Cereal ... good or bad?

Hello blogger world. It's been a while. Not much time these days to share all that is on my mind, but I had to take a few minutes out of my busy day to share this.

I've been reading a new book about autoimmune diseases called, "Autoimmune - The Cause and The Cure" by Annesse Brockley and Kristin Urdiales. While I am a bit skeptical about the word "cure" when it comes to all types of autoimmune diseases, I do realize that a drastic change in diet and lifestyle can greatly benefit ANYONE and EVERYONE, regardless of whether or not they suffer from an autoimmune disease.

Here I want to share a small bit of the book in the section about rebuilding your gut.

It starts off by explaining how all dry breakfast cereals are made. They make a thick mash out of the grains, etc. and then put them in an extruder - this machine forces the grains out of a hole the shape they want the cereal to be (o-shapes, flakes, animals or shreds).

Now to quote the book:
"This process of 'extrusion' destroys many of the nutrients that are present and renders the amino acids toxic to our bodies by denaturing the proteins.

"In his book, Fighting the Food Giants, Paul Stitt cited a cereal company study in which four groups of rats were each given a different diet (Stitt, 1980). The first group received plain whole wheat, water, and synthetic vitamins and minerals. The second group received puffed wheat (an extruded cereal), water, and the same synthetic mix of vitamins and minerals. The third group was given only water, and the fourth group was given only water and the synthetic vitamins and minerals.

"The rats that were part of the group that received the whole wheat lived for over a year on the diet. The rats that received the water and the vitamins lived about two months. The rats that were only given water lived for a month. The most surprising results came from the group given the puffed wheat. The rats that received the puffed wheat, vitamins, and water lived for only about two weeks. Upon autopsy, researchers found signs of insulin shock, with dysfunction of the pancreas, liver, kidneys, and the degeneration of nerves of the spine.

"In an additional study, University of Michigan researchers separated their rats into three groups (Fallon, 2008). The first group received corn flakes and water; a second group received the cardboard box the cereal came in and water; and the control group received rat chow and water. The control group remained in good health during the experiment. The rats fed the corn flake box and water died of malnutrition. The rats given the corn flakes and water, however, died before the rats that just ate the box! Additionally, the rats given the corn flakes displayed schizophrenic behavior before they died; throwing fits, biting each other, and finally going into convulsions."

I have not checked into the sources she refers to, but I plan to when / if I have time. And yes, I realize these are rats, not humans, but still the results are alarming enough to cause concern. 

We ditched cereal a long time ago. For the last 10 years or so, we have had cereal a few times a year ... some organic, whole grain varieties that we get real cheap at the discount store that we have as a snack or part of a meal in a pinch. I think we'll skip it from now on. Sounds like even a few times a year is not worth it!!

There are so many other options for breakfast besides cereal. We usually just have leftovers. If nothing is leftover, we have oatmeal or toast & eggs or some other quick, healthy alternative. Lately I started making real sourdough bread ... great for breakfast or any time of the day. Maybe I'll post about that some day when I have time.

There is so much more I want to say here.

Fiber, Nutrition, Etc...

Without getting into too much detail or taking a whole lot of time, I just wanted to share something real quick that shocked me.

Our internet opens up to Yahoo ... and on it there was an article about the "15 worst health and diet myths" or something like that. The part where I will not share much detail is whether or not I agree with what all they say there. I do want to share however one point. Here is what they say (there are a few spelling errors!) :

~~~~~~~
Myth #10: You need 38 grams of fiber a day
Reality: More fiber is better, but 38 is nearly impossible

That's the recommendation from the Institute of Medicine. And it's a lot, equaling nine apples or more than a half dozen bowls of instant oatmeal. (Most people eat about 15 grams of fiber daily.) The studies found a correlation between high fiber intake and lower incidence of heart disease. But none of the high-fiber-eating groups in those studies averaged as high as 38 grams, and, in fact, people saw maximum benefits with a daily gram intake averaging from the high 20s to the low 30s.

Put the Truth to Work for You: Just eat sensibilty. Favor whole, unprocessed foods. Make sure the carbs you eat are fiber-rich—that means produce, legumes, and whole grains—because they'll help slow the aborption of sugar into your bloodstream.
~~~~~~~

Getting 38 grams of fiber a day is "NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE"??? What planet are they on? I was so shocked by that statement because I KNEW IT WAS NOT TRUE. How do I know? I used to track what I ate using a nifty free website called nutridiary.com and also fitday.com. I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables each day and also try to stick to whole grains and beans, with a little bit of meat (sometimes I have days with no meat) and little to no dairy. When I read that article and the point about how it is nearly impossible to get 38 grams of fiber in one day, I quick went on to fitday.com and plugged in what all I have eaten so far today.

Breakfast - a green smoothie consisting of 2 large bananas, 2 medium sized apples, a big handful of kale, a slice of lemon, about 2T of fresh ground flax, and 1/2c of frozen mulberries.

Lunch - Whole wheat pasta with a tomato sauce and a bowl of steamed carrots.

That's all I've had so far today, unless you want to also count the 5 cups of water and the cup of peppermint tea :)

How do I measure up? According to fitday.com, here's my tally thus far:

Calories 1,088

Fat 15.4g
Saturated 2.6g
Polyunsaturated 6.3g
Monounsaturated 4.4g

Carbohydrate 233.5g
Dietary Fiber 40.4g

Protein 29.5g

The only way this could be a little different is because I did not know how to plug in the tomato sauce I made. It did not give me an option for whole wheat noodles apart from having sauce on it, so I had to choose the "whole wheat noodles with meatless tomato sauce" option. But, that will not make a big difference for the fiber tracking point. Also, I've almost met all of the RDA's for the vitamins and minerals they have listed.

Notice my fiber intake so far today - yes, 40 grams ... and that does not even include supper, which will be beans, rice, veggies and corn tortillas ... another 20g of fiber or more. That's over 60g of fiber for one day.

If you are only getting 15g of fiber a day, you MUST eat more fruits and vegetables!! Did you know that you are supposed to have 2-3 bowel movements a day? If you are not regular in this way, you MUST do something about it. There is a lot to be said about the health of your intestines and colon ... but once again, I do not have time to get into all that stuff.

What in the world does a person eat in a day that they only get 15g of fiber?? I have an idea ... meat, cheese, white flour products, chips, soda, ... and maybe some heavily processed fruits and vegetables? Yuck. There is NO FIBER in animal products, and hardly any at all in white flour products or heavily processed fruits and vegetables.

Take care of yourself. Eat healthy foods. Stay away from foods that offer no nutrition. Snack on raw fruits and veggies. Eat a raw salad of some kind with at least one meal a day. Try green smoothies. Eat as many greens in one day as you can. Eat as much lacto-fermented foods as you can. Try making your own whole wheat bread. Or better yet, sourdough bread. (update 6-28-12: I'll try to have a recipe for that soon)

I might post more on this stuff some other time. If any of this has triggered your curiosity and you have a specific question, please ask!! A sincere question could give me a good idea for another blog post.