Thursday, June 26, 2008

a shift in my paradigm of breakfast food

Disclaimer: This post is about cereal. I have invented a new tag for it called 'basically nothing.'

I have long assumed two things about cereal:
1. They stopped putting toys in the box when I was 12. That, or I stopped eating the kind of cereal you would expect to come with a toy.
2. The healthier the name sounds = the better for you.

I am wrong on two accounts.

1. This is Speed Racer. It came in my Cheerios.

2. Since I became a vegetarian (or pescetarian if you want to get technical) two years ago this month I have become quite the label reader.

The other day I was out buying more Cheerios when I spotted a coupon for buying three boxes of General Mills cereal. I don't really eat THAT much cereal but I figured why not.

I picked up my Cheerios, a box of Lucky Charms and then decided to go with something healthy looking for good measure. So I bought Oatmeal Crisp.

It wasn't until I got home and lined the three boxes up on my counter that I read the labels. Much to my dismay, one serving of the healthy looking stuff has twice the calories and fat content of the Cheerios. But the kicker is the Lucky Charms have less sugars, fat and calories than both Cheerios and Oatmeal Crisp. I feel so cheated.

I should have bought three boxes of Lucky Charms.

No comments: