“Breakfast cereals are the underground threat humming endlessly like underground missiles.” –<\/b>Michael L. Ruhlman<\/b><\/p>\n
When we read or hear the word cereal all of us likely have our favorite breakfast cereal come to mind \u2013 whether it\u2019s a nostalgic classic from our childhood, or the cereal we pick up at the grocery store today \u2013 we all have our go-to box. But here\u2019s the thing, cereal is not real food \u2013 it\u2019s a manufactured food product, one that is marketed with incredibly effective, deceptive tactics from the food industry.<\/p>\n
Manufactured food products aren\u2019t real food<\/strong><\/p>\n I’ve always said, “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a queen, dinner like a pauper.” I say this because breakfast is the most important of the day. However, the wrong breakfast can be deadly. In my book, \u201cEasy Sexy Raw<\/em>,\u201d I wrote that in 1914 we were eating eggs and bacon and homemade bread and pork chops with unpasteurized milk for breakfast; by 1917 we were eating cereal. What happened? Well, in a nutshell, we were sold a bill of goods – or should I say, a bill of not good. We were told a fast, quick, nutritious breakfast was to be found inside a little cardboard box. And, worst of all, we\u2019ve been hooked on breakfast cereals since we were children \u2013 when companies sold us on surprise toys, prizes, fun characters and most addictively \u2013 the sugar.<\/p>\n In his book, \u201cGroceries: The Buying and Selling of Food in America<\/em>,\u201d Michael L. Ruhlman explains it very well, so I’ll let him take it from here: we spend $650 billion a year on groceries, and grocery stores are a reflection of what our fears and concerns are. We are more concerned about our food than ever before because our food is making us sick. (Wow! This is what I\u2019ve been saying for years \u2013 Go Michael, go Michael, go Michael!)<\/p>\n Serving your body nutritionally bankrupt foods<\/strong><\/p>\n Then he starts to talk about breakfast being the most dangerous meal of the day. He goes on to explain that<\/p>\n breakfast cereals have added sugar. Even the cereals without added sugar are composed of refined wheat which are carbohydrates and become sugar in your bloodstream – and we eat them on an empty stomach in the morning. Basically we are eating nutritionally bankrupt foods.<\/p>\n Those synthetic vitamins and minerals are often usless to your body<\/strong><\/p>\n The response from General Mills was that they fortify their cereals with vitamins and minerals and whole grains. Michael, obviously, correctly responded, “Why do we need to fortify our cereals with anything? It’s because we take everything good out of them in the first place.” He says foods with words like “stronger” or “fortified” on the package should be avoided.<\/p>\n Are you reading the labels?<\/strong><\/p>\n Then he went on to talk about a woman in the grocery store ahead of him in line buying fat-free half-and-half. He said she obviously looked like an intelligent woman, and he wondered why she was buying fat-free half-and-half when by its definition half-and-half is milk that already has half the fat. She said she wanted less fat. He then asked her, “What do you think they’re putting in instead of fat?” She then, rightly so, picked up the product and read the label. Listed ingredients were skim milk and corn syrup! So they took out something that was basically good – dairy fat – and added something that they know is NOT good for you, which is corn syrup.<\/p>\n They then called it \u201cReduced Fat Half-and-Half.\u201d Sounds like an oxymoron to me!<\/p>\n Again, read the labels. If you can INDIVIDUALLY BUY every ingredient on the label in the grocery store, then it’s real food. (Hmmmm, that sounds like a pretty good tip to me!!) Also, if it tells you on the package it’s food – it probably isn’t! I mean, come on, if they have to keep driving home the point, I think that they’re trying to convince you about something that isn’t\u2026Again, take the time to read ingredients. Read how much sugar there is, read the portion size: if the portion size is 25g of sugar and a surveyed “portion” is 50g, that means it’s half sugar!<\/p>\n So what do you eat for breakfast?<\/strong> Do you have a healthy breakfast hack? I\u2019d love to know! Share your breakfast ideas with me!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bright colored O\u2019s, crunchy combs and sugary flakes \u2013 the rise and fail of breakfast cereals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":130431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[24,10,37,12,36,13,14,21,38],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolalt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolalt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolalt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolalt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolalt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carolalt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140254,"href":"https:\/\/carolalt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750\/revisions\/140254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolalt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolalt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolalt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolalt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThere’s so much that you can eat that’s not sugar. (Notice that I said “not sugar!” That means fruit is not a good morning breakfast. It’s just more sugar of another kind.) I personally have an egg every morning with some raw cheese. I have sometimes soaked whole raw grains like oat groats mixed with Kiefer. I also have raw bars when I’m in a rush.<\/p>\n