Article published Apr 10, 2005
Not chocolate, not potato chips — a lot of folks crave cereal
After losing 40 pounds in three months on a diet, Amanda Fisk started eating cereal — one bowl, then another, then the whole box, often in one sitting.
Marissa Miracolo turned to cereal when she became a vegetarian, frequently eating as many as three bowls in the morning, two in the afternoon and three at night.
And when addiction specialist Caryl Ehrlich found herself eating Shredded Wheat from the box at midnight, she knew she had a problem.
"When you're eating cookies and candies at midnight in your jammies, you can convince yourself that it tastes good," said Ehrlich, author of "Conquer Your Food Addiction" and founder of a weight-control program in New York City. "But when you're eating Shredded Wheat at midnight in your jammies, it doesn't taste good."
While many Americans turn to low-carbohydrate trends like the Atkins and South Beach diets, others say they cannot imagine their lives without cereal.
Cereal consumption remains a passion that has spawned Web sites, specialty restaurants and research studies — and some people claim mild addictions to Cheerios, Shredded Wheat or Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
In recent years, cereal companies have developed new products to try to lure more devotees of carbohydrates, marketing low-sugar, whole-grain and vitamin-enhanced cereals — though some question whether these cereals are necessarily healthier.
A few entrepreneurs have gone further against the grain of the anti-carb craze, opening up all-day cereal bars on college campuses and in cities around the country.
Cereal sales have not ballooned, growing to $9 billion in 2003 from $8.5 billion in 1998, according to research by the Mintel International Group, a market research firm. But some studies suggest that cereal remains a staple for children, teens and adults. In 2004, 96 percent of U.S. households purchased cereal, and the average person ate almost 100 servings during the year, according to research by ACNielsen and the NPD Group, a global sales and marketing information firm.
"No one only eats cereal in the morning," said Joe Shea, 28, editor in chief of The Empty Bowl, a Web site dedicated to cereal news and reviews (
www.emptybowl.com). "It's so easy to snack on. You don't even necessarily have to put it in a bowl and put milk on it."
In the past year, two additional cereal lovers' Weblogs have appeared online: Cereal Life and Cereal Serial. Both highlight cereals that the bloggers have sampled daily. Chris Cavanaugh, 37, a Michigan editor who started Cereal Life in January, said he has "a library" of cereals on his desk — three or four open boxes that he snacks on throughout the day — and a larger selection at home.
David Roth, founder of Cereality, a new cereal restaurant chain, noticed people snacking on cereal at work, too. When he was in a meeting on Wall Street one afternoon, he spotted a colleague sneaking Coco Puffs out of a plastic baggie under his desk.
"I believed that people craved cereal all day long," he said.
Roth opened a Cereality kiosk at the University of Arizona student center in August 2003 and a cafe near the University of Pennsylvania campus last November. A third store will open in downtown Chicago this spring.
The restaurant has a menu of more than 30 hot and cold cereals and even more toppings. "Cereologists" dressed in pajamas serve cereals, smoothies, cereal bars and cereal parfaits, as well as cereal snack mixes with ingredients like wasabi peas or peanuts. Visitors fill their bowls with milk from large metal canisters and then sit on couches or at big wooden kitchen-style tables.
On a recent weekend, the restaurant drew mixed reviews.
"I could get the same cereal at a grocer and enjoy it in the comfort of my own room," said Matt Mawhinney, 20, a student at the University of Pennsylvania, while picking up a cereal concoction for one of his friends.
"It's become a staple of the Penn environment," said Veyom Bahl, 19, another University of Pennsylvania student. "I have, like, four boxes of cereal sitting in my room, but I'm here anyway."
MIT researcher Judith Wurtman said people often crave cereal when they are feeling depressed or anxious. Wurtman discovered that when people stop eating carbohydrates, their brains stop regulating serotonin, a chemical in the brain involved in elevating mood and suppressing appetite.
"The need to make more serotonin is felt, and it's felt in the form of a craving for carbohydrates," said Wurtman.
The problem, she said, is that some cravers eat cereal without paying attention to how much they have consumed, leading to weight gain.
Recent studies have shown that cereal has other downfalls as well. Many cereals are high in sugar or sodium. One survey by The Associated Press showed that even new low-sugar cereals can have as many calories, carbohydrates, fat and fiber as full-sugar equivalents.
Fisk, 19, the self-pronounced cereal addict from California, said that even when she doesn't eat cereal, she constantly thinks about eating it.
"I feel like I can't just have one bowl. I have to eat the whole box," she said. "I didn't like to eat Shredded Wheat until that was the only cereal left in the house because I had eaten all the others."
http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs...mplate=printart
Not Chocolate, Not Potato Chips -- a Lot of Folks Crave Cereal
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