General Mills Cereal Giveaway

This giveaway has ended. General Mills has announced a commitment to further reduce sugar in cereals advertised to kids under 12 to single digit grams of sugar per serving. The company has already been reducing sugar in cereals while increasing key nutrients, such as calcium and vitamin D, and providing whole grain.

Did you know that ready-to-eat cereal eaters consume less fat, less cholesterol and more fiber than non-cereal eaters? Cereals also deliver important vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients, making cereal a top source of key nutrients in children's diets.

Other cereal benefits:

* Ready-to-eat cereals, including presweetened cereals, account for only 5% of sugar in children´s diets.

* Ready-to-eat cereal is the No. 1 source of whole grains in a child´s diet today.

* More frequent cereal eaters tend to have healthier body weights and lower Body Mass Index measures.

Studies also demonstrate the benefits of eating breakfast. A 1998 study showed that children who eat breakfast tend to perform better at school. Compared to children who skip breakfast, children who eat breakfast score higher on tests, are less likely to miss class or be tardy, have fewer reported discipline problems, and make fewer trips to the office. For more information about kids and cereals, please visit Cereal Health and Wellness.

While I do tend to avoid purchasing the typical "sugar cereals" for my family, I know that many parents do buy these cereals regularly. In my opinion, any effort to reduce the sugar in a child's diet is a step in the right direction. Here are a few additional ideas to continue to reduce your child's intake of sugar:

* Try mixing a "sugar cereal" with a similar "non-sugar cereal". For example, mix regular Cheerios with Banana Nut Cheerios or mix Corn or Rice Chex with Honey Nut Chex. If your kids are young, they won't realize the difference. If your kids are older, use it as a lesson in healthy eating.

* Use "sugar cereals" as a special treat or dessert. As I said I don't usually buy sugar cereals but I did receive some Trix and Cookie Crisp for free. After dinner I would give both my kids a small bowl of dry cereal as a treat. When using it in this capacity my kids are probably getting less sugar and more nutrients than if they had cookies or ice cream.

I was provided with some free cereal coupons from General Mills and MyBlogSpark. I am going to share a coupon for a free box of General Mills cereal (up to $6.00) with 2 Recipes for Moms readers. If you need a coupon now, this coupon is good for $1.00 off Trix, Cocoa Puffs, Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Lucky Charms. Also, check my coupons post - there are almost always cereal coupons available somewhere on the web.

Required Entry:

- Leave a comment with your favorite breakfast cereal. (This has to be done for any additional entries to be valid.)

Additional Entries:

- Find a recipe from Recipes for Moms you plan to try with your family and leave a comment telling me which recipe.

- Grab my button and add it to your site. Please let me know where I can find it. (If you already have it, that counts too.)

- Blog, post info, tweet or otherwise publicize this giveaway and link back to this post. Again, let me know where I can find it. (1 entry allowed for each form of publicity)

- Become a fan of Recipes for Moms on Facebook. (If you are already a fan, that counts.)

- Subscribe to Recipes for Moms by E-mail. Please make sure you activate your subscription by clicking the activate link in the initial e-mail. If you already subscribe, just leave a comment saying so.

Please be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry and your e-mail address if it is not available on your profile. This giveaway is open to US residents only. The winner will be chosen using Random.org and the contest will end on Wednesday, February 24th at midnight (MST). After I contact the winner, they will have 48 hours to get back to me or another winner will be chosen. Good luck! I reserve the right to delete entries that do not adhere to the entry rules.

*Disclosure: I was provided with 4 free cereal coupons and information from General Mills and MyBlogSpark. I used 2 coupons for my family and chose to give 2 away to my readers. The coupons will be mailed directly from me. All opinions are my own.