This is Ron eating breakfast...

Ron, eating a better breakfast

Tim, I'm blaming you. You wanted more pictures in my blog, and here one is! This is part of our domestic routine. I get up about two hours before Ron, get my reading done, then I fritter away the rest of my day. Ron saunters in a while later, after all, he is retired, and has a very healthy bowlful of Kashi™ Good Friends® and Post Shredded Wheat (Wheat 'n Bran Spoon Size) plus a soupçon of General Mills Whole Grain (yeah, right!) Reese's® (Peanut Butter) Puffs® (made from Hershey's cocoa) on top, all swimming in a sea of skim milk. Now that's a superhero's breakfast! As an added bonus, on some mornings he works on Sudoku during breakfast, sharpening his mind while eating good, or is he????

This morning, I went snuffeling through the cereal shelf in the kitchen, just to see how "healthy" this breakfast is, not only for Ron, but for our society at large. Here's the results of my investigation.

Kashi™ Good Friends® - Kashi bills itself as "The Seven Grain Company." Looking on the ingredient list, I see wheat, oats, rice, corn, rye, triticale, buckwheat, and barley (eight grain, maybe?). Many of those grains, however, occur a long ways down the ingredient list. The list is a little daunting, but looks healthy. A serving contains two grams of fat, no trans or saturated fat, and an astounding twelve grams of dietary fiber, 47% of the daily recommended amount. This may explain some of the sounds and fragrances in our home. An added bonus to this cereal is the Kashi™ Friendly Fiber Muffins recipe on the back of the cereal box. It looks pretty healthy, too, although I'm betting you can use them as hockey pucks.

Check out the Kashi web site. It has lots of good, accessible information that will help you live healthier, if a little airier.

Post Shredded Wheat, Wheat 'n Bran - Post has been on the food scene for a long time. Perhaps the Post's family's most sincere contribution to American culture and values is the Hillwood Estate, Museum, and Gardens in Washington, DC. Thank you Marjorie. The company (which started out as a health food outfit!) is currently a division of Kraft Foods.

I like the ingredients list on the cereal box: "Whole grain wheat and wheat bran. To preserve the natural wheat flavor, BHT is added to the packaging material. Contains: Wheat. What a relief! Each serving contains eight grams of fiber, not quite the colon-blowing experience of Kashi™ Good Friends®, but still a movement-inducing breakfast phenomenon.

Reese's® Puffs® - Reese's® Puff® is a General Mills product. The corporation's "Corporate Social Responsibility Report" is online. Maybe you should read that report before looking at the Reese's® Puffs® cereal box. Okay, I 'fess up, I eat Reese's® Puffs® all the time, because it's a fun, chocolate flavored confection. This is a fortified cereal, but sugar is the second ingredient on the ingredients list. Per serving, the cereal contains three grams of fat, and 12 grams of sugars, and only one gram of colon blow fiber. This cereal is basically a condiment.

The back of this box contains a list of "18 Things To Do Before You're 18." Parents might want to read this list first. I'm not sure I'd want my kids to be so accomplished. And is item 13 referring to gang activity: "Make it part of your crew's lingo?" Okay, I'm being hysterical here, but the tenor of this cereal box is a kid-centered world that teaches some damaging kid-centered values. Scary cereal box. Check out its kid-centered web site and cringe.

My verdict on Ron's breakfast: good to eat, healthy on the colon. I can overlook the Reese's® Puffs® because Ron is so sweet to begin with, and he only uses them for an accent of flavor (I, on the other hand, smear them all over my body, roll in them, and inhale deeply while licking myself and moaning loudly). And that's a peak at breakfast!

The Cereal Shelf