I write this article with some trepidation because I know how important this may be to those of you who are on the go, and for moms who have limited budgets for food to feed their children. With that in mind, I'd like to help you make better choices with your cereal by educating you on what goes into the manufacturing of your favorite morning food.
Are They Really Whole Grain?
Cereals are made from what started out as whole grains when they were originally harvested from the fields. They are then milled into flour, or sometimes not, and made into the form you get when you buy a box of cereal. What one needs to appreciate is that during the refining process, several things happen. Obviously, the grain is processed from its original form into the form you see, but what also occurs during the refining process is it causes all of the vitamins to be destroyed. During refining, the germ portion of the grain, where all the vital vitamins exist, is removed. I'll help you to understand that in a minute. But because all the vitamins have been removed, this is the reason they now have to "Enrich" the flour when making the cereal. This is true for bread as well. Otherwise, there would be no "nutrition" to the cereal. Realistically, because the cereal has had all the synthetic vitamins added, there truly is no healthy nutrition within the cereal at all. Instead, you get a small or large dose of processed sugar that gets stored as fat, while at the same time suppresses your Immune System.
Getting back to the reason why the germ is removed, this is because of the essential oils that are found there. For the grain to be healthy, these essential oils are needed and created by the plant during its normal growth. They help to make the seeds necessary for the following years plant. Once the plant is harvested, the grain, like a piece of fruit will start to decompose. If the essential oils within the germ are left with the rest of the grain during the refining into flour, the oils, after about 5 or 7 days, begin to decompose and turn rancid. This causes the taste of the grain to become sour or bitter. Needless to say, if your cereal tasted bitter, you probably wouldn't eat it. Another problem of rancid oils besides the taste, is the likelihood of the rancidity of the oils causing the formation of "free radicals." These are potential cancer causing agents. And why would a manufacturer want to do that? This causes the manufacturers to make a decision. They have to A) remove the essential oils that contain all the vitamins and nutrition, and replace them with synthetic, non-digestible and incomplete vitamins, -or- B) leave the essential oils in the cereal, and add a huge amount of sugar to disguise the rancid taste. Neither seems a good choice if you are interested in being healthy. So what should a person do?
My Recommendation To You
If you feel that cereal is the best choice for breakfast, due to its convenience or because of the cost issue, I suggest the following. It will require you to become friendly with your local health food store owner. Ask him to order you your whole grain cereal, and to call you the day it arrives. Go and purchase it that very same day, and then return home with the cereal so you can transfer it from the box it came in to a Tupperware container. Then keep the container in the refrigerator. This will help to keep the oils from going rancid, and you won't have to eat all of that sugar. Likewise, you won't be eating all of those empty calories. This of course will help your body to respond with less weight, better energy and improved health because of it. And you might be surprised to see you or your children having an easier time concentrating and learning. Can you imagine what that will mean, if your kids could concentrate and listen better in school? I realize it requires doing things differently, and that would be worth the trouble, don't you think? After all, we are talking about your kids health and your sanity.
I hope this information has been helpful. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at docrick@spineboy.com or you can call me directly at (845) 561-2225.
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