Cereal trends: not your mother's rice krispies

The cereal aisle is changing. Sure, you can still find shredded wheat, bran cereals, muesli, and other healthy standbys. You still have to wade beyond the Froot Loops, Trix, and other multi-colored near-candies. And you still have to watch out for cereals like Basic 4, Smart Start, and Special K, which sound like they belong in the healthy group, but don't.

Just when you think you've got it all sorted out, cereal companies come up with new ingredients, claims, spin-offs, or other shtick. Some of the innovations are good, some are seams, and some are in between. Here's how to tell which are which.

The information for this article was compiled by Sarah Wade.

Natural Food Store Brands

Kellogg, General Mills, and Post. For decades, the Big Three cereal companies kept most smaller competitors out of the super market cereal aisles. Now sortie natural food store brands like Barbara's Bakery, Health Valley, Kashi, and Nature's Path--have managed to get a foot in the door. (Kashi had the easiest time. It was purchased by Kellogg in 2000.)

The new arrivals are of tell packed with fiber-rich whole grams. Tired of raisin bran and shredded wheat? Now you can choose from mixtures of whole barley, buckwheat, triticale, amaranth, rye, kamut, and more. Another plus: Most brands are lighter on added sugars (which are often disguised as evaporated cane juice, molasses, honey, and brown rice syrup).

The downside to the new arrivals: Most are not fortified with 10 to 25 percent of a day's worth of about a dozen vitamins and minerals, like nearly all cereals made by fire Big Three. If you take a multivitamin-and-mineral every day, you don't need tied cereal. But if you (or your kids) don't take a multi, you may lose needed nutrients by switching to a natural food store brand.

Real Fruit

"Bursting with Real Berries!" gushes the label of (what else?) Berry Burst Cheerios. You'll also find fruit in Special K Red Berries, Kellogg's Fruit Harvest, and Post Honey Bunches of Oats with Real Strawberries.

It wasn't long ago that cereal companies tried to pass off artificially colored and flavored blobs of fat and sugar as real strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. (The raisins and other dried fruit were always genuine.) The ingredient lists gave the blobs clever names like "blueberry bits," but they were essentially lake fruit.

Now several companies are adding real freeze-dried berries. Pour in your milk and the fruit springs to life. (Not a bad trick if you're trying to lure kids away from Apple Jacks or Fruity Pebbles.)

Of course, you're still better off tossing in your own berries, sliced bananas, or whatever. After all, the cereals aren't exactly brimming with fruit. We found only about 1 1/2 (reconstituted) strawberries in each serving of Berry Burst Strawberry Cheerios, for example.

And the fruit is often added to mediocre cereals. A bowl of Special K Red Berries has only one gram of fiber. And Berry Burst Cheerios has more sugar--and less fiber--than the original Cheerios. But even a piddly amount of fruit is better than no fruit or fake fruit.

Weight Loss Claims

How can a cereal help you lose weight? Once you get past the sometimes grandiose claims on the front of the box, the answer is rather mundane: The cereal is simply part of a (often ordinary) lower-calorie diet.

Take Special K (suggested motto: "Nothing Special About It"). The front of the box says, "lose up to 6 lbs. in 2 weeks." But the back explains that Kellogg's Kick-Start Diet consists of having Special K with skim milk and fruit for two of your three daily meals--not exactly magical. The small print also notes that the average weight loss was only 4.2 pounds. And it neglects to mention that people who ate Special K twice a day lost no more weight than people who ate other cereals twice a day.

Kashi GoLEAN is even bolder. The cereal is part of a "Natural Slimming System" that includes a GoLEAN Shake for lunch, a GoLEAN Bar for a snack, and "a healthy meal of your choice" for dinner. The recipes and meal plans on the Web site (www.kashi.com) are reasonably healthful. And GoLEAN cereal gets a Best Bite. (GoLEAN Crunch gets an Honorable Mention because it's got more sugar.)

But Kashi gets carried away. According to the box, GoLEAN's "combination of high protein and high fiber is a proven formula that curbs cravings and, with exercise, helps you build muscle so you burn more fat." Extra protein may curio muscle loss and fiber may lessen hunger. But "proven" is a bit strong. And it's unclear that a GoLEAN shake or bar helps people curb calories better than any mini-meal of foods with protein or fiber.

Heart Disease

You needn't look far to find a cereal with a heart disease claim these days. The FDA has approved several that cereals can use. Among them:

* Whole grains. Post Shredded Wheat'n Bran "helps reduce the risk of heart disease because it is rich in whole grain," according to the box.