Old Breakfast Cereal Brand Dabbles In “Ancient Grains”

A breakfast cereals expert notes that General Mills – ever “attuned to what’s hot and trendy” – will in January introduce “Cheerios + Ancient Grains”. As the dry cereal market declines in step with the practice of sitting and eating breakfast, General Mills is betting “these allegedly ancient ingredients” – quinoa, Kamut wheat and spelt --  will breathe new life into a fairly ancient (introduced in 1941) brand. Ancient grains cookbook author Maria Speck says spelt, for example, isn’t really more ancient than oats, but it’s harder to find. She acknowledges that General Mills could be on the right track with its new Cheerios version, but she’d rather see people cooking their own dishes using whole grains, ancient or otherwise.