Cerealizing, Or, You Can’t Get It From Here

I like cereal for breakfast. But as a not-on-meds Type 2 diabetic ALSO on a low-salt diet, even most of the “healthy/health food/oragnic” cereals — heck, even plain old oatmeal — aren’t something I can do a bowl of. I need something that’s low in carbohydrates (sugars and starches), and low in salt.  High in fiber’s good, too.

And even if I didn’t have these restrictions, I’d want something that didn’t use corn syrup or much in the way of whacky chemicals. (Yes, I ate stuff like that when I was a kid, who didn’t? I was also happy to have frozen spinach or lima beans (heated), or clam chowder (the red stuff, not that weird white stuff), but that’s another post…)
Trader Joe’s had one or two items that were close, but still relatively high in carbs.

Fortunately, a few years ago (hmmm, probably five or more), I found a cereal that fits the bill: Hi-Lo Cereal, from Nutritious Living.


One serving is 90 calories; only 13 grams of carb, of which 6 is fiber; 12 grams protein. 95 milligrams of sodium (salt), one gram of fat. It looks like flakes. Add some oat bran, some wheat bran, some cinnamon (alleged to help control blood sugar), a few nuts, some milk (or soy milk), and there you go.

And I was able to find it, most of the time, at Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s.

Until about a year ago, when it stopped being available there.

One store said, “They stopped making it.”

I tried the URL on the box, and it didn’t work.

Eventually, I called the company, who said that wasn’t the case.

I saw it for sale online, via Amazon and other places, but that felt too whacky — I mean, mail-ordering cereal?

But I missed my morning cereal.

So I called again. And, and I discovered THEY’D TYPOED THEIR URL ON THEIR PACKAGING, as “www.nutritiousliving.com.” They left out the hyphen. Sheesh!

The site lists store chains that carry the cereal, but no way to identify specific locations. After a few calls and visits, I gave up. I left email and voice mail with the company, no response; eventually, I did reach a live person who said that WF and TJ weren’t carrying it any more on the East Coast.  Hmph.

So I gave in, and have been mail-ordering.  The quantity and shipping sweet spot is around eight boxes, bringing the price to around what it had been in the store.  I could have gotten free shipping during the summer by ordering $100 bucks worth, which would last me until early spring, but that seemed excessive.

So now I’ve got a stash of cereal in the basement, and am happy again, breakfast-wise.

But it shouldn’t be this hard, either to do, or to sort out.  Like, if nothing else, when you’re putting your URL on your product packaging, get it right.

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