This morning I was creating an educational sheet for a type 1 diabetic patient. In writing it up, I gathered a list of the patient’s commonly eaten foods. While looking up the amount of carbs in the patient’s cereal preferences, I was surprised that I could not find “Fruit Loops” on calorieking.com. “Huh, that’s strange,” I noted. “Surely it is one of the most popular sugary cereals out there.” And then I had a rude awakening. “Fruit Loops” isn’t on calorieking.com, but “Froot Loops” is. For, apparently, poetic alliteration is more important than being true to the identity of the fruit food group. Once I came to terms with that, I realized that really I should not be surprised at all, since the contents of said cereal have little, if anything, to do with fruit. Thus, I should be grateful for this awkward spelling, since in its apparent twisting of the truth, it is in fact shining light on a broader truth.
Behold, the ingredients of this anything-but-fruit cereal:
INGREDIENTS: KELLOGG'S FROOT LOOPS (Sugar, corn flour blend (whole grain yellow corn flour, degerminated yellow corn flour), wheat flour, whole grain oat flour, oat fiber, soluble corn fiber, contains 2% or less of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (coconut, soybean and/or cottonseed), salt, red 40, natural flavor, blue 2, turmeric color, yellow 6, annatto color, blue 1, BHT for freshness. Vitamins and Minerals: Vitamin C (sodium ascorbate and ascorbic acid), niacinamide, reduced iron, zinc oxide, vitamin B6 (pyridoxine hydrochloride), vitamin B2 (riboflavin), vitamin B1 (thiamin hydrochloride), vitamin A palmitate, folic acid, vitamin D, vitamin B12.)
http://www.nutrition.und.edu/foodpro/label.asp?locationNum=08&locationName=&dtdate=8%2F9%2F2011&RecNumAndPort=034013*1