"Seinfeld" fans will remember Jerry as "an avid Superman and cereal fan," nod to the Wikipedia entry about the anti-sitcom. And we've all known folks who could shake that box, filling a huge bowl to the rim, downing in minutes, only to repeat. The bottomless pit.
Somewhere in the seventies, a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs became the anti-Christ. Atkins followers, excused. Mikey "liked it." Our Saturday morning cartoons were interrupted by that technicolor toucan, tricky rabbit, and the Flintstones hawking sugar masquerading as a healthy way to start and maybe finish the day.
Back in 2009, General Mills converted its "Big G" line to contain "at least 8 g of whole grains." In 2012, the General Mills website boasted its cereal line now "contains more whole grains than any other ingredient." Sounds good, right? Well, Big G cereals include Count Chocula, Double Chocolate Cookie Crisp, Frankenberry, and Dora the Explorer. The site also notes, "Kids or spouses with 'unique' taste preferences can be convinced to try whole grains." The question remains, "Can you have your cake -- ahem -- Cinnamon Toast Crunch and eat it, too?"
Baseball, reality TV and vilifying foods are America's national pastimes. While grocery stores devote entire aisles to Kellogg's, Post, General Mills, and some "natural" brands, we read conflicting information about the health risks or benefits of a lowfat, grain-based diet. Is it better to breakfast on cereal and milk or scrambled eggs and a side of fruit?
The best way to cut through the marketing fluff is to deconstruct the label, one ingredient at a time.
Trix: "Silly Rabbit, Trix are for Kids!"
For starters, Trix cereal lists "whole grains" as the first ingredient. The FDA requires food processors to list ingredients in descending order by weight. Trix, Froot Loops, Count Chocula, Cheerios, Special K, Cookie Crisps, Golden Grahams are all cereals. By definition, grain would be the primary ingredient. The "whole grain" in Trix is corn, the Farm Bill class pet. Genetically modified corn and soy are the captain of the food processing football team and the head cheerleader, surrounded by a posse of a byproducts like corn meal and corn syrup, the third and fourth ingredients on the list. The second ingredient? Sugar.
The top six are rounded out by GMO canola oil and/or rice bran oil and trisodium phosphate, a chemical compound that also acts as a cleaning agent and solvent. Trisodium phosphate was commonly used in consumer grade soaps and detergents until use was discontinued for environmental reasons.
The remaining ingredients include Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 1, and "other colors," natural and artificial flavors, citric acid, malic acid, and BHT. The colorants that give Trix, Froot Loops, and Lucky Charms their techno-hues are derived from petroleum. Yum yum! Natural vs artificial flavors? According to U. of Minnesota Professor of Food Sciences and Nutrition Gary Reineccuis in the journal Scientific American, "There is little substative difference between the chemical composition of natural and artificial flavorings. Both are made in a laboratory by a trained professional, a 'flavorist' who blends appropriate chemicals in the right proportion." Natural chemicals are used to create natural flavors. Artificial chemicals are used to create artificial flavors. Fuzzy line.
In the 1970s, pediatrician Benjamin Feingold, linked artificial colorings and additives such as BHT and BHA to childhood hyperactivity. Over the years, countless children have followed Feingold's Elimination Diet. The debate over its effectiveness continues today.
The next time your kids or your spouse cajoles or even begs for that box of whole but processed-within-an-inch-of-its-life grains, sugar, corn syrup, fortified by vitamins, minerals and a bunch of hard to pronounce additives, ask yourself, "Is this really the breakfast of champions?"
Beth
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