Years ago we discovered Post's "Blueberry Morning" cereal, and loved it.
Then the entire country was politely informed that trans-fats, which had been in the food supply for decades ("because natural coconut oil was unhealthy"), were killing us softly. Blueberry Morning had trans-fats, so we stopped buying it.
A year or two later, Post dropped the trans-fat, and this fine breakfast cereal again became one of my favorites. The first two ingredients were corn meal and dried blueberries. Their inspiration, they said on the box, was a blueberry corn muffin. And this stuff was quite tasty! Blueberry Morning was low in sodium, nutritious, and contained no partially hydrogenated oils at all.
Partially hydrogenated oil (aka vegetable shortening) is the food additive that adds trans-fats, and is still found in numerous products labeled as "0 grams trans-fat! per serving". If the amount per serving is less than 0.5 grams, they can claim 0 grams. If the serving is 1/2 cup and you eat two cups, you could be eating nearly 2 grams, which is nearly 2 grams over the recommended safe levels. Trans-fats, dear friends, are the worst food additives since the "jagged metal Krusty-O" Bart Simpson found in his lucky box.
Back to Blueberry Morning. Just months ago, it underwent another re-formulation. "New! Improved!" The first two ingredients are now rice, and high-fructose corn syrup (i.e., sugar, created from in-bred corn, fed with petroleum-based fertilizers...yum!). Again, I stopped buying it. The first two ingredients have nearly zero nutritional value. I'd be better off with a bowl of packing peanuts. (Perhaps literally, since you can now get packing peanuts made of corn-starch! You just toss them in the sink and let them dissolve...)
Last night, at my favorite local grocer, I discovered that they had discovered one remaining old box of the prior (perfect) formulation. The box was beaten, tattered, stamped with an expiration date in the not too far future (Dec 07), and perhaps a little stained with rat urine, but the goram ingredients were corn meal and blueberries!
Breakfast this morning was...(say it with me)...a Blueberry Morning!
