JUST-SAY-NO: National Cereal Day - Prescriptive Optimization

I think Nancy Reagan has the best answer to National Cereal Day. JUST SAY NO!

There is no nutritional value in most breakfast cereals. Further, they produce massively detrimental health consequences if used a common breakfast.

For starters, I think the fact that cereal and low fat milk was shown in the 1930s as an excellent way to fatten pigs helps set the proper context.

Milk + Cereal Grains: Fattening Pigs and Kids since the last century

“Nutritional” Facts

To pick one of these stellar products to examine, I searched for the most popular – Oreo O’s was the winner.

Before getting geared up, it’s safe to say that the 1 cup serving size is a pipe dream – I have never seen someone pour out that amount unless the box was near empty. This is verified by Consumer Reports:

Almost every participant—92 percent—exceeded the recommended serving size. They helped themselves to 24 percent to 92 percent more when using a 12-ounce bowl and 43 percent to 114 percent more when using an 18-ounce bowl. But those who used the largest bowl really went overboard. With Cheerios, the average “overpour” was 132 percent; with granola, it was 282 percent.
Consumer reports²

So, to be safe I will just assume at a minimum we can double the amounts above.

Carbs/Sugar

Fifty grams of carbs (in two cups), with almost no fiber. This translates into an extremely quick rush of blood sugar, followed by a rush of insulin. The insulin coaxes the sugar into cells, but almost always overdoes it and hunger sets in soon after as blood sugar plummets.

The blood sugar effects alone translate to mood and focus issues – and a need for 10am snack time. I can detect when my kids have had cheat days with junk foods such as this, even without knowing they had an exposure.

It isn’t just sugar either, these corn syrup sweeteners contain high levels of fructose which is metabolized differently in the body (and not in a good way). There is a paragraph in this article on fructose.

Grains

Quick, how many corn/wheat products can you count. Grain, especially processed types such as those here, will wreck health.

Let’s start with lectins, which are a plant defense mechanism that can precipitate devastating health consequences. Wheat Germ Agglutin (WGA) is a lectin common in many grains.

The administration of the lectin WGA to experimental animals caused hyperplastic and hypertrophic growth of the small intestine, hypertrophic growth of the pancreas and thymus atrophy [36]. Lectin activity has been demonstrated in wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn and rice, however the best studied of the cereal grain lectins is WGA [38].
The Dietary Intake of Wheat and other Cereal Grains and Their Role in Inflammation
Karin de Punder ³

I also wrote a detailed article on how WGA can precipitate gallbladder and other digestive consequences.

Wheat: The gallbladder blocker

Roundup/Glyphosate

Glyphosate is the most ubiquitous agricultural chemical in the world. It should not be consumed in humans – I have touched on a few reasons on thi blog. Grains are always sprayed, often times right before harvest. It isn’t just the corn and wheat either, recently I saw an article that demonstrated 100% of oats had glyphosate residue. Yes, oats are in this cereal as well.

Junk Oils

Oreo O’s have canola oil listed early on the ingredient list, normally meaning high amounts. All canola is terrible for you – read more here. Oh, and most are loaded with glyphosate too!

Folic Acid

Folic acid is an artificial folate. It is added to most processed grain foods by mandate – and this is not a good thing. It can interrupt normal folate metabolism, and many people have genetic mutations where this system is suboptimal to begin with. I have witnessed folic acid avoidance improve health in these patients many times.

JUST SAY NO

I could go on, but hopefully there is enough here to convince you to stop eating cereal. Yes, it is cheap. Yes, it is easy. But it cannot be part of a diet with optimal health as the goal.

As a pharmacist, I am trained in providing medicines to change the direction of someone’s health. However, more often now, I am finding that the real power lies in what we avoid to begin with. For example, in a whitepaper on Avoiding Insulin in Type 2 Diabetes, I layed out strategies to prevent the usage of insulin. Taking away carbohydrate overload has a much better outcome than me dispensing expensive insulins.

Cereal is a powerful avoidance that can improve health, mood, and performance starting on day one.