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BANG FOR THE BITE
Filling your bowl with grains that are a little healthier and are from farms that use fewer pesticides? Mikey likes it!
COCKTAIL FACT
Cereal originated in Colonial America, as popcorn with sugar and cream.
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home › tip library › Breakfast Cereals
Want cereal that's magically delicious?
The Bite
You'll go cuckoo for the puffs we got. Opt for organic cereals that are full of gr-r-reat healthy grains that have more going for them than tons of sugar and a catchy slogan. Biter tested. Biter approved.The Benefits
- Healthier snap, crackle, and popping. Some cereals pack wellness benefits like heart-healthy flax and fiber-filled whole oats, and still taste great.
- Keeping silly rabbits hopping. Organic cereals help reduce the 1 billion tons of pesticides we use each year in the United States, which can poison groundwater and wildlife.
Personally Speaking
SF Local Bite Editor Hanah's family once ran out of milk for their morning cereal, so her mom substituted half-and-half. Best. Breakfast. Ever.Wanna Try?
- Annie's Cocoa & Vanilla Bunnies - new, kid-friendly corn puffs that don't skimp on sweet - you'll want to lap the milk outta your bowl; now available at Whole Foods ($6).
- Peace Cereal Vanilla Almond - corn flakes and whole oat clusters, heavy on the vanilla flavor ($6).
- Barbara's Bakery O's - like an organic version of Cheerios, in apple cinnamon, fruit juice sweetened, and honey nut ($5).
- Nature's Path Pumpkin FlaxPlus Granola - flax granola with pumpkin seeds and plenty of omega-3s ($5).
Sep 16,2008
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All editorial suggestions in this tip are the result of testing and a preference for the tip topic. No advertiser has paid to have its company referenced in the tip. For more information, please read our Editorial Policy.
Off to a Great Start
I find myself crushed, crushed, crushed that we are coming to the end of berry season, as I have been starting my days with the best, healthiest, most insanely delicious breakfast ever:
- Straus organic whole milk yogurt
- Organic flax seed oil
- Organic berries from the farmers market
- Kashi 7 Whole Grain Nuggets cereal
- Trader Joe's Organic Grade-B Maple Syrup
Yogurt gives me calcium and probiotics; flax seed oil provides heart-healthy omega-3s and keeps me from getting hungry; berries taste amazing and provide fiber (strawberries or raspberries) or antioxidants and bioflavanoids (blueberries); Kashi gives me a whole-grain, crunchy-nutty-happy thing - and apparently grade-B maple syrup has not had the trace elements and healthy bits stripped out of it.
Highly recommend you get yourself some before the berries have breathed their last for this season...
-Heather...off to brew my coffee...
Biter Comments...
Some organic cereal is tasty, and I'm all for eating organic, but the stuff usually costs two or three times what regular cereal does! This is not a tip that people can afford if they eat on a budget.
Rolled oats work for me, you can make them into granola bars or no-bake stovetop cookies or oatmeal. They're full of fiber, relatively cheap. But when I'm in a hurry, I stick with my cornflakes.
Liz, I would love to see the recipe for the cookies!
I'd read somewhere (can't find it now of course) that flax loses it's beneficial properties when heated (it's something about the volatility of the omega-3 oils). Is it usually added to cereals after the cereal has been baked in order to preserve the benefits? Or is it just serving as fiber when added to cereal, without the heart-healthy omega-3s? Or, is there actually no harm in exposing flax to heat?
Hmmm, sounds like a lot of sugar in some of the suggestions. After years of not allowing my boys to not eat cereal w/more than 4 grams of sugar per serving and doing nutritional education, my 11 year old is now eating raw oats with nothing but milk! His idea. I'm excited to see him embracing health. Very difficult to find tasty cereal without a lot of sugar. Suggest you try Three Stone Hearth's (in Berkeley) homemade crunch cereals. They are the best.
Too bad the cereals you are recommending come in an un-recyclable plastic bag (inside the cardboard box). Perhaps bulk... or make your own.....? Funny though, I never eat cereal for breakfast - only dessert!
My father taught me to eat cereal the same way he learned to in the 1890s. You go out to the granary with a bowl, scoop up some barley, go back to the kitchen & pour boiling water over it.
After we moved into the city I started using boiling water on GrapeNuts with raisins & brown cane sugar (you know, the white stuff with color added) & raisins. I always did have a potent sweet tooth. No milk of course as that stuff will kill you.
Heather, your breakfast sounds really good. We don't have the Straus brand here in New England, but we do have Stonyfield. I'm with you 1,000% in lamenting the end of berry season because I, too, LOVE berries of all kinds, although I think strawberries are higher in Vitamin C than they are in fiber. As for Kashi cereal, have you ever read the "Nutrition Facts" label on a box of Kashi? Yeah, Kashi TASTES good, but it's BIG on taste, and surprisingly and disappointingly SMALL on nutrition. Nutritionally speaking, you're much better off having a bowl of Maltex, oatmeal, or Total. (I'm thinking, though, that the next time I make oatmeal cookies, I might try using Kashi instead of oatmeal, or half oatmeal and half Kashi.)
As for milk killing you. Well, Ralph, like most kids of my generation, I was raised on milk and I'm still here. Contrary to what you apparently believe, milk will NOT "kill" you. If you're afraid of antibiotics, growth hormones, etc., there's a simple solution -- drink organic, raw milk.
Also, it's not food coloring that makes brown sugar brown, it's molasses. As for barley, that's for soups and stews, it's NOT a breakfast cereal! (Although Pilgrim children put popped popcorn in a bowl with milk and ate it as a breakfast cereal, so I guess why not barley.)
Stephanie, I don't think it's all that difficult to find tasty cereals that aren't loaded with sugar. It's just that our taste buds have gotten so accustomed to lots of sugar that we have to get them used to less of it. We just need to GRADUALLY wean ourselves, and especially our kids, away from so much sugar. I'm not saying eliminate it ENTIRELY, just cut 'way down. Believe it or not, you DO get used to it. It's kind of like going from whole milk to low fat. I've been drinking 1% milk for years, so now I find whole milk too rich. It tastes like cream to me now.
I love organic cereal! I'm on a sugar-free diet, so I stick with very low-sugar ones. Two of my very favorites are Erewhon's Raisin Bran (amazing with just a drizzle of agave nectar on top) and Nature's Path Heritage Organic Multigrain Cereal (Sarah, this one has 4g of sugar. The Raisin Bran has 10, but there's no added sugar--just the sugar in the grains and the raisins).
I love organic yogurt with berries and Bear Naked Protein Granola. Yummm!
One more thing, for Jessica Cox and Stephanie: there are wonderful plain cereals you can get in bulk, either in a bag or at your local co-op. Nature's Path makes a line of organic puffed grains (spelt, kamut, etc.) in large plastic bags. Not the best, but at least it's not a bag *and* a box...and it's really inexpensive compared to the boxed cereals.
Thanks Laurie. Can't find the bags of cereal in the South Bay.
What does everyone consider an ok amount of sugar for cereal? Breadfast? All day?
We also eat Ezekiel 4:9, made with sprouted grains and beans, specifically wheat, barley, soy and lentil beans, spelt and millet. The recipe is an Old Testament bread one modified by the company. I'm sure you know the bennys of sprouted grains.
Because it’s made with beans and several whole grains and is a complete protein on its own. It also has an excellent vitamin and mineral contents. The almond and original are no sugar, the raisin one is high. We do not add any sugar to our cereals, but do add fruit. Can find it at Whole Foods.
Well, Linda, I have to disagree with you about milk. We had milk cows as well as raising beeves but we sold are milk and bought pasteurized milk. we NEVER drank raw milk as it just too dangerous. Of course, I drank goat milk when I could get it. Milk from cows is just not meant for human consumption. You are right that it won't kill you but it fill you up with phlegm & you wish you were dead. I have no fear of growth hormones or antibiotics because they weren't used then.
What do you think molasses is doing if it is not giving color to white sugar? Perhaps you don't think barley is a breakfast cereal (I agree it is great in soups) but we thought it was good. I haven't checked the cereal boxes since the 1960s but do I vaguely recall wheat, corn, & rice as cereal so why not rye or barley.
Let me see if I got you right, Ralph. Cow's milk isn't meant for human consumption but goat's milk is? Sorry, but I don't understand THAT "logic." Makes absolutely NO sense to me! I've had both cow's milk AND goat's milk, and to be honest with you, I can't tell the difference. I've never had any problems with cow's milk. It's NEVER filled ME up with phlegm. Maybe it does some folks, but not me.
As for raw cow's milk, that's all the milk some people will drink. I don't drink raw milk myself, but I have had it once or twice. It's very rich and very good.
Well of COURSE molasses gives color to white sugar, but it's not a coloring agent like food coloring. It's not a dye that simply adds color. It's a flavoring agent, too. You made it sound as though all molasses (which you didn't even mention in your initial post) is doing in white sugar is adding color to it and that's not the case.
"Cow’s milk isn’t meant for human consumption but goat’s milk is? Sorry, but I don’t understand THAT “logic.” Makes absolutely NO sense to me."
That "logic" is very simple: Many babies get very sick when given cows milk because it is so difficult to digest but the same babies do just fine on goat's milk. Q.E.D. Goat's milk is meant for human consumption but cow's milk is very iffy. Using your "logic", Linda, that because you have no problem with cow's milk that no human should have a problem with imbibing it I would offer that I know someone who has no problem eating glass and small nails so therefore it must be a staple (pun intended) of human diet.
My comment as to brown sugar being colored white sugar (which it is) was a slap at those fools who think that honey or brown sugar is a healthier sweetener than white sugar or high fructose corn syrup. Fructose calories is calories no matter the source.
I almost missed your woefully mistaken defense of raw milk: "As for raw cow’s milk, that’s all the milk some people will drink. I don’t drink raw milk myself, but I have had it once or twice. It’s very rich and very good."
I am glad that you & the people you know that drink raw milk have been lucky so far. I would point out that I know of people who have staggered across 8 & 10 lane freeways and not been hit by any of the vehicles passing at 75 to 90 MpH but I sure won't try it myself.
I submit the following quote: Drinking raw (untreated) milk or eating raw milk products is "like playing Russian roulette with your health," says John Sheehan, director of the Food and Drug Administration's Division of Dairy and Egg Safety. "We see a number of cases of foodborne illness every year related to the consumption of raw milk."
I realize that raw milk is an excellent source of listeria, salmonella, brucella, and a lot of other bugs that I cannot spell or pronounce without a medical dictionary. I understand that is highly recommended for those people desirous if getting tuberculosis, diphtheria, polio, salmonellosis, strep throat, scarlet fever, and typhoid fever. Just bear in mind that milk was one of the reasons the human lifespan was 50 before pasteurization became common.
I believe I noted previously that we had some milk cows but sold the milk and only used pasteurized products. Evidently my parents did not want to kill me when I was a child.
By the way there is a product on the shelves known as pasteurized whole milk which would taste the same as raw milk. It just doesn't sell very well because everyone is buying the one percent stuff instead.
"I realize that raw milk is an excellent source of listeria, salmonella, brucella, and a lot of other bugs that I cannot spell or pronounce without a medical dictionary. I understand that is highly recommended for those people desirous if getting tuberculosis, diphtheria, polio, salmonellosis, strep throat, scarlet fever, and typhoid fever." Boy, Ralph!, you're paranoid about disease, aren't you! I think you're making much ado about nothing. Dairy farmers who sell raw milk are very careful about the hygiene of their cows. Do you honestly think they want to KILL someone, or at the very least, make them sick? Come on! Were you hit upside the head with the stupid stick?
"Just bear in mind that milk was one of the reasons the human lifespan was 50 before pasteurization became common." I believe that milk had very little, if anything,to do with folks' short lifespans back in pre-pasteurization days. It had more to do with germs and the lack of preventive medical care. Many stores are selling raw cow's milk these days and people are buying it because they prefer it. What do they pasteurize milk with, anyway?
"'Drinking raw (untreated) milk or eating raw milk products is “like playing Russian roulette with your health,” says John Sheehan, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Division of Dairy and Egg Safety." “We see a number of cases of foodborne illness every year related to the consumption of raw milk.'” I personally put very little stock in anything that's said by anyone in the Federal government. Whatever the government says, I always believe the exact opposite.
As for pasteurized whole milk? DUH! Don't you think I know that? I don't live in a cave, you know. I found that statement of yours patronizing and offensive.
Hey, let's keep the nutrition discussion less tit-for-tat and agree to disagree w/o the put downs or superiority, please.
I found out Albertsons sells Ezekial4:9!
What does everyone consider an ok amount of sugar for cereal? Breakfast? All day?
You are right Stephanie. I should have known better than to carry on a dialogue with a scientific Luddite such as Linda has proven to be.
By the way, back on the subject of berries, one of the many advantages of living in the Northwest is all the berries you can pick just in the ditches along the roads.
@ Liz...organic cereal can be expensive especially if it's purchased at a health food store. I don't know if you have ever shopped at a Walmart but they now sell quite a few of these organic brands including Kashi at prices that are reasonable. Not only that but they now sell many items that are certified organic and they have the USDA seal of approval on them.
I love the Kashi cereal line, and when I open a box of one of their cereals I am not overwhelmed by the strong smell of sugar and whatever else they may have added to get the desired color and texture.
Personally I don't think we were meant to drink any milk other then our mom's breast milk. But we don't have to give up milk...there are some delicious substitutes...for instance soy and rice milk.
They say you are what you eat...
PHOTO ALBUMS
Posted by: Jessica Cox | September 16, 2008 at 08:07 AM