BREAKFAST CEREALS & WHITE FLOUR

THE PROBLEM WITH BREAKFAST CEREALS...
A lot of us were raised on the belief that (boxed) breakfast cereals are a great way to start art your day - they are definitely made keyed as being the healthiest way to begin your day. All the brand marketing tells us that they're whole grain, finer rich and fortified with a day's worth of vitamins and minerals.  The reality could not be further from the truth however - they are refined products that illicit a huge insulin release...so in reality, all they are leading to is a definite blood sugar crash a few hours later (making you feel like you're starving!)...so what does that lead to - us craving and grabbing another refined snack - reinforcing our trend towards becoming a sugar junky! 

We eat breakfast cereals because we believe that we are making sound nutrition choices. In reality, these cereals are one of the biggest sabotages to us meeting out weight loss goals.

Below, I'll take you through some interesting research data on the foods we eat that cause the highest insulin response.  My comments are in red, here are their findings:
(this study can be found at: http://www.nutrientdataconf.org/PastConf/NDBC35/4-2_Sampson.pdf )

U.S. Analyzed Cereals [notice that most of these cereals are ones that we would consider healthy]
• Cheerios
• Shredded Wheat
• Corn Flakes
• Quaker 100% Natural
• Cracklin Oat Bran
• Lucky Charms
• Frosted Flakes
• Great Grains
• Honey Bunches of Oats
• Wheaties

Highest versus Lowest Food Insulin Index (FII) Values

Highest analyzed FII                 Lowest analyzed FII
Jelly Beans (120)                        Olive Oil (3)
Pancakes (112)                           Avocado (5)
Honeydew Melon (95)                 Walnuts (6)
Potatoes (90)                               Tuna (16)
Breakfast Cereals (70‐113)         Chicken (20)
[Notice that breakfast cereals are second only to jelly beans...a food that we would eat sparingly or as a treat]

TOP 8 FOODS CONTRIBUTING TO INSULIN LEVELS
[Notice that cold cereals are the number one contributor for men and the number three contributor for women (right behind skim milk...which we typically combine with cold cereal)] 

MEN                                         WOMEN
Cold Cereal (6.1%)                    Mashed Potatoes (6.2%)
Potatoes (5.7%)                        Skimmed Milk (5 7%)
Dark Bread (4.4%)                     Cold Cereal (5.3%)
Skimmed Milk(3.2%)                  Dark Bread (4 6%) 
Bananas (3.2%)                         Beef (3.6%)
English Muffin (3 1%)                Yogurt (3.3%)
White Bread (2.9%)                    White Bread (3.1%)
Orange Juice (2.8%)                  English Muffin (2.7%)

THE DANGERS OF WHITE FLOUR
White (and refined) flours are dangerous because they are typically a staple in the North American diet (lunches and dinners). Sandwiches for lunch and hamburger/hotdog buns, dinner rolls, biscuits and desserts are common at dinner time.  Here is why these pose a danger to our health (and should be avoided).

It’s generally understood that refining food destroys nutrients. With the most nutritious part of the grain removed, white flour essentially becomes a form of sugar. 


White flour contains a small fraction of the nutrients of the original grain, with the heat of the steel rollers having destroyed what little nutrients remain. But then it is hit with another chemical insult--a chlorine gas bath (chlorine oxide). This serves as a whitener, as well as an “aging” agent.


Flour used to be aged with time, improving the gluten and thus improving the baking quality. Now, it is treated  with chlorine  to instantly produce similar qualities in the flour 

Alloxan is a biproduct of the bleaching process – it is produced when the chlorine mixes with the residual proteins in the flour.  Alloxan is a poison that is used to produce diabetes in healthy experimental animals (primarily rats and mice), so that researchers can then study diabetes “treatments” in the lab. Alloxan destroys pancreatic beta cells which are the primary cell type in parts of your pancreas that produce insulin.  When these are destroyed, the result is diabetes.

There is no other commercial application for alloxan -- it is used exclusively in the medical research industry because it is so highly toxic.
More information can be found at (http://www.healthiertalk.com/little-known-secrets-about-bleached-flour-0499)

Next week, our blog topic will be on healthy (and filling) breakfast options, as well as bread alternatives