Oreos again!

Good heavens, there's another new flavor of Oreo cookies! It's Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, represented with another of Oreos' recent two-color filling swirls — in this case, peanut butter and chocolate. As with other recent "limited edition" Oreos, the bag of the Reese's version weighs 12.2 ounces, for the same price as the 14.3-ounce bags of regular Oreos. Oddly, the 15.25-ounce bags of Peanut Butter Oreos seem to have disappeared.

Cheerios, too!

You know what your life was missing, right? Another kind of Cheerios. This one, in two flavors — Cinnamon Almond and Oats & Honey (that makes 16) — is designed to address what seems to be the latest dietary worry: Are you getting enough protein? (Pssst: Yes, you are. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine says, "The average American consumes about double the protein her or his body needs.")

OK, never mind whether you need it. How much protein does new Cheerios Protein provide? On the front of the box there's a big circled "11g protein." But, as noted there, that's the amount of protein with milk. The nutrition label shows that the amount of protein in a serving of the cereal alone is 7 grams; it also shows 11 grams as the amount of protein counting the 4 grams in half a cup of milk. (This is the same deal as the 10 grams of protein with milk listed on General Mills' fairly new Fiber One Protein cereal. The nutrition label on virtually every other cereal lists only the amount of protein in the cereal itself.)

That said, even 7 grams is a lot of protein for a serving of cereal. A serving of regular Cheerios, for instance, has only 3 grams. What accounts for the difference? In the Oats & Honey version, besides the (sweetened) Cheerios, there are oat granola clusters proteined-up with soy protein and lentils. In the Cinnamon Almond version, the almond granola clusters are boosted with soy protein isolate.

There is another (very peculiar) factor, but it's a little complicated, and Mr. Tidbit has been so windy about this already that he doesn't have room to explain it. He'll do so next week. (Don't worry; the time will fly by.)

Al Sicherman