When New York Times reporter Kim Severson wrote about the past, present, and unsure future of breakfast cereal last month, the Internet lost its mind over one fact included in the story: 40 percent of millennials surveyed by the market research firm Mintel said they didn’t eat cereal for breakfast “because they had to clean up after eating it.”

It was a tidbit that fed into the kind of overwrought hand-wringing about lazy, entitled youngsters that boomers and, to a degree, Gen Xers revel in. Sales figures reported by General Mills, however, suggest that the decline in cereal sales cannot wholly be attributed to a generation unwilling to do the dishes. In a Wednesday conference call with investors, General Mills CEO Ken Powell said seven cereals that had been reformulated to remove all artificial colors and flavors saw a 6 percent uptick in sales as of January, regaining the 6 percent drop in sales they suffered last year. Consumers bought more beige Cheerios and Technicolor Lucky Charms alike.

Overall, General Mills’ cereal sales dipped by 2 percent in the third quarter, but the increases […]