Product Review & Giveaway: Fiber One 80 Calories Cereal

I recently received a package in the mail from General Mills containing a box of their new Fiber One 80 Calories cereal.

Grooooooan.  Am I really in that demographic? 

I totally expected Fiber One 80 to taste like the twigs-&-branches high fiber cereal I remember my Dad eating when I was a kid.  Back then, I used to sample his cereal and then wonder how a guy smart enough to be able to name all the bones in the human body from head to toe could choose that over Captain Crunch.  Thing is, that comes with being a grown-up, doesn’t it?  You try to eat healthier.  You try to lose weight.  You try to be responsible.  And that means giving up sweetened cereals, raw hot dogs (please tell me it wasn’t just me?), and Doritos by the bag.  So, yeah, I have twigs & branches in my cupboard.  Which, I guess, means…yeah, I’m in that demographic. 

When I first tasted the Fiber One 80, I was pleasantly surprised by its sweetness and crunch.  In fact, in this video, where The Hungry Girl tastes the cereal, she mentions that it tastes like a sweetened kids’ cereal.  I have to disagree on this point, since as I’ve gotten older I find that those super-sweet kids’ cereals are actually WAY too (almost nauseatingly) sweet for me.  I didn’t find this to be the case with the Fiber One 80.  It does have a sweetness to it, one that - I promise  you – you won’t feel like you have to augment with a dash of your own sugar.  And a nice crunch, to boot.  In fact, the texture reminded me a little bit of Golden Grahams or Cinnamon Toast Crunch (but – not to beat a dead horse - less sweet).

I had to compare the Fiber One 80 label to some of the cereals I had in my cupboard. 

With a whopping 10 g of fiber – but only 3 grams of sugar – per serving, Fiber One 80 has a pretty nice resume in comparison to almost all of the other cereals in our cupboard:  better on both counts than our generic frosted-mini-wheat cereal (which has 10 g sugar, 6 g fiber);  equivalent in fiber to Original All-Bran (a.k.a “twigs & branches”), but with half the sugar (All-Bran has 6 g), and totally embarrassing Corn Flakes’ measly 2 g of fiber.   In fact Fiber One 80’s 10 grams of fiber per 80-calorie serving packs a double nutritional whammy since you’ll be consuming fewer calories and staying fuller longer.  We all know that’s key to sticking with a weight loss plan.  Or even to just getting all the way to lunchtime without needing a donut  carrot.

It didn’t take long for me to figure out how they kept the sugar content down in the Fiber One 80, though.  My consciousness did eventually hone in on the taste of sucralose…Dang it, I can always taste those artificial sweeteners!  I’m generally not a big fan of artificial sweeteners, and I couldn’t write this review without mentioning that you might find it to have that slight aftertaste,  but I did find the cereal satisfying, and I will buy more in the future for its nutritional benefits as well as its good taste – despite the slight aftertaste.  DaddyO and the kids liked the cereal, as well.  In fact, I like Fiber One 80 almost as much for a less-guilt-dry-snacking-on-the-go option as I do for a cereal option. 

For more information on Fiber One 80 or other Fiber One products, as well as for coupons for new products, visit Fiber One’s website.  To hear what others are saying about Fiber One 80, visit Fiber One’s Facebook page.  And here’s some great news:  General Mills will be sending one winning Domesticated reader a prize package, including: 1 box of Fiber One 80 Calories Cereal, 1 sensor pedometer with USB connector to chart walking progress, and 1 neoprene iPod/smartphone holder with armstrap. 

To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment here telling me what kinds of foods you’ve most reluctantly had to give up since having “grown up” – something that, for whatever reason, you just can’t eat like you used to when you were a kid.  The winner will be chosen at random from among qualified entries.  (Remember, if you’re a no-reply blogger, you have to leave your email in your comment in order for me to be able to contact you if you win!)  You have until midnight on Tuesday, September 20 to enter.  Thanks for reading, and good luck!

 

(The Fiber One 80 Calories cereal for this review, as well as the information and the prize pack for the giveaway have all been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark.  As always, the opinions in this review are 100 % my own…Can’t you tell? )