Let me tell you about two studies which were not published. The first was described by Paul Stitt who wrote about an experiment conducted by a cereal company in which four sets of rats were given special diets. One group received plain whole wheat, water and synthetic vitamins and minerals. A second group received puffed wheat (an extruded cereal), water and the same nutrient solution. A third set was given only water. A fourth set was given nothing but water and chemical nutrients.
The rats that received the whole wheat lived over a year on this diet. The rats that got nothing but water and vitamins lived about two months. The animals on water alone lived about a month. But the company’s own laboratory study showed that the rats given the vitamins, water and all the puffed wheat they wanted died within two weeks—they died before the rats that got no food at all. It wasn’t a matter of the rats dying of malnutrition. Autopsy revealed dysfunction of the pancreas, liver and kidneys and degeneration of the nerves of the spine, all signs of insulin shock.
Results like these suggested that there was something actually very toxic in the puffed wheat itself! Proteins are very similar to certain toxins in molecular structure, and the pressure of the puffing process may produce chemical changes, which turn a nutritious grain into a poisonous substance.
Another unpublished experiment was carried out in the 1960s. Researchers at Ann Arbor University were given 18 laboratory rats. They were divided into three groups: one group received corn flakes and water; a second group was given the cardboard box that the corn flakes came in and water; the control group received rat chow and water. The rats in the control group remained in good health throughout the experiment. The rats eating the box became lethargic and eventually died of malnutrition. But the rats receiving the corn flakes and water died before the rats that were eating the box! (The last corn flake rat died the day the first box rat died.) But before death, the corn flake rats developed schizophrenic behavior, threw fits, bit each other and finally went into convulsions. The startling conclusion of this study is that there was more nourishment in the box than there was in the corn flakes.
This experiment was actually designed as a joke, but the results were far from funny. The results were never published and similar studies have not been conducted.
Most of America eats this kind of cereal. In fact, the USDA is gloating over the fact that children today get the vast majority of their important nutrients from the nutrients added to these boxed cereals.
Cereals sold in the health food stores are made by the same method. It may come as a shock to you, but these whole grain extruded cereals are probably more dangerous than those sold in the supermarket, because they are higher in protein and it is the proteins in these cereals that are so denatured by this type of processing.
About the Author...
Sally Fallon is founding president of the Weston A Price Foundation, a non-profit nutrition education foundation with over 400 local chapters and 9000 members. She is also the founder of A Campaign for Real Milk, which has as its goal universal access to clean raw milk from pasture-fed animals. Author of the best-selling cookbook Nourishing Traditions and also of Eat Fat Lose Fat (Penguin), both with Mary G. Enig, Phd, Sally has a encyclopedic knowledge of modern nutritional science as well as ancient food ways. Her grasp on the work of Weston Price is breath taking and her passion for health freedom, inspiring. In each edition of Nourished Magazine Sally answers your questions about nutrition, health, food and medical politics. Send us an email with your question and we'll put it to her.
Dec 21st, 2006 at 3:47 am
If these studies were not published, how do you know about them? Is there any independent corroboration? This is really a question, not just a comment. I would really like to know.
Dec 21st, 2006 at 7:32 am
In his book Fighting the Food Giants, Paul Stitt tells us that the extrusion process used for these cereals destroys most of the nutrients in the grains. Her cites one of the articles mentioned here in that book. The only reason he knows of it is he once worked for a Food Corp and found it in their files.
For other information you can read Henry A. Schroeder, “Losses of Vitamins and Trace Minerals Resulting from Processing and Preservation of Foods,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1971
Jun 17th, 2007 at 11:26 am
So what should we eat for Breakfast? How about Oatmeal or Cream of Wheat, etc?
Jun 17th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Damian,
Irish Oatmeal, (coursely cut oat groats , soaked overnight before simmering in the morning with raisins), topped with fresh milk or cream is an excellent and nutritious mornign meal. My toddlers and I have this most mornings, and it is very filling yet easily digested.
Jun 17th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
Oatmeal etc is fine as long as you soak them night over.
Do not use too much sweetner.
I eat lots of oatmeal- millet and rice porridge but mainly in the cold season.
I eat them with fresh organic milk( can´t get raw here :-( ) honey and mayby some fruit.
I like egg dishes in the morning as well.
Jun 18th, 2007 at 11:11 pm
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.
Jun 20th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
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.
Jun 22nd, 2007 at 7:04 pm
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 don´t alwys work n my danish kitchen….
When it comes to cakes.
Well I eat cake 1 x a week I don´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 don´t like it- but my friend do.
I find the recipes for meat,salds, veggies etc the best in NT
Mar 9th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
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.
Mar 11th, 2008 at 4:48 am
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.
Jun 4th, 2008 at 5:41 am
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.
Jun 9th, 2008 at 11:12 am
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.
Jun 16th, 2008 at 4:42 am
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
Jul 6th, 2008 at 7:27 am
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)