I have written in the past about the high margin-to-cost of the breakfast cereal business. I also think a lot about the words Big Cereal uses to sell its product, specifically the pervasive use of fruity words in naming breakfast cereals.

If I had just ten seconds to share advice on improving your nutrition, I would encourage you to eat more foods like fruits and vegetables (and beans, nuts, and seeds). And I don’t think that would surprise anyone. If you’ve been reading my blog, you know these are nutritional powerhouses, and you know that it’s a good idea to eat more of them, especially since most Americans don’t eat enough produce to begin with.

Big Food, the ultra processed food industry, knows this, too. They know that you know that your health would benefit from eating more fruits and vegetables. That’s why so many ultra processed items contain some version of the word “fruit” and examples from the fruit family. To a certain extent, it’s true for vegetables, too: think “vegetable” oil (exactly which “vegetable” is that?), though not exactly the same because who wants to eat a box of asparagus crisps or spinach wafers for breakfast? But it’s a big issue for fruit, because fruit is sweet, and sugar makes us want to buy more.

So that’s why the cereal (and candy) aisles contain items like “Froot” loops, fruit roll-ups, Tootsie frootie rolls! Fruity pebbles! The list goes on and on and on; it’s truly theatre of the absurd in the breakfast cereal aisle.

You can buy apple jacks and apple raisin crisp, apple zings, apple zingaroos, strawberry chex, apple cinnamon chex, cap’n crunch crunch berries, Boo-Berry, banana nut cheerios, berry burst cheerios, banana frosted flakes, bite-size frosted blueberry muffin, frosted mini-wheats strawberry delight, cranberry almond crunch, Fruit ’n Fibre, Fruit & nut granola cereal, honey bunches of oats with peaches, and berry-berry six. That’s just for starters. All of these have been available for purchase at one time or another.

Then there’s raisin bran (one of the highest sugar cereals on the market), and total raisin bran, apple cinnamon rice krispies, berry krispies, fruity marshmallow krispies, strawberry rice krispies, strawberry shortcake, Special K Red Berries, Special K Fruit and Yogurt, and Total Cranberry Crunch. You are getting the picture. It’s one thing to eat a strawberry. It’s entirely different when you eat frosted mini-wheats strawberry delight, with its fruity name. It’s definitely not a strawberry. Maybe it’s closer to a berry made of straw.

The Weight Watchers system considers fresh fruits and vegetables “free,” meaning that there is no limit to how many of them you can eat. They do not cost any of your daily point allotment. 

That is not the case for “blueberry oat clusters.” I’m not saying you can’t eat them. I’m saying they don’t nourish you.