Phelps Endorses Frosted Flakes. So What?

You know, I’m as sick of hearing from and about Michael Phelps as anyone, and I’m all for promoting healthy eating for kids, but this pile-on over his endorsement of Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes is a bit much.

Nutritionists have sounded their requisite hues and issued their obligatory cries.

A couple of things wrong with this. First, and probably foremost, Frosted Flakes may be frosted, but they aren’t poison. They’re actually not so bad, nutritionally. A serving has just 114 calories. And while they have too much sugar and are not whole grain, 114 calories just isn’t so bad. And they have vitamins and minerals and stuff. Kids probably shouldn’t eat them every morning, but, well, they’re you know, great, taste-wise. That’s why they’ve been around for so many decades – since way before high-fructose corn syrup (which of course Frosted Flakes now contain), the proliferation of fat-drenched fast-food, television and videogames starting turning kids into rotund little lazies.

The site calorie-count.com gives Frosted Flakes a B-. In many of my high school classes, I would have killed for a B-.

But on a more meta level, it should be noted that among the companies sponsoring the Olympics are Coca Cola and McDonald’s, which have each added far more to the national waistline than Frosted Flakes have.

So let’s get over it. All that happened here is that Frosted Flakes beat out General Mills‘ Wheaties – a marginally healthier cereal – for Phelps’ endorsement.