Grape-Nuts and …

There's a new cereal from Grape-Nuts: Grape-Nuts Fit. In addition to the "lightly crunchy nuggets" mentioned on the package front (those seem to be regular Grape-Nuts), Grape-Nuts Fit contains granola, cranberries, puffed barley and "a touch of natural vanilla flavor." The arrangement of words on the box seems to indicate that this is Cranberry Vanilla Grape-Nuts Fit, suggesting that someday we might have other flavors touching Fits of Grape-Nuts.

Let it be said that although some lovers of original Grape-Nuts might not jump for joy at the thought of cranberries or touches of flavor, in a very obvious way Grape-Nuts Fit is a lot more like Grape-Nuts than like Grape-Nuts Flakes (the only other variant of Grape-Nuts). Fit is almost as leaden — or let's say "dense" — as regular Grape-Nuts. A 58-gram serving of Grape-Nuts is ½ cup; the same serving of Grape-Nuts Fit is ⅔ cup. A ¾-cup serving of Grape-Nuts Flakes weighs only 29 grams — half as much.

And although a serving of Grape-Nuts Fit has a little more fat and a little less fiber than one of regular Grape-Nuts, its substantial vitamin and mineral profile — 13 constituents at 10 percent or more of the daily value (seven of them at 25 percent or more) — is almost identical to those of Grape-Nuts and Grape-Nuts Flakes.

… a Kellogg's sandwich

Over at Kellogg's, expansion of the Special K brand continues unabated. One of the latest (and least likely) examples is Special K Flatbread frozen breakfast sandwiches: ham, egg & pepper Jack cheese; egg with vegetables & pepper Jack cheese; and sausage, egg & cheese.

They are a little smaller than the comparable McDonald's McMuffin or biscuit sandwiches, and Mr. Tidbit must say they are much lower in fat, cholesterol and calories than is accounted for just by that smaller size. For example, McDonald's Sausage McMuffin with Egg clocks in at 5.8 ounces, 450 calories, 27 grams of fat and 285 milligrams of cholesterol; the 4-ounce Special K sausage, egg & cheese flatbread sandwich item contains 240 calories, 11 grams of fat and 115 milligrams of cholesterol.

Al Sicherman