You May Be Special BUT YOU AINT SUGAR PUFFS (Kellogg's Special K)

Member Name: Lemonlurver

Product:	Kellogg's Special K
Date:	24/11/03 (1653 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Slimming, tasty, good pack promotions

Disadvantages: Beige, Pricey, No sugar rush

As I?ve probably mentioned? oooh, at least a hundred times, I am on a mad healthy eating mission. I?m eating copious amounts of fruit and veg, drinking the recommended 2 litres of water a day and exercising like it?s illegal. Yes, ladies and gents, I?m trying to lose weight.

One of my biggest downfalls used to be breakfast cereal. I love and adore Sugar Puffs, and I am happy eating them for all my daily meals. I was in serious danger of becoming the Honey Monster. I had the size, I was just lacking the attractive orange fur. Obviously being a honey monster without the fur I just looked fat, so they had to go. (Sob) The calories were too much but what was I to do for breakfast?

Therefore I went trawling my local Tesco for a new breakfast to excite and tantalise my taste buds.

Obviously I had to find something low in fat and tasty. I can?t eat muesli. The famous nut allergy strikes again. I tried the weetabix, but without a mountain of forbidden sugar they tasted bland and gooey. Yuk!

I then tried cornflakes, which kept me going for a while, but they taste the same everyday, and I was tempted to get the golden syrup out. Back, back I say, all you delicious, sugar demons!!!

Then I noticed the Special K. No, I wasn?t interested in the taste but in the vouchers for free Almay skin products. I had tried Special K years before but the lure of the Honey Monster kept calling me back. Sugar, amusing packaging and a plastic toy!!! What more could a girl want? Except to be slim.

***PACKAGING***
The packaging for Special K is definitely aimed to women. A minimal blue and white background with a shapely but slender K on the front, along with a bowl of golden(ish) flakes. It has loads of info about sensible eating, vitamins and fat content etc on the side, with all the info you would ever require on Kellogg?s on the other. Not as interesting as the stuff you get on my preferred cereal, but it is for grown ups. I?ll have to
forgive them

On the back is whatever promotion they are running. They are finishing the Almay promotion (Booh, hiss!) and are now running a gym ball/video promotion. I?ve got the vouchers I wanted and I?m now the proud owner of two Almay products, which I?ll review at a later date.

***TASTE***

The taste of Special K is quite interesting. I?d always remembered them as being bland, boring and soggy but times have certainly changed? for the better!

Special K is one of the most boring cereals to look at in existence. Their colour is beige (Health food colour, all health foods are beige!), and the flakes are so standard you can?t even find an amusing one to laugh at. Come on, we?ve all done it at some point in our lives. True, most people stop before puberty but I?m just a child at heart.

The flakes are rather hard, but this I believe is where the new, more interesting taste has come from. You see the taste differs depending on how long you soak your Special K in its milk. Sounds a bit mad but it is true. If you eat straight away they taste more like cornflakes, but if you soak them longer you can taste the sharpness of the malt. It?s wonderful. It?s practically two different cereals, which fits my criteria for something a bit different every day. Also, no matter how long you soak them they still keep firm, so no sogginess. Fantastic, who needs a mouthful of goo to start their day? (Except maybe Jordan? Please don?t sue!)

As they contain more rice than wheat they fill you up quite nicely, without having a heavy tummy, which happens with wheat only products. They also taste fabulous with fresh fruits added. My favourite is grapes. Most cereals go too soggy for this to taste nice.

However, avoid the Red Berry variety! I tried it once and the berries tasted? Well, nothing like a natural fruit, let?s put it that way. Plus it is seriously overpriced.

Also, don?t go the full diet option and use water ins
tead of milk. This tastes horrible and the flakes tend to go rock hard. Mouth cutting is not a nice thing.

I have tried own brand versions of Special K, but they taste like the old Special K I remember. Bland, soggy and no exciting special offers.

***NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION***

Obviously I?m not going to give the full list of ingredients but I?ll tell you that as well as being fortified with added vitamins Special k contains rice, wheat, sugar, malt, milk and salt. They are the basics. Unfortunately, they are not suitable for lactose or gluten intolerant diets. They are suitable for nut allergy suffers though!

Fat content per 100g = 1g
Energy = 1600kj/370kcal
Fibre = 3g

Obviously the fibre content isn?t as good as other cereals, but it?s not bad considering.

The great thing about Special K is that it fills you up more than other cereals do. Therefore, you eat less. The calorific value isn?t that much lower but combined with the ?bulking? (couldn?t think of a better word!) it does work. I tried healthy eating and exercise whilst still eating the Sugar Puffs, but I have lost more weight since giving them up.

The Special K is here to stay but I still WANT MY HONEEEEEEY!

You can buy Special K at most grocery shops and they come in the following sizes:

375g = £2.09
500g = £2.28

Red Berries 375g = £2.39

Red Berries 500g = £2.98

There are other sizes, but unfortunately they aren?t shown on the Tesco website. They are more expensive than most breakfast cereals, but the results I have had show that they work on all levels, weight loss, taste and getting fancy skincare products for 40p each.

Summary: