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If you believe breakfast cereal is a healthy start to your day, take some time to read through the article below:
If time is limited, I’ve copied some of the article highlights below:
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“The absurdity of feeding an animal something that it never evolved to eat and that actually makes it fat and sick ought to be easy enough to see… They (processed cereals) are the epitome of cheap commodity converted by manufacturing to higher-value goods; of agricultural surplus turned into profitable export. Somehow, they have wormed into our confused consciousness as intrinsically healthy, when, by and large, they are degraded foods that have to have any goodness artificially restored.”
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“It was a chronically dyspeptic businessman and former patient of Kellogg’s at the sanitarium who unleashed the power of marketing on breakfast. Charles Post set up the rival La Vita Inn in Battle Creek and developed his own versions of precooked cereals. “The sunshine that makes a business plant grow is advertising,” he declared, promoting his cereals with paid-for testimonials from apparently genuine happy eaters. He also cheerfully invented diseases that his products could cure. Grape Nuts were miraculously marketed at the time both as “brain food” and also as a cure for consumption and malaria. They were even, despite their enamel-cracking hardness, said to be an antidote to loose teeth.”
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My Comments - Perhaps the best line from this entire article is bolded in the paragraph below. If you currently eat cereal, consider eating the box instead.
“That processed cereals had become little more than sugary junk with milk and vitamins added was an accusation made as long ago as 1970, when Robert Choate, an adviser to President Nixon on nutrition, told a congressional hearing into breakfast cereals that the majority “fatten but do little to prevent malnutrition”. Choate was outraged at the aggressive targeting of children in breakfast cereal advertising. He analyzed 60 well-known cereal brands and concluded that two-thirds offered “empty calories, a term thus far applied to alcohol and sugar”. Rats fed a diet of ground-up cereal boxes with sugar, milk and raisins were healthier than rats fed the cereals themselves, he testified to senators.”
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My Comments - It should come as no surprise that large cereal manufacturers such as Kellogg’s have sponsored many school nutritional programs. Paying to sponsor a school program is just another form of advertising. They have never been concerned about your health, or the health of your children. The sole concern is annual revenue.
“Getting children hooked, making them associate breakfast cereal with fun and entertainment, were among the main aims of competing manufacturers from the early days. Cereal advertising likewise helped shape early television. Using “motivational research” to work out how to appeal to women and children with different kinds of packaging.”
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“One of the biggest costs in cereal manufacture is not the value of the ingredients nor the cost of production, but the marketing. About a quarter of the money you spend on breakfast cereal goes on the cost of persuading you to buy it.”
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These are just a few highlights from the full article. If you don’t have time to read through the entire piece, at least take some time to remove cereal from your morning schedule.
Ross
23 Comments so far
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Hey Ross,
That was a good article. I agree that cereal is generally a dietary nightmare and full of a lot of garbage. I used to eat “traditional” cereals like Cheerios all the time. Have you heard anything about Kashi cereal? I switched to it quite a while ago and it seems solid, but I haven’t been able to find any actual research. I just didn’t see anything in the ingredients that looked negative. I was also wondering if anyone knew anything about organic oatmeal (not the instant quaker garbage, but just oats with fruit and the like). Anyhow Ross, keep up the great information bro!
Shite! All the food around us is junk man! Seems like everything is made of chemicals. I think that Oatmeal is a better alternative to cereal
Lets not forget that there’s also organic, whole grain, low sugar cereal.
To me, “cereal” doesn’t mean the processed, sugary stuff, it means organic whole grains with a small dose of cane sugar or natural honey, along with nuts. That’s just as nutritious as oatmeal, the only difference being one is served hot while the other is served cold.
So there are healthy cereals. One just needs to read the label.
Cereal to oatmeal is apples to oranges. Oatmeal to oatmeal is often apples to oranges as well. For example, there are considerable differences between steel cut, rolled, instant, and quick oats. The processing that takes place is much different between each.
Furthermore, organic doesn’t automatically mean healthy. Organic poison ivy and organic cocaine are far from healthy choices (please note the sarcasm).
I suggest reading through this link for some background information regarding the processing of wheat.
http://www.westonaprice.org/modernfood/wheatyindiscretions.html
Ross
In the most recent issue of Time magazine, there is a lengthy series of articles that focuses on the huge increase the amount of children deemed “obese” in the world today. It is interesting to read their thoughts on how we came to find ourselves in this health crisis and some ideas on what we can do to help. It all starts with the parents in my opinion, as your kids don’t do the grocery shopping themselves. Breakfast cereals are crap, most are full of sugar, and those that are “healthy” contain no natural nutrients. I prefer eggs and fruit for breakfast, and I hope my children will learn by example.
In any event, check out the latest Time magazine if you’d like to learn more about the “obesity epidemic” in our world today.
As said above, most cereal is sugar and chemical infested crap, but there are a few healthy alternatives.
I often have Organic Shredded Wheat for breakfast in the morning, 100% durum wheat. Not sure if its available in the US.
Ross, that’s a great article on wheat processing. But I’m a little confused.
Doesn’t “whole” wheat mean that the nutrition is intact? Therefore whole grain cereal should be okay, right? According to the article, there are other factors, such as heat and storage, but for the most part, I was under the impression that whole wheat, regardless of whether it’s from cereal, bread, etc, is unprocessed and nutritious.
Reading all this really makes me think why the government (here in UK anyway) is always going on about smoking and drinking and how bad it is for everyone. Sure it is bad and I support making everyone aware of the dangers, and nothing wrong with that in itself, but when it comes to junky food that is damaging everyone’s health in a stealthy way nothing is hardly done in comparison. I tell you if i had a son/daughter, id be paranoid about what crap he/she was going to get fooled into eating at school and on the TV etc.
First of all I should mention that I am not a big fan of the sugary cereal being sold today in supermarkets.
However, it’s erroneous to assume that ALL cereal is crap. There are some good brands out there. I believe a poster above mentioned Kashi cereal. As long as the ingredients are not heavily processed and next no sugar is added I don’t anything wrong with having a bowl of cereal in the morning.
Secondly, I know there will be arguments out there from the paleo nutters saying that grains are the handiwork of the devil. Again, this is just ridiculous. The reason why people are so fat and overweight these days has more to do with a diet of over abundance rather than any one food group in particular. Let’s face it obesity is a disease of wealth and prosperity. People in Africa are not dying because they are eating cereal grains.
Lastly, I think it’s important to understand the historical role grains have played in the human diet. If it weren’t for the Agricultural Revolution it is quite likely that none of us would be here today.
Many are defending modern cereal without knowing what happens to the whole grain before it reaches the end product (as cereal). Even the “healthy” options are far from nutritious. Kashi is not a “health” food.
Whole grains are only healthy when all three layers are intact (bran, germ, and endosperm). Unfortunately, almost all modern food processors use ultra fast steel roller mills. These mills not only eject the germ and the bran, but also use high temperatures upward of several hundred degrees Fahrenheit. With such heat, nutrients are destroyed, not to mention rancidity.
If you desire wheat, purchase from a health food store and look in the refrigerated section. You can find 100 percent stone ground whole wheat flour that is kept cold. You could also buy actual whole wheat berries and grind them yourself.
Eating cereal won’t kill you, but don’t be confused to think that it is actually a “health” food. Such a belief is naïve and borderline ignorant.
HC
Ross – I hope I am not overstepping my boundaries, but I thought your readers may enjoy this excerpt from the Weston Price site. The complete URL is located at http://www.westonaprice.org/modernfood/dirty-secrets.html
Don’t get me wrong, Fallon has her quirks, but overall she presents mostly useful material. Much of her entry below is cited from Paul Stitt’s book. It’s a bit old, but still a wonderful read for those interested.
HC
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Packaged Cereals
Dry breakfast cereals are produced by a process called extrusion. Cereal makers first create a slurry of the grains and then put them in a machine called an extruder. The grains are forced out of a little hole at high temperature and pressure. Depending on the shape of the hole, the grains are made into little o’s, flakes, animal shapes, or shreds (as in Shredded Wheat or Triscuits), or they are puffed (as in puffed rice). A blade slices off each little flake or shape, which is then carried past a nozzle and sprayed with a coating of oil and sugar to seal off the cereal from the ravages of milk and to give it crunch.
In his book Fighting the Food Giants, Paul Stitt has tells us that the extrusion process used for these cereals destroys most of the nutrients in the grains. It destroys the fatty acids; it even destroys the chemical vitamins that are added at the end. The amino acids are rendered very toxic by this process. The amino acid lysine, a crucial nutrient, is especially denatured by extrusion. This is how all the boxed cereals are made, even the ones sold in the health food stores. They are all made in the same way and mostly in the same factories. All dry cereals that come in boxes are extruded cereals.
The only advances made in the extrusion process are those that will cut cost regardless of how these will alter the nutrient content of the product. Cereals are a multi-billion dollar business, one that has created huge fortunes.
With so many people eating breakfast cereals, you might expect to find some studies on the effect of extruded cereals on animals or humans. Yet, there are no published studies at all in the scientific literature.
Ross, I’m really not trying to spam your blog. I attempted to type one last comment but it was cutoff.
I meant to say that once you go through the task of manually grinding whole wheat berries, you will realize that it is a timely process, which is why it will never take place with multimillion dollar corporations that stock food on shelves around the world. Kashi doesn’t hire people to carefully grind the whole wheat berries by hand. It would be too costly and too timely. Kashi is a business enterprise that must stock grocery stores around the world.
Modern processing technologies are the only solution when dealing with dollars and cents. And that my friends is why these foods are everything but healthy. No one is stopping you from eating them, but at least know what you are eating.
HC
HC – No problem. I welcome discussion on the blog. I also agree that it’s rarely a matter of whether cereal is good for you (more a matter of how bad it is). And just because it is not “as bad” for you, doesn’t suddenly mean it is actually “good” for you either.
And no, this doesn’t mean one bowl of cereal will cause you to become sick and decrepit, but we should at least recognize that it isn’t exactly “good” for us either.
Also, I googled Paul Stitt and found this link:
http://www.whale.to/v/stitt_b.html
I believe this is the book you referenced above??? I haven’t had a chance to read through everything, but it looks interesting.
Ross
Damn! Wasn’t aware of this.
theres got to be select cereals with
some value, whole grain, organic types?
i myself dont eat cereal in the morning
like ive always said…whos the genius that
said cereal is only a breakfast food?
I dont think shredded wheat affects my performance.
My question is, how does it affect a fit athletes
performance ?
This all sounds fair enough. What would you recommend as a decent breakfast Ross?
Modern nutrition (which includes cereal) as a whole “seems” better than it has been in the past. However, I think it has overall gotten worse. Two reasons why: 1) Bigger population which leads to 2)advanced technology. The advanced technology is used to create more efficient food so the bigger population can maintain and grow. If you have millions of people in one country who are needed to maintain the economy and society (read: USA)you can’t farm for everyone. Technology has been created and used to develop food that can be placed in supermarkets around the country in minimal time so people can eat. This efficiency has obviously devalued the food we used to eat before the industrial revolution. There is no way any of the food we eat today is superior to the food we ate before the 19th century. It seems only healthier because we have better health care (and I won’t even mention how bad that is)and better health habits such as exercising.
Ross – I started chuckling when I read ‘If you currently eat cereal, consider eating the box instead’ and am still smiling 5 hours later.
Personally I favour the omission of all cereals from my diet and I suppose could be said to have a low-carb diet in that regard. I can afford to do this because I exercise intensely but briefly and intermittently so my muscle glycogen seems to replenish quite well in its own time.
Nevertheless I can see why other folk would need to include cereal-based food (like oats) in their diet if they follow a more regular exercise routine. For me, the real crime, aside from all the other nutritional issues discussed in this thread, is the inclusion of refined sugar in all of these cereals – so the phrase ‘getting children hooked’ seems entirely approriate. In case you are interested I recently posted on sugar addiction: We’re All Junkies.
I’d be interested in your perspectives on my approach because I am considering ‘upping’ my exercise frequency and wonder how far I can take it before I my diet becomes a limiting factor.
Methuselah
Pay Now Live Later
Hi,
sounds really interesting but unfortunately the article is no longer available following the link. Is there any chance to get the full article?
Thanks
Lennart
Hey Ross – just to let you know, I linked to this post from this article, which you may want to check out.
The Worst Sugar Pushers of all – Health Food Stores
In the UK we seem to have a real problem with retailers positioning themselves as health food stores but selling sugar-laden garbage alongside other healthy foods like nuts.
I wonder whether you have the same problem in the US – or perhaps your laws better protect the consumer from this sort of thing?
Methuselah
Pay Now Live Later
I love this discussion on cereal. I have been researching all kinds of different cereal options and breakfast options all year. I gave up eating all refined sugar (including corn syrups) for the year, and have had my fun reading cereal labels. Basically, when I feel lazy and am not in the mood to eat really healthy, I find myself in the cereal aisle, knowing good and well that it’s all dead and processed grains. Knowing that eating something live and whole is incredibly nutritious but requires a bit more time in preparation. Convenience is why cereal sells so well. But, most packaged cereals have corn and/or sugar. It is very hard to get away from this. (To read more about the “evils” of corn, read the well supported information in “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” pages 15-119.)
Lastly, I just wanted to reinforce the importance of what Ross is saying. It’s very important and well thought out information that is not fun to hear, but will hopefully inspire more people to think twice about eating cereal!
I have updated the original link, as it was no longer online. You can now read the article through an archive within the forum.
Ross
There are no healthy cereals. Have some farm fresh eggs and a glass of raw, unpasturized goat milk for breakfast!