They Fixed the Color. They Didn’t Fix the Food.

They Fixed the Color. They Didn’t Fix the Food.

Kellogg is removing artificial dyes from its cereals.

That’s good.

Just don’t confuse it with making the cereal healthy.

This week, WK Kellogg announced that it is speeding up its plan to remove artificial colors from all of its cereals by the end of 2026.

That includes Froot Loops and Apple Jacks.

The company says the new versions will use colors derived from things like fruit and vegetable juices instead. It’s also removing the preservative BHT from the remaining cereals and packaging where it’s still used.

I’m glad they’re doing it.

I’ve never understood why we needed petroleum-based dyes to convince a kid that breakfast cereal should be neon red, green and blue.

But there’s something much more important going on here.

Removing a few questionable ingredients from an ultra-processed food doesn’t automatically turn it into healthy food.

And I think we're going to see a lot more of this.

Welcome to the New “Clean” Junk Food

The food industry knows consumers are paying more attention to ingredients.

People are reading labels.

They’re looking for artificial colors.

They’re looking for preservatives.

They’re looking for ingredients they can actually pronounce.

The FDA itself is currently tracking commitments from major food companies that are removing petroleum-based food dyes from their products.

That’s progress.

But it also creates a huge marketing opportunity.

NO ARTIFICIAL COLORS

MADE WITH NATURAL COLORS

NO BHT

Put that on the front of a colorful cereal box and suddenly the food looks a whole lot healthier.

Turn the box around.

That’s where the real story usually is.

Look at What’s Still in the Bowl

Take Froot Loops.

According to Kellogg’s current U.S. nutrition information, a 1⅓-cup serving contains 12 grams of added sugar and just 2 grams of protein.

Removing Red 40 or Blue 1 doesn’t change that.

Replacing an artificial color with carrot juice or beet juice doesn’t suddenly turn a bowl of refined cereal into eggs.

It doesn’t turn it into cottage cheese.

It doesn’t turn it into Greek yogurt with berries.

The basic food is still the basic food.

And that’s the part I think gets lost whenever we start focusing too much on one ingredient.

We did this with fat.

Then carbs.

Then gluten.

Then seed oils.

Now food dyes are getting a lot of attention.

There may be very good reasons to remove certain ingredients from the food supply.

But health almost never comes down to finding one villain.

A Better Ingredient List Can Still Be Attached to a Bad Diet

This is where food companies are very good at marketing.

Take something out.

Put something else in.

Make a big statement on the front of the package.

And suddenly we feel better about eating exactly the same type of food.

We’ve seen it before.

Low fat cookies.

Gluten-free cookies.

Organic cane sugar.

Protein cereal.

Keto snack bars.

Natural potato chips.

The wording changes.

The food usually doesn’t change nearly as much as we think it does.

That’s why I keep coming back to the same boring advice.

Eat more actual food.

Interestingly, even the new federal Dietary Guidelines released this year put that message front and center: eat real food.

That doesn't mean everything you eat needs to come directly from a farm.

And it doesn’t mean you can never eat cereal again.

It means most of your diet probably shouldn’t require a marketing department to convince you that it’s healthy.

Think About Breakfast for a Minute

One breakfast might be a brightly colored cereal with a long list of health claims printed across the box.

Another might be three eggs, some cottage cheese and berries.

Which one needs the commercial?

Which one needs cartoon characters?

Which one needs “NOW WITH NATURAL COLORS” written across the front?

We’ve made nutrition unbelievably complicated when a lot of it really isn’t.

Start with protein.

Eat minimally processed foods most of the time.

Eat foods your grandparents would recognize.

Get some vegetables and fruit.

Stop drinking your calories.

And when you do buy something in a package, turn it around and actually read what you're buying.

Not just the claims on the front.

My Bottom Line

I think Kellogg removing artificial dyes is a positive change.

I'd rather have Froot Loops colored with fruit and vegetable juices than petroleum-based dyes.

But I also don't want people walking through the cereal aisle six months from now, seeing NO ARTIFICIAL COLORS on the box and believing that means we've somehow fixed breakfast.

We haven't.

A better version of junk food is still junk food.

The real win won't be when every ultra-processed food has a cleaner ingredient list.

It will be when we stop depending on ultra-processed food for such a large part of what we eat.

Until then, read the back of the package.

The front is advertising.

I hope this helps. I put my last 3 videos below if you missed them. One is about why you’re gaining weight on carnivore. Another is a tea that can help digestion after fatty meals. The third? Lower carb baked beans! Also, some exciting news from Primal Nutrition!

Stay healthy,
Victor
Primal Nutrition / Southern Keto

P.S.

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Let’s make this your healthiest chapter yet.