by: Nechama Dina Smith
BS"D
As a teenager I'd come home from school ravished. I would polish off three bowls of cereal easily till my mom commanded, “Enough! Leave room for supper!” (I still had room.)
There was something about cereal that I needed, that I was addicted to.
Whoever invented it is a total genius. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry now.
The thing is, I thought there were healthy cereals and unhealthy ones. I felt proud that I ate organic rice crispies (or rather an imitation of them) or puffed wheat or corn without added sugar. But even without the sugar, it had me addicted. How much more so if I went to the cousins or a friend and encountered literal sugar-cereals that had me eating many bowls even though I knew full well the sugar, food coloring and preservatives were totally unhealthy.
As I got older I learned that no dry cereal is good for you! (except see the P.S. at end of article).
Besides for the amount of sugar in most, which by the time a hungry eater has finished her third bowl exceeds the accepted allowance of sugar for the whole day (and even that daily sugar allowance should probably not get filled), the actual process of making cereal, any kind, uses exceedingly high heat to bake it, shape it, and seal in that crispiness. The process is called extrusion, and that damages the proteins and causes them to be toxic. This high temperature is likely the reason some consider dry cereal to be carcinogenic.
In an experiment in 1960 with rats, one rat group was given only water to drink, one received water plus cornflakes, and the third got water plus the cardboard box from the cornflakes, minus the cornflakes. The rats which subsisted only on water lived the longest--a month--while the ones eating the cornflakes and water lasted only a couple of days. The ones which ate the cardboard box lived longer than the cornflakes ones, beginning to die only after the cornflakes ones finished dying. You can reach your own conclusions.
It was this study that made me abandon cereal. For now, dry cereal is not an option in my house. True, I lose the convenience of it, and I lose the surety that I’ll always have something that everyone will eat, but I gain a healthy, wholesome breakfast for all.
I do get lazy at lunchtime--it’s sourdough bread with whatever they want with it--and then by supper I get my energy back to create something decent.
So what do I serve for breakfast? I’m sure readers can come up with exciting ideas of their own, but here’s what works for us:
Smoothies
Oatmeal, soaked overnight. Oats should be organic and free of glyphosate, a carcinogenic herbicide recently coming to light.
Oatmeal pancakes
Cheese pancakes, sourdough pancakes or banana pancakes
Yogurt herb bread with melted cheese
Omelets or sunny side ups
Sliced apples with peanut butter, cottage cheese, or hard cheese.
Sometimes I’ll make muffins or cookies
In my ambitious days I made granola out of nuts, seeds and dried fruit (but not enough of my children liked this delicious concoction to warrant me trying again)
Fruit salad, if I have a lot of fruit and a lot of time (maybe I do this a couple times a year, and they really love it). They can top with yogurt.
You fill in here; I am out of ideas.
In short, cereal is not good for you. There is no nutrition in it. Instead, fill your empty stomachs with something empowering each morning. Some people eat a couple of eggs every day-that is something that is loaded with nutritious energy-giving calories! The point is, if you take it out of your house, you’ll figure something out. Something wonderful, I hope.
P.S I’ve bought Ezekiel cereal, and according to the box, it says it is baked at low temperatures, so that is one we do sometimes buy.
Comments