Comments on: Puffed Grains and Breakfast Cereals, should we eat them?

By: Kelly

Kelly — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 20:27:58 +0000

I think it was in Nourishing Traditions that I read where Sally had said, “Any cereal that comes in a box is extruded”.

Of course I want my children to have strong bones and good mineral absorption, that’s why I would call these “compromise” foods, for those mornings when the kids are complaining about all the other good stuff I normally feed them and want something different. My stubborn teen will only eat eggs rarely now, because he says I’ve fed him too many that now he’s sick of them. (This is very frustrating, knowing how nutritious they are!) Sadly, only one of my four kids will eat oatmeal, so if they ate soaked millet or amaranth it would be a miracle. They all get sick of pancakes, waffles, toast, smoothies, etc., from time to time, but I vary it up as much as I can. I continue to muddle through, trying to do my best as a Mom!

Kelly (www.kellythekitchenkop.com)

By: Filippa

Filippa — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 17:42:16 +0000

Further comment about extruded grains from Sally Fallon: “Anything that goes through a hole is extruded. In talking about the breakfast cereals, we really should say “high pressure, high temperature extrusion.” This is the process that damages the proteins in grains. Lots of things are formed by lower temp extrusion, such as pet food pellets, etc. Sally

By: Filippa

Filippa — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 00:12:39 +0000

Kelly, I can’t see where it is written in the article above that “ANY cereal that comes in a box is extruded”. I’m sure Sally would agree with you that the baked cereals aren’t as bad as the extruded cereals but they still compromise the digestion in that they haven’t been soaked and therefore they are still full of anti-nutrients such as phytic acid which, if left untreated, can combine with minerals such as calcium, magnesium and zinc in the intestinal tract and block their absorption. This can then lead to mineral deficiencies and bone loss. Surely you want your children to have strong bones and good mineral absorption? It’s not hard to give up packaged cereals by replacing them with nutritious breakfasts such as oatmeal and other types of soaked porridges (millet, amaranth, etc), pancakes, eggs, rice, sourdough toast, smoothies, etc.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:41:39 +0000

I’m going to do a post soon on breakfast ideas, but I’m just not sure if I should include this information or not, since it can’t be found anywhere else except through the Weston A. Price site. Like the commentor above said, this isn’t to say I don’t believe it, but I need to see something more than once before I feel confident including it on my blog.

Also, there are a couple Kashi cereals that we like and the only ones I have let my family eat these days (one organic: Cinnamon Harvest, and one not organic: Oat Flakes and Wild Blueberry Clusters) - these are not soaked/fermented, but at least the ingredients are much better than typical breakfast cereals. When I called Kashi, they said these cereals are NOT extruded, but baked, and the only cereals they sell that are extruded are ones that have little shapes. Yet in the above post, Sally says that ANY cereal that comes in a box is extruded…

Yes, these Kashi cereals are still “processed” food that comes in a box, but I just wonder if they could at least be on the “compromise foods” list and not the “harmful foods” list?!

Does anyone have any insight? Maybe I’ll try to e-mail Sally.

By: Nathan Blish

Nathan Blish — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:48:27 +0000

If cornflakes are bad for you, what about the other cereals likes raisin bran or captain crunch?
I tried feeding only captain crunch cereal to my dog for a experiment, but he got sick and had to go to the vet.

By: Josnot

Josnot — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 03:21:12 +0000

I have two opinions on this article. One is that this should be put on a article on Wikipedia. Another is that I think that the company responsible for this test should get in trouble for animal abuse.

By: Carnival of Nourishment: 4th edition

Carnival of Nourishment: 4th edition — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 03:54:39 +0000

[...] for doing so. I wonder if she’d feel so good if she had read Sally Fallon’s article on extruded and puffed grains. Long story short, their nutritionally useless at best, cancer causing at [...]

By: Henriette

Henriette — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 08:04:31 +0000

MU Lee
Banana bread was not a hit here either.

What I do is that I use my old recipes on bread
but I just let it rise loong time with buttermilk or yoghurt and less yeast.

Panckes well I use my own recipe but use the tecnic; soak flour in the milk overnight- add eggs etc the next morning- makes wonderful pancakes.
Baking is a difficult matter - I have found out that flours, ovens etc differ a lot from country to country.
The american recipes donÂ´t alwys work n my danish kitchen….

When it comes to cakes.
Well I eat cake 1 x a week I donÂ´t bother with soaking since I use white spelt flour
and the rest of the ingredients are good: butter, fresh eggs from my hens and honey or maplesirup.

Things like beet kvass is really a personally taste- I donÂ´t like it- but my friend do.

I find the recipes for meat,salds, veggies etc the best in NT

By: Katrina Armstrong

Katrina Armstrong — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 10:27:41 +0000

I was wondering about the extrusion process too. Maybe WAPF could do a fundraiser to raise money to replicate some of these studies. I think that might give them some more credibility.
Same with the raw milk. We need some more recent studies to quote to compete with the oppsoing views. Even Sally admits that the critics often criticise the raw milk activists for using really old studies.
When I told my husband about the extrusion process, he wanted to know where the evidence was and “unpublished studies” isn’t too convincing. Not that I don’t believe it, I do! I just think that more recent studies would give the credibility WAPF needs.

By: MU Lee

MU Lee — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 12:11:34 +0000

This is about some of Sally Fallon’s recipes in Nourishing Traditions. I am not having much luck with them and end up throwing a lot of good food away as a result. I just made her Banana Bread, p. 483 and it is just awful. Bake at least 1-1/2 hours, she says. Well I tried, but it was overdone on the outside and raw on the inside.

The beet kvass was disgusting, and ended up on my compost pile. I’ve heard the same on various blogs about the Komucha being likewise, so I won’t even go there.

I’ve baked and cooked for 40 years with the last 30 of them being with natural foods. What she does to baking is sad. If grains are that hard to digest, I’ll just take a food enzyme tablet. I can’t afford to keep throwing out perfectly good food that has been ruined by these recipes. I really had high hopes for this cookbook, but I think I’ll stick to my own tried and true recipes that turn out right every time and that my family enjoys.

I kept saying to myself while baking this banana nut bread that it couldn’t possibly turn out, as it was breaking all the rules of good baking. It didn’t.