My son has a penchant for sugary cereals. I adopted him at age 10, so he had 10 years of forming his tastes and eating habits before he moved home with me. Luckily, he does enjoy a number of healthy foods. (I just recently succeeded in getting him to try (and enjoy) salmon.) Breakfast foods, however, are more of a challenge.

More often than not we have oatmeal, whole-wheat toast with peanut butter, or eggs. But I do like to have a box of cereal in the pantry for those busy days. Getting him to change his preferences has been a slow process. In fact, just recently when we were at the grocery store he said "Fruit Loops are healthy. Right, Mom? They're made of fruit." Uh.... no.

HealthCastle has a great article discussing the truth about reduced-sugar products -- from cereal to instant oatmeal to granola bars to juice -- that are popping up on store shelves. The products are often aimed at kids, yet the claim of "reduced sugar" is supposed to appeal to health-conscious parents. Often, artificial sweeteners are used in place of the sugar -- calorie content remains about the same.

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Shape magazine ran an interesting piece in their most recent issue, taking a look at how to shop for organic foods without breaking the bank. Buying green without spending too much of it, I suppose you could say. The article itself was based on the new book The Organic Food Shopper's Guide, written by Jeff Cox. Here is one of the tips mentioned in both the book and the article. It is certainly worth considering the next time you're in the grocery store and want to go Green.

Don't shun packaged goods

It's easy to assume that because a particular food is processed, it's not worth shelling out the dough for it. Not so, says Jeff Cox, who points out that boxed and bagged organic items like crackers and breakfast cereals are made without artificial preservatives, dyes, extenders, etc. Whereas other foods may contain many of these unhealthy additives to ensure "freshness," many boxed of packaged goods do not.

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