IIRC this all happened back in the 1970’s or so. The nation’s breakfast cereal manufacturers decided that consumers wanted healthier products for their children’s breakfasts. And apparently they concluded the easiest way to do this was by removing the word “Sugar” from the name of the product.
Wracking my memory, plus a little googling, helped me identify 6 such mainstream products which got this treatment.
Kellogs Sugar Smacks became Honey Smacks
Kellogs Sugar Pops by became Corn Pops
Kellogs Sugar Frosted Flakes dropped the sugar to just become Frosted Flakes
Post Sugar Crisp became Honey Crisp
General Mills Sugar Chex became Honey Nut Chex
Post Sugar Rice Krinkles became Frosted Rice Crinkles
I think you hit the biggies! Kids who grew up in the 50s and 60s begged for those cereals. Good ol’ mom bought them at the grocery store, especially if she had a whiny kid pulling on her dress when she guided the cart down the cereal aisle.
On Saturday morning, the kids filled mixing bowls to overflowing, and parked their butts in front of the TV for the Saturday Morning Cartoon phenomenon.
There, the kids would be mesmerized by death, destruction, violence, and snotty bad manners. They shoveled those sugar saturated cereals down their collective gullets, and memorized ALL the commercial jingles. Cap guns, to kill Indians! Sexist dolls with impossible body dimensions! And other toys that had small parts easily swallowed or were highly flammable!
Sugar Crisp to Super Sugar Crisp to Super Golden Crisp to Golden Crisp during my lifetime. It had a few different names before that, including Happy Jax because it was a similar product to Cracker Jacks. No wonder I liked them, but I liked Sugar Smacks better.
I mean, I never had the taste for them- they are plenty of tasty cereals that are good for you- Raisin bran and Mini Wheats both have decent amounts of fiber.
I wasn’t interested in fiber when I was a kid. I hated Raisin Bran, still do. Mini Wheats were okay if I sprinkled them liberally with sugar, and kept the bowl within reach during consumption.
My old favorites were Alpha Bits, Sugar Pops, and Sugar Smacks. I liked Rice Chex, but as before, remember the sugar bowl. I’d be kind of scared to know the amount of sugar I’ve consumed in my lifetime.
My family makes jokes about how often I am seen eating and drinking in old pictures, and not just at barbecues and parties.
What always amused me is that the “serving size” for Total is twice as big as a real-world serving, so they can increase the amounts of vitamins and minerals per serving, but for most sugary cereals, it’s half a real-world serving, so they can cut down the amount of sugar and Calories per serving.
Yes, but how much weight? Just going from examples I have in my cupboard, Frosted Shredded Wheat has 60g per serving, while Honey Crunch and Oats (With Almonds) has 40g per serving (both Millville, the Aldi house brand). Others are somewhere in between, but the general pattern is that the “healthier” ones have larger serving sizes.
