I might as well start off clearing my conscience in my first post here, so prepare for a true confession.
It’s not just the man in uniform mentioned in the title who turns me on. I also like to dally with a vertically challenged guy who goes by the name of Lucky. And there’s the animal attraction I have for another one named Tony. Yes, despite my husband’s best efforts to corral this filly, I’ve returned to my youthful indiscretions with children’s breakfast cereals. Let’s just say that one of the worst writing assignments I could imagine would be Adam Platt of the New York Magazine’s recent review of 100 “healthy” cereals plucked from the shelves of Whole Foods.
What I love are the ones that researchers at Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity found were less healthy than brands meant for adults. Oh, I’ve made the effort to grow up and eat better cereal, but even my Mini-Wheats are of the frosted variety. So, once my daughter got old enough to realize there was more to cereal than Cheerios and began pleading for Fruity Pebbles, I have to admit I was an easy target.
These sweet grains marketed primarily to our kids have been the topic of much debate for many years - such so that one of the top Google results on the subject is an article from 1991 called “Children’s cereal: beneficial breakfast or sweet snack?” While I would never say they were the best food for me or my daughter, I do think they’ve gotten a bad rap while some supposedly adult cereals get a free pass.
On a recent shopping trip where I was trying to buy “the right thing” for me, I selected Kellogg’s Smart Start cereal where the label promised a strong heart, whole-grain oats, antioxidants and low sodium. But, when I placed the box in my pantry next to my daughter’s choice of Fruit Loops Smoothie, I notice that my “healthy” cereal has a full six grams more sugar per serving than the kid’s cereal! Sure it wins on fiber, but hey, there’s more to health than our colons - my waistline for example. The Fruit Loops even had a full gram less fat!
From about as far back as I can remember, my two older brothers and I pretty much ate cereal for breakfast every weekday before school. And, every Saturday in front of the TV (back when cartoons didn’t run 24/7 on 10 different channels). Only on Sundays did Mom break out the pancakes, muffins or biscuits. And, guess what. None of us suffered any means of malnutrition. None of us displayed childhood obesity. We didn’t get diabetes. And, we’ve all grown up to be fairly intelligent adults.
Plus, there’s good news on the horizon. Remember that comparison I did earlier where the only thing the grown-up cereal really beat the kid cereal on was fiber content? Well, General Mills, the nation’s second largest cereal manufacturer, has announced that they will convert all of their breakfast cereals into whole grain products. It’s a move that online doctor Dr. Greene says is projected to single-handedly increase American’s whole grain consumption by 1.5 billion servings per year.
So, now there could be even less to beat ourselves up over as mothers; and, more reason for me to give in to my urges for a quickie of Coco Puffs every now and then before heading off to bed with my husband. After all, there are enough challenges and sacrifices we make as mothers, can’t we have this little treat without feeling guilty about it?
