Maybe Eating Boxed Cereal Isn't What We Should Choose.

[bluejeangirl]

I thought I would post this here since many of us will try and clean up our diets as a new years resolution. What do you think of this article? It really amazed me...would love to hear any comments. Sorry animals were used to test results.

Gail

Open Original Shared Link

[Ursa Major]

That is very interesting information and doesn't surprise me a bit. We rarely have those cereals in the house.

[codetalker]

Cereal boxes being more nutritious than the cereal inside is a well-known urban legend. It was featured in an episode of the show, Mythbusters. Of course, that does not mean the tests were not actually performed.

Personally, I stopped eating processed cereal a long time ago. There are a lot of better, tastier and cheaper things to eat in the morning.

[Nancym]

Read "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and find out how horrible these boxed cereals are on our environment and economy not to mention our health. Great book!

[ianm]

I'm with codetalker on this one. I stopped eating that junk a long time ago and my son only eats it once in a great while. Processed cereals, even gluten free ones, make me lethargic and bloated. If I'm going to feel like that I might as well eat gluten.

[plantime]

Using critical thinking, I see no evidence whatsoever that this story is true. I can make up things like those so-called experiments, and put them on a website. Without proper referencing, I cannot check to see if I am being told the truth. An article like this would not change my mind if I ate cereal every day.

[Kaycee]

I chose for myself earlier this month to give away gluten-free cereal, 1st because of the expense and secondly because I felt it wasn't doing me any good as far as the battle for loosing weight goes. Thirdly, I am finding eating too many carbohydrates like cereal, pastas and bread seem too make me feel lethargic.

So breakfast, it is either yoghurt and fruit, or leftovers or even occassionally toast.

Cathy

[RiceGuy]

The article seems to specifically refer to those cereals which are made by extrusion, like rice crispies, cocoa puffs, etc. The one thing that is not clear to me from this article is whether those plain puffed grain cereals like Open Original Shared Link, Open Original Shared Link, and Open Original Shared Link are actually extruded. To me they don't appear to be, but are the actual grain which has been expanded in a similar way as making popcorn. In this case, there wouldn't be any more protein, which the article suggests is the case with the extruded ones.

If simply puffing a grain is bad, then I'd think the article would mention popcorn. Since it doesn't I must conclude that the cereals I referenced above are not subject to the findings of the article.

[ArtGirl]

I'm with Dessa. We don't really know if this was a legitimate study, and, since it wasn't published, there's no way to verify.

I don't think that an occasional consumption of a high-carb/low protein cereal is bad for one's health (even an occasional nibble on a cereal box - the problem is the large amounts that many people consume of these things rather than good proteins and vegetables and fiber and all those other good foods. It is very sad that many of our children live on processed cereals - breakfast, lunch and dinner and snacks inbetween.

[Nancym]

So regardless of the reason, some of us feel cereal for breakfast not the best idea.

Lets share what people eat and what makes them feel best.

When I eat breakfast it is usually fairly high protein, it sticks with me for hours and hours. I was at a loss when I gave up cheese (dairy) because to me, cheese made eggs palatable. But I found a couple of other ways of fixing eggs I really like:

Scrambled with fresh grated nutmeg and topped with steaming hot berries.

Or

Scrambled with green onions and diced canadian ham. Quite good even without cheese.

Another good breakfast was I got these chicken/turkey sausages (very short, nice ingredient list) from Trader Joes and zapped two in the microwave (they're big).

If I'm VERY organized sometimes I make pancakes out of almond meal, flax meal, coconut flour (some or all of the them), egg and coconut milk and baking powder. Again, topped with berries.

And occassionally I make egg crepes, just egg thinned with water and cooked like a crepe and roll up some warmed, thickened berries and/or lemon curd.

If I'm just interested in speed eating, I grab some pecans, walnuts, almonds. Stuff like that.

[codetalker]

Scrambled with fresh grated nutmeg and topped with steaming hot berries.

Or

Scrambled with green onions and diced canadian ham. Quite good even without cheese.

Another good breakfast was I got these chicken/turkey sausages (very short, nice ingredient list) from Trader Joes and zapped two in the microwave (they're big).

If I'm VERY organized sometimes I make pancakes out of almond meal, flax meal, coconut flour (some or all of the them), egg and coconut milk and baking powder. Again, topped with berries.

And occassionally I make egg crepes, just egg thinned with water and cooked like a crepe and roll up some warmed, thickened berries and/or lemon curd.

If I'm just interested in speed eating, I grab some pecans, walnuts, almonds. Stuff like that.

Sounds delicious.

My breakfasts are usually very simple, such as:

Brown rice, cinnamon and raisins.

Sweet potatoes, raisins and honey.

Boiled eggs and boiled potatoes.

If time permits, waffles or pancakes.

Occasionally, poached fish and boiled potatoes.

[Kaycee]

Another good breakfast was I got these chicken/turkey sausages (very short, nice ingredient list) from Trader Joes and zapped two in the microwave (they're big).

I so agree, even if it is labelled gluten free and has a list a mile long of ingredients, I will not go there. But here is where I fall flat on my face, I don't mind the rest of my family eating that stuff. What is wrong with me?

Cathy

[plantime]

Nothing is wrong with you, Cathy. You're human, just like us.

For breakfast, I like to eat the previous night's leftovers or a fruit/yogurt smoothie. I only use 100% fruit juices, real fruit, and lite vanilla yogurt in my smoothies. I have gotten to where I don't like sorting through a long list of ingredients to determine if I can eat something or not.

[Nancym]

I so agree, even if it is labelled gluten free and has a list a mile long of ingredients, I will not go there.

I think it is good people are doing that. I was looking at some possible Rice Dream ice cream and tried to read the ingredient list. It was about 4" long, teeny, teeny type... I just gave up and put it back! If they need to have that many ingredients, it can't be good for me.

[plantime]

Maybe we need to let the manufacturers know that we have no desire or inclination to read through the impossibly small fine print of a mile-long ingredients list. I sure don't need to eat all of the chemicals they add to food to make it "better" for me!

[Kaycee]

It will be hard to change what manufacturers do, as they will argue it is the general populace that wants food that lasts, looks good and tastes nice. That is where the problem is, we might be reading labels, and know what is in foods, but the general population who doesn't have allergies or intolerances (that they know of) is quite unlikely to even bother with reading labels, or even care what is in their food, unless they are into health issues. That might be quite a generalisation, but I was one of them. I only started to read labels to check the fat content and calorific quantities in food while I was dieting. But did I get a shock when I started reading labels to find out what I was acutally eating.

Cathy