With Swine Flu making parents (and others) across the country nervous about even going into public with out tiny bottles of hand sanitizer, of course companies would start taking advantage of them.

Kellogg is beginning to join in on the trend by plastering “Now helps support your child’s IMMUNITY” on boxes of Cocoa Krispies. Cocoa Krispies, along with other Kellogg cereals are not only loaded in sugar, but have not done anything to truly back up such a claim.

The city attorney in San Francisco finds the claim just as false as everyone else and has sent a letter to Kellogg as well as the Food and Drug Administration asking Kellogg to disclose what exactly helps boost immunity in the cereals.

Kellogg has been responding to critics’ attacks saying that it started developing a more healthy cereal last year and actually released them in May 2009 not to capitalize on the H1N1 “flu situation” but to respond to consumers’ needs for a healthier foods and a more positive nutrition value. A spokesperson from the company said that there are more vitamins A, C, and E in the cereals; increased from 10% daily value to 25% daily value.

Here’s an idea, if the company wanted to take advantage of consumers’ needs for a more healthy cereal, why not take some of the sugar out of its cereals?

It is a good thing that this has been given to the FDA for consideration. The FDA is supposed to be the governing body of false and misleading labeling on products. Right now, the FDA isn’t saying anything about this cereal or its strange, and likely false label.

Sugar coated cereals are not good for children in the amounts that are typically given to them. Have you ever measured out a serving of cereal? It’s not as much as many people pour themselves. Not to mention, cereals in general (even though many are made out of whole grain of some kind) are carbohydrates and while they may help keep your child awake for the first little while they are at school, carbs tend to burn quickly…adding sugar to that equation doesn’t help too much either.

Most parents don’t have the time to make a real, homemade breakfast everyday for their kids, so why not give them cereal that will actually help throughout the day or at least a cereal that is a bit healthier than Cocoa Krispies or any of the other sugar laden cereals that have found their ways on to our grocers shelves? I like sugary cereals from time to time. I actually enjoy Cinnamon Toast Crunch, but I also know that it won’t keep me from getting sick and it is DEFINITELY not a replacement for my vitamins.

More and more Americans opted for cheaper cuts of meat over this past Fourth of July weekend. Instead of steak, many found themselves opting for hot dogs.

“It will be the cheaper cuts that will take the majority of the business,” said John Kleist, analyst with the McHenry, Ill-based advisory firm Allendale Inc.

Thanks to the highest jobless numbers we’ve seen in 26 years and the ongoing recession consumers’ spending decisions have been deterred and due to how large holiday meals typically are and the overall cost, people will be trying to feed the same amount of guests on a much smaller budget.

Even with meats on sale at many grocers across the country, they are still expensive and when the sales figures come out for the week, they are likely to show that sales were much less this year when compared to last year’s meat sales.

“I think the economy is going to have a negative effect,” said Len Steiner, a principal with the retail consulting firm Steiner Consulting.

Sales of beef and pork have been really slow this year, and much slower than expected throughout the spring and summer seasons when barbecues lead to higher sales of the meats. I can also assume that slow pork sales has something to do with swine flu worries more than the cost, simply because I find pork to be much less expensive than beef and actually similarly priced to chicken. Slow sales of meat is bad news for livestock farmers. Over the past year, feed prices have been really high for them and due to the slow sales, they are unable to get profitable prices for their cattle and hogs.

“Until the economy improves, we are going to see pressure on the quality meats. That is keeping pressure on livestock prices,” said Ron Plain, agricultural economist at the University of Missouri. “People are just wanting to eat cheaper.”

When I buy hot dogs, I always buy the turkey ones that are 98% fat free so they’re pretty expensive when compared to the prices of other kinds of hot dogs.

The first person in the United States to die due to the swine flu was a Mexican toddler who was being held at a Houston, Texas hospital. Now, the first United States citizen has died as a direct result of the swine flu.

The 33 year old woman lived near a popular border crossing town in Texas and had chronic health problems. On top of that, she also had given birth to a healthy baby while sick with the flu at the hospital.

This is, still, much more mild than even seasonal flu outbreaks. Thousands succumb to the seasonal flu every year and it doesn’t ever get as much attention as the swine flu. I am only talking about it because it is popular news and directly affects trade with other countries and the United States. At this point, I think that it is mainly hype. Of course, this is no consolation to the families of people who have the swine flu or who have died as a result of contracting it, but typically the people who have very serious cases of this are the same people who would have very serious cases of the seasonal (regular) flu.