breakfast cereals

“I was wondering if you could tell me where to find info about why not to eat breakfast cereals?  My husband shopped last night and bought Fruity Pebbles!  He showed me that it had the same amount of carbs and only a little more sugar than Crispix.  Help! I mentioned to him that I was going to ask you but he’s not going to be easily convinced.  Do you have an article showing research as to why we need to minimize our intake of carbs – especially bleached/sugared cereal?”

My reply:

We used to be Sugar Bomb cereal freaks around here, too.  Why do they have to taste so good?  But now that we know what we know…they’ve lost their appeal for Kent and I.  Too bad I can’t say the same for our kids.  They still ask for them often, and it drives us crazy.

Those pesky carbohydrates…

There is more information coming out all the time about the danger of too many carbs & sugary foods in our diets.  While they are important factors to be sure (read more at that link), they are only a part of a bigger issue.

Chemical colors and flavors

To make all those “fruity flavors” and pretty colors that grab kid’s eyes so well, do you know how many fake chemicals are used?  These are linked to attention issues, diabetes, obesity, cancer, and probably tons of other things we don’t even know about yet. (More on the dangers of artificial flavors & colors.)

Our goal is to move away from processed foods

Making things like Fruity Pebbles into those tiny little puffed rice shapes is about as processed a food as you can get, and remember the point is to get away from processed foods and eat more fresh foods as much as possible.  (Sally Fallon often mentions the super high heat and high pressure extrusion process used with breakfast cereals and how we should avoid extruded foods.)  The reason is not only because processed foods are soooooooo denatured (far from how any food comes in nature), but because the only nutrients in that cereal are synthetic ones that may have been added back in – and synthetic are much less nutritious (obviously) – and sometimes even dangerous.  It just makes sense that vitamins and minerals the way they come naturally in food are going to be better for us than ones that were isolated in a laboratory.

Read more about the dangers of breakfast cereals.

Lastly, when we give our kids these breakfast cereals, which are basically void of nutrition and full of fake flavors and colors, we are not only robbing them of the nutrients their bodies need from a breakfast of real food, but we’re also training their palate’s to have to have the sweet, fake-flavored crap that they’ll only need to break themselves from when they’re older.

Find some Healthy breakfast ideas, and add YOUR ideas in the comments there!  Also, share in the comments at this post about how difficult it was for you to give up the Sugar Bomb cereals?

• You may also want to read The Makings of the “Good ol’ American Breakfast” – from a talk by Sally Fallon

This post is part of Tasty Tuesday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday & Food Renegade’s Fight Back Friday!  Be sure to check out all the great links there!  Photo:  Chris Toumanian

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