Cereal is a very special part of American culture. It is, in fact, a subject hotly debated by the blog staff. Two weeks ago, Cereal Enthusiast Abigail Horwitt listed her top cereals. Blogger Levi Kassinove takes issue with her selection and its glaring omission: Special K. 

By Levi Kassinove, Cereal Connoisseur

Special K is an American brand of breakfast cereal that’s manufactured by Kellog’s. Its ingredients include rice (47%), wholewheat (37%), sugar, barley (5%), malted barley flour, salt, and a few other random chemicals (Kellog’s). According to Abby Walthausen for Yahoo News, “The original Special K was the culmination of a lifelong goal of W.K. Kellogg. . . . It was to be his uber cornflakes but the final recipe, with enough protein, vitamins, and minerals to survive by, was not complete until 1955, four years after Kellogg’s death.” Today, Kellogg’s advertises their cereal as low-fat, as a cereal that helps people lose weight. One person on Quora vouched for this cereal, saying that “it’s not a miracle food, but it’s healthy enough” (Quora). I will tell you right now that while this may be true for the original variation, the other subspecies of Special K are not healthy. I’m talking about the Special K Brown Sugar Cinnamon cereal, the Special K Red Berries cereal, and the Special K Chocolatey Delight Chocolatey cereal (All Cereal Varieties). Unfortunately, contrary to these deliciously unhealthy cereal names, the label of a “diet cereal” often connotes that it has a terrible flavor. With Special K, only the people who are open minded enough to try this diet cereal, with no preconceived notions, will have their eyes opened to the possibilities of Special K. The cereal has evolved since its introduction in the 1950s into a hidden gem of a breakfast. 

I can go on and on about WHY this cereal is so good. No, really, I will. In their “Red Berries” genre, the strawberries are masterfully freeze-dried. The strawberries, along with the other red berries I have yet to identify, get masterfully rehydrated upon contact with milk. Let me show you a picture of this cereal. Maybe it will be the catalyst for expanding that splinter in your mind–the one that’s saying you shouldn’t be such a picky cereal eater. 

I’d say that anyone (Jesse Denyer) who can’t get past the idea that this cereal is “only for old people” is just a drone who chooses to live in utter ignorance. In 2009, 75% of Americans said that they stay away from diet-friendly cereal because they think it’ll taste bad. Did I make up that statistic? Yes. Just give it a chance! Eat the cereal. 

*Disclaimer: The opinions of Levi are his own and do not represent the opinions of thebirdonfire.org; nor can we vouch for his statistics.