In a New Year's twist, cereal makers want to lure adults with an ingredient more likely to show up on a kid's favorite food list: chocolate.

Next month, Quaker will roll out Life Chocolate Oat Crunch — chocolate clusters mixed in Life cereal. Kellogg is introducing Special K Chocolatey Delight — with artificial chocolate bits in Special K.

Warning to kids and grown-ups: Neither cereal will turn your milk brown.

Both brands are cashing in on an image reversal that started years ago in Europe and has since caught fire in the U.S.: chocolate as being nutritious. While neither Kellogg nor Quaker is claiming that the chocolate component is healthy, each is positioning the new products as nutritionally friendly.

"Chocolate has become a quasi-health food," quips Tom Vierhile, director of Datamonitor's Productscan Online. "Chocolate has been stricken from Santa's 'naughty' list this year."

Quaker is positioning its Life Chocolate Oat Crunch as a breakfast cereal. "Consumers love chocolate in the morning," says Regan Ebert, chief marketing officer at Quaker. "But they also want a healthy start to the day."

Some nutritionists are skeptical.

"Is cabernet going into cereal next?" asks Jo Ann Hattner, a nutrition instructor at Stanford. She suggests that by eating chocolate cereals, adults may send a message to their kids that says it's OK to put chocolate in any food. "Is Mom going to put this under her bed and sneak it out at night?" she asks.