10 Sep 2009 --- After three months of consumer testing, Wheaties, “The Breakfast of Champions,” announced the evolution of its iconic 85-year-old cereal with the unveiling of Wheaties FUEL— the first-ever cereal designed specifically to help fuel wins. Wheaties FUEL, which was developed with the help of Peyton Manning, triathlete Hunter Kemper, Kevin Garnett, gold medal-winning decathlete Bryan Clay, Albert Pujols and sports nutritionist Dr. John Ivy, was designed to help meet the nutritional needs of today’s champion athletes.

The new Wheaties, a lightly sweetened, crunchy whole wheat flake with granola and crispy rice and a touch of cinnamon and honey, features long-lasting energy from whole grain to help keep you going and 100 percent of the Daily Value of five B-vitamins to help the body release energy from food. Starting very soon, collector’s edition boxes of the cinnamon honey crunch-flavored Wheaties FUEL are available for purchase online at www.Wheaties.com/evolution, while supplies last. Beginning in January, Wheaties FUEL will be available at your local retailer.

“We’re excited to bring the first-ever cereal designed specifically to help fuel athletic performance to the market place,” said Dan Stangler, marketing manager for Wheaties. “Wheaties FUEL takes advantage of the advances in science of the past 85 years and leverages the expertise of champion athletes, a leading sports nutritionist and everyday athletes, to create a product that will be fueling wins for the next 85 years.”

Wheaties FUEL is designed to help power athletic performance and each serving includes: 200 calories to kick-start your morning; whole grain for long-lasting energy; 100 percent of the recommended Daily Value of five B vitamins to help your body release energy from food; 5 grams of fiber to help curb hunger and keep you feeling full, as well as calcium & vitamin D to help promote bone health.

Consumers can now also fuel the excitement online by participating in the "Get Your W's" sweepstakes for a chance to win two tickets to the 2010 NBA All-Star Game in Dallas, TX, as well as other prizes. Visit www.GetYourWs.com for complete rules and details.

Wheaties FUEL will not replace the Original Wheaties. Together, the two products will make up the evolved and expanded Breakfast of Champions product portfolio.

The championship athletes selected for this project, Clay, Kemper, Garnett, Manning and Pujols, have all previously appeared on the original Wheaties box and are well recognized as champions both on and off the playing field. This panel narrowed the selection to three possible cereal formulas, and everyday athletes helped choose the final product. A six-part web series that chronicles the development process of the new Wheaties Fuel is available for viewing on www.wheaties.com/evolution. From Dr. Ivy’s first meeting with the participating athletes, to discussions about what it takes to become a champion, the webisodes serve as a behind-the-scenes guide, culminating with a trip to a General Mills plant in Minneapolis.

Born out of a fortunate mistake in 1924, original Wheaties was created when a health clinician accidentally spilled a wheat bran mixture onto a hot stove. The result was tasty, crispy wheat flakes that became known as Washburn’s Gold Medal Whole Wheat Flakes. A year later, the cumbersome name was shortened to Wheaties. Baseball legend Lou Gehrig was the first athlete featured on a Wheaties Box, when he appeared on the back cover in 1934. In 1958, American champion pole-vaulter Bob Richards was the first person to appear on the front of the package, jumpstarting the phenomenon of “being on the Wheaties box,” which has since been graced by some of the greatest athletes of all time, including Bruce Jenner, Walter Payton, Mary Lou Retton, and many others.