General Mills let me try free cereal! (And it's healthier now, too)

That's a pretty good disclosure, right? With all the changes to the blog world and making sure you tell everyone that you were given something free, it seems like everyone is stressing it beyond belief. I see it in bold all over sites. "They gave this to me, don't sue me!!"

Um, yeah, I'm pretty sure a simple line somewhere in your post, just like most morally-sane bloggers have been doing all along, is perfectly fine.

But anyway....that's not what this post is about.

This post is about how awesome General Mills was to send me coupons to try out their cereals. Around here, with 6 people total and 4 of them being kids who seem to be in constant growth spurts, a breakfast of cereal takes an entire box usually (or close, heh). Considering I make most things at home, cereal hasn't exactly gotten cheaper, and I pass on pre-sweetened things usually, I don't buy cereal all that often. The kids get to have it at school quite often anyway, so it's not like I'm depriving them of anything.

When I got the email from MyBlogSpark to receive coupons, though, and do a review, I was stoked. I was even more excited when I actually got them because "Ahhh!! There's four of them!! And they cover enough that I can get the big boxes!!" Yeah, so I might go a little crazy over getting freebies, oops, hehe.

I don't even go down the cereal aisle at Kroger's and tend to buy offbrand cereals at another store when I do actually buy cereal. Suddenly, I could taste all my old favorites and I was a bit giddy anyway from hearing that they'd decreased their sugar and increased their nutrients. Well, before I get too far ahead of myself, look at these stats and such:

General Mills announced a commitment to further reduce sugar in cereals advertised to kids under 12 to single digit grams of sugar per serving. The company has already been reducing sugar in cereals while increasing key nutrients, such as calcium and vitamin D, and providing whole grain.

Other cereal benefits:

* Ready-to-eat cereals, including presweetened cereals, account for only 5% of sugar in children´s diets.
* Ready-to-eat cereal is the No. 1 source of whole grains in a child´s diet today.
* More frequent cereal eaters tend to have healthier body weights and lower Body Mass Index measures.

I wanted to get some cereals that I wouldn't normally buy and that generally make me think "really sugary" (like Lucky Charms). After all, if they were decreasing the amounts of sugar, I wanted to see if they made them disgusting, right? Well, and I had to get some Kix because I hadn't had those since I was a kid and they were favorite. Kid-tested, mother-approved! Yummy. <3

Turns out, everything we tried tasted as good as ever, and the stats really aren't that bad. Lucky Charms at this point still had 11g of sugar per serving, which isn't quite a single digit yet, but it's close, and as an occasional cereal to eat, I don't see that as bad at all. It's especially great for weekend mornings when they're starving and I'm tired. And really...how bad is a few extra grams of sugar when a lot of people would be chowing down breakfast sandwiches, sausage/bacon, pancakes covered in syrup, etc?



If it's been a while since you've looked at presweetened cereals, it might not be a horrible idea to check them out again. General Mills seems to be doing their part with increasing the "good stuff" and decreasing some of the "bad stuff," so why not give them a shot? (Yes, they gave me free stuff, but since when do I lie to you guys or encourage you to do something I wouldn't? Exactly....I don't. I was kinda hoping I'd be able to give a less-than-positive review, but their Kix got to me. :( Oh well).