I'd rather have a bowl of Cocopops

[venta]

As ever, things are never quite how they should be.

Wandering the cereal aisle in Sainsbury's last night, I observed this:



I hurried gleefully down, eager to see what X-rated breakfast goods they had on offer. Tarantino Flakes, maybe, which shake into the bowl in a shower of dismembered body parts and foul language. At the very least I was hoping for glossy, full-frontal nudity on the box.



I feel let down by the world. Nothing more exciting than Special K, things with improbably spelled names suggesting improved health, and frighteningly worthy-looking muesli.

Still, at least I am reassured that my otherwise quite boring bran flakes came from a different section and are therefore suitable for juveniles.

Comments

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Actually that Dorset Cereals meusli is bloody lovely.

But yes, very disappointing. Though not as worrying as the sign for 'Lunchbox Cheese' in Sainsbury's.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

bloody lovely

Mmm, but sooo expensive...

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

We demand cereals shaped like willies!

[ulfilias.livejournal.com]

with knobs on !

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

I can understand your disappointment.

Still, I don't see any weetbix there, so maybe I'm ok..

[mothsmoonflower.livejournal.com]

Tarantino Flakes! - I'd buy them ....

[mister-jack.livejournal.com]

'Adult' cereals, huh? Because, you know, we should only be feeding our kids the stuff which is at least 50% sugar. FFS.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

we should only be feeding our kids the stuff which is at least 50% sugar

Dude, you're so out of date!

There's no such thing as sugar anymore, there's just "carbohydrates". All cereals are full of those, so there's nothing particularly evil about Frosties anymore except that they've got a tiger on the front.

The reason grown ups don't eat kids' cereals is because the packets aren't covered in lies about them being healthy reassuring nutritional buzzwords information.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Have you seen that advert with the mum talking about how she liked to get her kids 'off to a good start' with New! Nestle Chocolate-Frosted Sugarbombs or whatever? Pity their poor teachers who have to deal with the little darlings' hyperactivity and inevitable mid-morning sugarcrash tantrum.

What's wrong with beans on toast for breakfast, is what I want to know? Probably cheaper than these overpriced, overprocessed cereals, too.

[venta.livejournal.com]

What's wrong with beans on toast for breakfast, is what I want to know?

It requires more effort than pouring Chocolate-Frosted Sugarbombs into the bowl and throwing milk on them. You can't possibly expect a busy mother to have that kind of time.

Apparently :(

[ulfilias.livejournal.com]

You can't instantly pour beans on toast out of a box.....You know these school girls pushing prams haven't even got to home ecc let alone actualy being able to cook.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

*is very relieved that smallclanger thinks that porridge (as made by narenek, admittedly, not me) is the best breakfast ever, and considers Weetabix (without sugar) a close second*

*is less relieved that narenek uses this as an excuse to eat all the Frosties*

[venta.livejournal.com]

I've never eaten porridge made by narenek, but in general I agree. Although since I tend to eat porridge in approximately the ratio 2:1 with golden syrup, I probably don't have a leg to stand on.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Well, it beats porridge made by me simply by the fact of existing, but also it's very good. :)

I like it with lemon curd or brown sugar, but smallclanger apparently takes after my mum and grandfather and likes it with merely a splash of cold milk. He'll probably grow up to like it with salt, the weirdo.

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

Mmm, porridge. Though I'd go for brown sugar rather than syrup. But generally (on days when I have breakfast at home and don't make toast) I go for sweetened cereals because the others are nasty without milk. FSVO sweetened, of course. Things with plenty of raisins are usually fine, though most muesli is too dry.

[mister-jack.livejournal.com]

I think cereals are a pretty good breakfast; it's just the way that so many of the cereals aimed at children are sugar coated shite that annoys me. What's wrong with Weetabix, Shreddies, Shredded Wheat or even Corn Flakes?

[new-brunette.livejournal.com]

Or indeed the ridiculous one with the chocolate tubes which "make drinking milk fun". It's gotta be a pretty stupid milk-hating kid who doesn't realise that what's coming out of the chocolate tube is the same stuff that his coco pops have been floating in...

[ulfilias.livejournal.com]

Actualy the amount of sugar being crammed into almost *EVERYTHING* these days is quite horrifying. A year or two back i went on a diet with the aim of cutting out sugar and its substitutes (sweetener, Honey, Dextrose, refined fructose etc) and its was *REALY* hard to shop in supermarkets....Tins of carots can have sugar, almost every salad dressing does (newmans do an italian one and it think that was it from Waitrose, Sainsburys, Tesco & Asda combined !).

You got cranky and spotty as hell for a week and a half and then really started to get some energy back as your blood sugar levels ballenced out and your body went onto using slower burning carbs properly.

Also cut caffine and the first coffee after a month or so was a right eye opener !

[mister-jack.livejournal.com]

(Pedant mode: honey, dextrose & fructose are sugars)

The only pre-processed foods I eat with any regularity are ham, breakfast cereals and bread. Everything else I cook from fresh.

But, yes, it is quite eye-opening what they pile sugar into. And the sheer number of things that are "sugar-free" that have just been pumped full of artificial sweeteners is quite horrifying - or, even worse, things that have sugar and sweeteners.

I tried to give up caffeine once, but gave up after a week.

[ulfilias.livejournal.com]

Don't think honey is a sugar per say, though i don't know what sugars it contains. Agreed that dextrose & fructose are members of the sugar grouping, and by sugar i did mean sucrose, or table sugar....Its kind of like Hoover in reference to a vaccum cleaner. The other one i'm not so sure of is maltodextrin which i guess is probably another refined carb as i see it a sugar substitue in foods.

Breakfast i've started to eat 2 Shredded Wheat and fruit juice, with a coffee - I did used to have toast, but tended towards the white breads or bagels and marge, though i've since heard that real butter is probably better for you despite the fat content.

[mister-jack.livejournal.com]

Butter isn't better for you; it's just become fashionable for being "more natural".

"Honey has a similar composition to granulated sugar (50% fructose and 44% glucose) and approximately the same relative sweetness (97% of the sweetness of sucrose)." - Wikipedia. There's a chunk of water and a small number of proteins and other compounds in there, but the sweetness comes from the sugar.

I keep thinking of switching to having a big cooked breakfast everyday (not a fry up, just cooked), in the whole "Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and supper like a pauper" theory of how one should eat, but I just can't quite be arsed with that kind of effort in the morning. Making coffee and sloshing milk on some cereal seems like a lot of work some days.

[pope-ant.livejournal.com]

Butter doesn't (unless it has been screwed around with) contain trans-fats.
A lot (all?) of margarine does.

An aquaintance (who works for a large food company) spent some time explaining this (with chemical formulas) to me recently.

[mister-jack.livejournal.com]

There are more trans fats in margarine (they occur naturally in vegetable oils), true, but there is still only a very small quantity (in the UK, the US has much higher level). Butter is usually higher in calorific value (mostly because it contains less water), and is much higher in saturated fats.

Higher levels of trans fats comes from partial hydrogynation. But that hasn't been used in most Margarines for the UK market since the mid 90s.

On the other hand, Butter just tastes better, and it's not like you use that much of either. It's only when you pile it into foods you are cooking that it becomes significant.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I've done this a few times (well, I don't normally go as far as cutting out honey, though I do stick with as unrefined a type as possible), and I agree - you feel like hell for a while and then suddenly you have all this energy because your body's not totally reliant on frequent injections of cane sugar and high fructose corn syrup.

The most common sugar-substitutes (aspartame etc) give me terrible headaches so I can't go near them. I had high hopes for sucralose, which is derived from sugar, but everything I've tried that uses it so far has tasted really insipid.

[ulfilias.livejournal.com]

I've heard that Phenylalanine is quite bad for us and tends to interupt sleep....making some diet soft drinks quite bad at night !

[redcountess]

I tried doing that (giving up all added sugars as well as caffeine) as I have insulin resistance issues and it made food shopping a nightmare! I still have muesli with no added sugar though, the Alpen one is great but I switched to Tesco's as it's cheaper.

[kissifa.livejournal.com]

So I guess the definition of an 'adult cereal' is one that you eat to lose the weight you've put on by eating children's cereals and other such crud in your youth? Cunning...

[venta.livejournal.com]

You've got to admire the marketing departments' planning on that one!

[lathany.livejournal.com]

<snigger>

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

My favourite muesli is in the Be Good To Yourself range from Sainsbury's, because it's 51% fruit. As discussed above, it's probably more sugary than anything else on the aisle. But, y'know, mumble.

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

Probably more to the point: 51% fruit and no nuts.

[neilh.livejournal.com]

And there was me thinking it was a mis-spelling of Adult Serials in a book shop. Oh well.