that I won't have time to eat as much high fructose corn syrup. My thighs will appreciate it...

Where's that box of tissue?!