Top 10 Nutritional Boosters: WHOLE grains and my battle with cold cereal

I hate hate hate it when I am in the grocery store and I see something like Pepperidge Farm Goldfish touting a label that says "Made from Whole Grains!" UGH! Seriously, I wonder how many people actually fall for that kind of crap. Ok, if you are one of them, no offense intended but consider this education on the subject of whole grains of utmost importance.

Not every label that says it's made with, from, or out of whole grains actually means that you are actually ingesting a whole grain. Anything made with flour COMES from a whole grain but there is really no telling how much sifting, separating and general processing has happened before said grain makes it into your mouth. White flour is NOT whole grain even though it CAME from a whole grain. All white flour has had the germ and bran of the wheat berry removed in order to give you that lovely soft texture that we so enjoy in pastries and cupcakes and unfortunately with the removal of the germ and bran you can guarantee you are pretty much getting empty calories when you eat anything with white flour.

Sure, most labels will tell you what vitamins and minerals are present but that's where you get "enriched" appearing on the ingredients label. They took a perfectly nutritious wheat berry, removed the germ and bran, pulverized and bleached it until it no longer contains any nutrition and then attempt to add back in what they took out with artificial vitamins and minerals all in the sake of making it taste good and have a more pleasing texture. Enriched flour is simply NOT the same as good hardy stone ground wheat flour. Your body is NOT going to absorb added man-made nutrition like it will natural nutrition. Furthermore, you are eating something that can't even be considered the same thing anymore once it's been so processed. So what are you eating? Heck if I know, some kinda synthesized carbohydrate that will do you no good but make you fat probably.

Which brings me to cereal. Ugh, the bane of my existence in the food department. I can't get aways from it but I want to SO BADLY. If I don't make my family breakfast, lunch, and dinner I can guarantee that Brad most of all is going to fend for himself in such a way that makes me feel like a neglectful wife. My biggest issue is cereal and the fact that if we don't have any cereal, he will go buy it and he won't buy the healthy stuff. He buys junk like cocoa puffs or captain crunch. If that weren't bad enough, he takes Novan with him and lets the kid pick out cereal. Novan LOVES cereal as much as his dad sans milk of course because he simply can't tolerate sogginess in any form. So he and his dear son are hooked on that stuff they call food but can't be considered anything more than junk food. I know it's my problem and I need to figure out a way to feed them breakfast every morning, some kind of warm whole grain cereal, which I do a lot of the time but Novan still refuses anything but OCCASIONAL oatmeal. I know I am getting way off topic here but I guess I wanted to say I still have a ways to go until I feel like I have "arrived" when it comes to providing healthy food for my family and getting away from the processed food trap that hunts me down every time I go to the grocery store. But I am aware, and I try, more and more, to establish healthier habits. It is not an overnight thing. It's a process.

So, be careful what you buy. The only way to be relatively sure is to check the label. Of course, grinding your own grain is best but we can't all have that kind of time on our hands or the tools to do it. BUT, you can really make a big difference nutritionally if you stick with whole grains as much as possible. White flour (and white sugar for that matter) intake can really screw up the balances in your internal bacteria. You know, I think white flour has its place in things like cookies and deserts but when it comes to breads and pasta you should really do your best to be whole grain. I guarantee that you will feel better about yourself and you will find that you prefer it over the bleached out grossness of white flour.

Wheat, of course, is not the only grain that has been mistreated in a factory. Rice has been as well. Most people consume enriched rice which basically means they have removed the germ from the rice kernel and given you the carbohydrate and added in some synthetic nutrition. Brown rice should be your rice of choice. I had a hard time with this one, especially from Brad but eventually we both have found we don't even notice it now. I make sushi with brown rice, amaranth, and millet and it tastes just as good, if not better, than sushi rice does. It is all in the amount of water you use. You generally use more water than you would with white rice and it makes it softer. I have also used a portion of coconut milk in it as well and that helps too.

Sure, your spoiled husband will complain every now and then like mine that he "just wants some bisquik pancakes like mom used to make!" and you can tell him to make his own dang pancakes if he really wants to eat crap for breakfast! OK, OK, well eventually he will come to love it too because you can't eat healthy and simply NOT feel better. It will just happen if you just do it and you will want to keep doing it and it will no longer seem like a burden or sacrifice to give up those lovely soft and fluffy white flour pancakes or white bread that seems to get so perfectly crisp in a grilled cheese or toasted. It really won't seem like such a big deal if you just make the switch and stick it out. I promise!

Comments

  1. I love whole wheat bread and I do stone grind my own wheat for making my bread. London was complaining the other day, though, because she just wanted white bread. But she likes my wheat bread and I feel so much better giving it to her. Also, I would almost always choose brown rice over white. I think it's just yummier. But pastas? That's where I have issues. I just don't like the brown pastas. Maybe it's the texture. I just have a hard time with them.

    Oh yes, and the labels of whole grains on crackers and cereal? I was thinking the same thing. Thanks for the clarification.

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  2. We never got sugar cereal growing up either. It felt like I ate Grape Nuts every morning!!! :) But for Christmas we always got a box of sugar cereal and it HAD to be one of my fav. gifts!!!! So maybe you could use it just as that......a treat. :)
    It took me a while to switch over to brown rice too (texture weirdness at first), but now I LOVE it!

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  3. I'm cooking brown rice for dinner tonight! (mostly cuz I am out of white rice, and my sweet rice has no cooking directions) here goes nothing. I am sure Kaliya will eat it. Dont know about Cardon...

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  4. Oh wow! I can't tell you how many times I have to ignore front labels and look at the back (if that tells me anymore really). I would love this post you wrote on our food blog! It is World Health Awareness this month in which a few of us have written about what is really in the food we eat. In fact, Stephanie Teran just wrote about the film Food Inc. Would you mind if I put this post as a spotlight link or would you to write it on food blog? Let me know. Your blog is great by the way.

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  5. Oops, I forgot to put the food blog address. http://saltboxhouse.blogspot.com/

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  6. Kiersten, I have a hard time with whole wheat pasta but I gotta tell you I am not much of a pasta eater anyway. I just don't much like it so I don't have to fight that internal battle often.
    Melissa, I think grapenuts may very well be the WORST cereal out there. Poor you!
    Heather, go you!
    Madeline, I have no problem with what you suggested. You can link it, feature it, copy and paste it, whatever. I love getting the word out on nutrition. Also, will check out the blog.

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