# breakfast cereal?



## Darylbethyname (Dec 2, 2008)

* Drop That Spoon! * 

June 17th, 2008 | Category: General Health, Nutrition










If you believe breakfast cereal is a healthy start to your day, take some time to read through the article below:

Drop That Spoon!

If time is limited, I've copied some of the article highlights below:

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"The absurdity of feeding an animal something that it never evolved to eat and that actually *makes it fat and sick* ought to be easy enough to see&#8230; They (processed cereals) are the epitome of cheap commodity converted by manufacturing to higher-value goods; of agricultural surplus turned into profitable export. Somehow, they have wormed into our confused consciousness as intrinsically healthy, when, by and large, *they are degraded foods that have to have any goodness artificially restored*."

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"It was a chronically dyspeptic businessman and former patient of Kellogg's at the sanitarium who unleashed the power of marketing on breakfast. Charles Post set up the rival La Vita Inn in Battle Creek and developed his own versions of precooked cereals. "The sunshine that makes a business plant grow is advertising," he declared, promoting his cereals *with paid-for testimonials* from apparently genuine happy eaters. *He also cheerfully invented diseases that his products could cure*. Grape Nuts were miraculously marketed at the time both as "brain food" and also as a cure for consumption and malaria. They were even, despite their enamel-cracking hardness, said to be an antidote to loose teeth."

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My Comments - Perhaps the best line from this entire article is bolded in the paragraph below. If you currently eat cereal, consider eating the box instead.

"That processed cereals had become little more than sugary junk with milk and vitamins added was an accusation made as long ago as 1970, when Robert Choate, an adviser to President Nixon on nutrition, told a congressional hearing into breakfast cereals that the majority "fatten but do little to prevent malnutrition". Choate was outraged at the aggressive targeting of children in breakfast cereal advertising. He analyzed 60 well-known cereal brands and concluded that two-thirds offered "empty calories, a term thus far applied to alcohol and sugar". *Rats fed a diet of ground-up cereal boxes with sugar, milk and raisins were healthier than rats fed the cereals themselves, he testified to senators*."

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My Comments - It should come as no surprise that large cereal manufacturers such as Kellogg's have sponsored many school nutritional programs. Paying to sponsor a school program is just another form of advertising. They have never been concerned about your health, or the health of your children. The sole concern is annual revenue.

"*Getting children hooked*, making them associate breakfast cereal with fun and entertainment, were among the main aims of competing manufacturers from the early days. Cereal advertising likewise helped shape early television. Using "motivational research" to work out *how to appeal to women and children* with different kinds of packaging."

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"One of the biggest costs in cereal manufacture is not the value of the ingredients nor the cost of production, but the marketing. *About a quarter of the money you spend on breakfast cereal goes on the cost of persuading you to buy it*."

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These are just a few highlights from the full article. If you don't have time to read through the entire piece, at least take some time to remove cereal from your morning schedule.

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is cereal like weetabix okay?


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## Guest (Dec 30, 2008)

Nothing wrong with a nice organic granola cereal but as far as that rubbish from sugar puffs to cornflakes are a joke of the highest quality.


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## SD (Sep 3, 2004)

Con said:


> Nothing wrong with a nice organic granola cereal but as far as that rubbish from sugar puffs to cornflakes are a joke of the highest quality.


Its amazing isnt it?? you wouldnt feed your kids sweets and chocolate for breakfast but wtf is coco pops, frosties, cheerios???? Garbage!

Give me oats any day, I do like granola too, but I am too cheap to buy it nowadays ha ha

SD


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## coldo (Dec 7, 2008)

Bran flakes are no good then? :huh:


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## Guest (Dec 30, 2008)

coldo said:


> Bran flakes are no good then? :huh:


 Honestly what for? I doubt you really get that many usable carbs out of them when you could have a big bowl of oats and get your carbs and fiber for a very low price, unless the English economy is that bad that oats are now also very expensive:lol:


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## Galtonator (Jul 21, 2004)

thankfully oats are still cheap


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## gerg (Aug 17, 2008)

i usually eat fruit and fibre or muesli out of convenience, if i have time I go for something like scrambled eggs on a slice of toast.


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