My favorite cereals are produced right here in Michigan. That’s great! I love buying foods that support the local economy – from the town level to the state level. Heck, I even prefer Wisconsin cheese over California cheese because Wisconsin, well, it is pretty local.

I don’t eat a lot of cereal, but the cereal faces the bread in the store where I shop, and I felt a bit of a craving for it when I picked up a couple of loaves of 7-grain yumminess. It probably had something to with the fact that I came into a nice sum of money and I knew I didn’t have to do the math in my head as I put items in the cart – kind of like a kid in a candy store. In this rare case, cereal usually gets thrown into the cart.

While I do eat out a lot, and I consume more than my fair share of food, what I put in my shopping cart is usually just the opposite of what I am served at restaurants. Some of my food is organic, none of it contains high-fructose corn syrup, and I stay away from beverages that are high in sugar such as pop (soda for those of you with dirty minds and those of you who don’t live in Michigan) and juice, but I still drink beer and wine. In a word, my groceries are healthy.

Walking down that cereal/bread aisle was a little exciting for me. I immediately gravitated to the Kellogg’s cereals. This is no surprise: they are a Michigan company and they do make the best cereal (maybe it’s a childhood thing). I saw that the Special K had the word original stamped on the box. I was excited. I remember when I grabbed a box of Special K in 1996, when I was in the army, and didn’t finish it because it tasted funny. Someone informed me that they changed the recipe. I went years without eating Special K.

The word original got me quite excited. I picked up the box of healthy goodness and looked at the ingredients list: high-fructose corn syrup (SweetSurprise, September 2008). W-T-F, Kellogg? W-T-F? I returned the box to its proper place on the shelf. Next in line were the Corn Flakes. Aaawwww, yeeah! I love Corn Flakes. Ingredients: high-fructose corn syrup. Dude. Moving on, I went for the Bran Flakes which were packaged in a new, retarded, generic box (bring back the classic red box, Kellogg’s!). I knew I was going to be disappointed, but I looked at the ingredients of my all-time favorite cereal: high-fructose syrup. I hung my head low and choked back the tears (ok, maybe this is just a tad more dramatic than what really took place). I placed the box of grainy goodness back on the shelf.

General Mills won my devotion when I picked up the box of Cheerios. In fact, I picked up several different varieties of General Mills cereal and was quite pleased. They don’t use high-fructose corn syrup. In the end, I forewent the Kellogg’s classics for General Mills Honey Nut Cheerios.