Truth behind the “healthy whole-grain lie

For decades, I’ve been warning my patients and readers like you…

That the “healthy” breakfast choice you’ve been advised to eat by doctors and the so-called experts at the USDA is nothing but junk food.

In fact, the whole “cereal-as-a-health-food” movement started because the Kellogg brothers – who were Seventh-day Adventists – believed eating meat was morally wrong.

A hundred and fifty years ago, Americans ate beef, pork, chicken, and other animal fats for breakfast.

And diseases like diabetes and heart failure were extremely rare.

Then in the late 1800s everything changed.

Two vegetarian brothers called Kellogg ran a sanitarium. They created a whole-grain “granola” product to feed their patients instead of meat, convincing them it was a healthier alternative.

After leaving the sanitarium, patients who were tricked into its health benefits began to request the cereal by mail. The Kelloggs started packaging it – and before long, they were running a profitable business.

To reach a wider market, the Kelloggs used shrewd advertising to convince the public that cereal is good while meat and eggs were bad.

It wasn’t true, but it fit their agenda.

One of the patients at the Kelloggs’ clinic was C.W. Post.

His health didn’t improve while he was there. But he was a shrewd businessman who saw a great opportunity. He started his own cereal company and invented his own so-called health food.

Today, you know it as Grape Nuts.

Soon, this so-called “health” food – along with other wheat-based junk like Cheerios, Total, and Special K – became breakfast staples.

And the entire world was convinced they were doing the right thing…

Even today, I have a hard time convincing many of my patients that eating whole-grain foods is destroying their health.

The whole idea behind eating a grain “whole” is this:

Your body breaks down dietary starch – carbohydrates – into glucose, which spike your blood sugar. But if a grain is left whole, you won’t break it down as fast…

And it won’t raise your blood sugar.

It sounds like a nice theory, but it doesn’t work in the real world.

Let me show you what I mean.

Pure glucose has a glycemic index rating of 100.

The glycemic index measures how quickly food breaks down into glucose in your bloodstream. And the higher a food’s rating is on the glycemic index, the more it raises your blood-sugar level.

Here are the glycemic index ratings for one serving of some common whole-grain cereals:

 Grape Nuts – 75
 Cheerios – 74
 Total – 70
 Special K – 69
 Cream of Wheat – 66

Here are the glycemic index ratings for a serving of some common snacks:

 Potato chips – 54
 Snickers candy bar – 55
 Coca-Cola – 55
 Ice cream – 61
 Corn chips – 63

I’m not showing you this to advise you to replace your whole grains with junk food. I’m saying whole grains ARE junk food.

Even table sugar is only 61 on the glycemic index.

The bottom line here is that Big Agra wants you to keep eating grains. They’re cheap to produce and companies make a fortune selling grains.

But none of them are natural and you could not have eaten these processed foods in your native environment.

And none of them are “healthy.”

Real health foods are the ones you were designed to eat in your native environment. I’m talking about healthy fats along with muscle and organ meat from animals and fish.

When it’s time to break your overnight fast, here’s what I recommend instead of whole-grain cereals…

• Pastured eggs with a side of grass-fed steak. To increase the fat, cook them in big pat of grass-fed butter.
• Cheese omelet with salmon: Wild-caught salmon is an excellent source of healthy omega-3 fatty acids.
• Morning meatloaf. I make mine with pastured pork and eggs, grass-fed ground beef and cheddar cheese, and ghee.

If you’re still craving granola, I’ve got you covered.

One of the members of my staff brings me homemade granola chock-full of healthy fats. I convinced her to share her recipe.

Primal Grain-Free Granola

Ingredients:

• 1 cup raw almonds
• 1 cup raw cashews
• 1/4 cup raw shelled pumpkin seeds
• 1/4 cup raw shelled sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/2 cup raw honey
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 1 cup of your favorite dried fruit

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 275 F. Place the almonds, cashews, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and coconut flakes in a food processor or blender. Pulse a few times to break into chunks.
2. Place the coconut oil, raw honey, and vanilla extract in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat and allow to melt.
3. Stir to combine, then add the ground nut mixture. Stir until everything is fully coated.
4. Spread the mixture evenly onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Cook for 25-30 minutes until lightly browned, stirring once or twice.
5. Remove from the oven, add the dried fruit and sprinkle with sea salt. Press the mixture together firmly to form a tight, flat surface.
6. Cool for 20-30 minutes or until fully hardened. Break into chunks. 
7. Store it in an airtight container. It will keep for up to a week.

To Your Good Health,

Al Sears, MD, CNS

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