Hello friends: This is my first food review! Special thanks to Attune Foods and Uncle Sam cereal for reaching out. Please note that I was provided a complimentary review sample of this cereal in exchange for a review.
Cereal and I have a weird relationship. At one point in my teen years, I stockpiled four boxes of Count Chocula cereal after calling multiple stores in the area to find it. I never liked Cheerios, Kix or Wheetabix – but the sugary, chalky pellets of puffed who-knows-what always tickled my taste buds, and I’d chow down on bowls of Lucky Charms or worse, Reeses puffs. As I grew aware of how being fat was seriously unhealthy, I gave up my affair with sugar-bomb cereal and traded it in for a bland but stable relationship with whole wheat toast.
In my college years, I found the glories of fiber and became a fan of Trader Joe’s “Twigs, Flakes and Clusters.” Since then I’ve dabbled in a few high fiber cereals, as I find them to be filling, low in fat, and much easier to digest than the brightly-colored fatty-flakes I once loved.
The cereal - no artificial colors here!
In a wonderfully written letter about the product (Copywriters can’t help but notice the words – clever, informative and succinct! Well done, copywriter), I found out that Uncle Sam cereal was once lauded as a “natural laxative cereal.” That’s a claim that may frighten people who don’t want their bowels quaking shortly after breakfast, but I found it to be true in the most ungross way. Sorry – fiber is so important for your body, and this cereal helps move everything along! A 3/4 cup serving packs a whopping TEN grams of fiber! For comparison: 3/4 cup Captain Crunch has less than gram of fiber. Fiber fail, Captain Crunch!
Four Core Ingredients
What’s the most important thing about this cereal? How it tastes! I’ll admit – I was skeptical at first of a cereal that lists only four ingredients. (Isn’t it sad that I’d probably be less suspicious of an ingredient list longer than the bible?)Thankfully, my suspicions were wrong, and the taste is nutty, simple and light, with a nice crunch. It’s not sweetened, so people who are used to the taste of “Artificial O’s” might think it a bit bland, but I drizzled some clover honey over the top of it and it was perfect. I ate mine consistently with 2% cow’s milk and a drizzle of honey – very good in the morning, it kept me satisfied until lunch time. I wanted to try grinding the flakes in a food processor and use them for onion ring breading, but my busy work week got the best of me and I actually LIKED what I was eating, so the box disappeared in pure breakfast consumption.
Milk, Honey and Uncle Sam
One more thing: Uncle Sam cereal is a verified product in the Non-GMO project. This means that it’s made out of ingredients that aren’t genetically modified. This means no cloning sheep, no neon green dyes, no harvesting crushed beetle shells for super powers. This is a good thing – and a cause that makes me happy to support a brand.
I recommend Uncle Sam if you’re looking for a filling, healthful breakfast cereal. You can find Uncle Sam at Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Wal-Mart and most grocery stores nationwide. If you try it, let me know what you think!
Cold cereal is my one true love, but I don’t often indulge – usually opting for the bland-but-tummy-conscious plain oatmeal. I’ll have to give this one a shot though, seems like it could be a nice vacation from the norm.
I will say though, that without your review I wouldn’t glance twice at this cereal in my local Trader Joes. The packaging looks like something you’d see on the shelf at Petsmart. If the kind folks allow you to send them some comments, maybe pass that along 🙂
Joseph, that’s a really helpful comment – thanks!!!
I don’t do cereal, but this sounds awesome. Maybe I could eat it as a dry snack (I do not like milk – of any persuasion!) or something. I like that it has a short, simple, pronounceable ingredient list and is non-gmo!
Its fairly high in carbs for the carb conscious, but its good just sprinkled on low carb yogurt. I was not fond of the seeds, but its the best cereal around right now.