Posted by Sue Landsman on Aug.07, 2009

©iStockphoto.com - MonkeyBusinessImages

Most parents think that as long as they avoid the sugary candy-in-the-breakfast-aisle cereals at the supermarket in favor of more healthy-looking organic cereals they’re doing the right thing by their kids. What could be better than whole-grain organic cereal, right? According to the USDA, most modern children get the majority of their nutrients from boxed cereal, whether it’s organic or not. It’s easy to assume that a whole-grain, low-sugar cereal is a healthy bargain (or not, at about $5 a box these days).

But even the best packaged cereals share a crucial factor with the worst, something that matters tremendously. All packaged and processed cereals are precisely that — processed, and the processing does things to the food that a well-intentioned parent might not be aware of.

All dry breakfast cereals are created by a process called extrusion. Extrusion is the means by which the different cereals get their many shapes. The cereals don’t start out looking like flakes, balls, or little puffs. They start out as a wet mush, or slurry, which is then put into a machine and forced out, or extruded, through a little hole just like a cake decorator uses a pastry bag to form letters or make flowers out of frosting. Depending on the size and shape of the extruder hole, the cereal will take its final form as O’s, animals, puffs, or shreds. The extrusion process takes place at a high temperature and pressure, two things known to damage organic materials. Both fatty acids and vitamins are destroyed by this process; in addition, many amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) are chemically altered into toxic substances.

It’s hard to find information on this issue, as there are no published studies whatsoever on the effects of extruded foods on humans or related animals. Two unpublished studies on experiments conducted in animals, however, have indicated that grains processed by extrusion can damage the nervous system.

In his book Fighting the Food Giants, Paul Stitt described one study which had a rather disturbing result. Four groups of rats were put on special diets, as follows:

1) Plain whole wheat, water, vitamins and minerals
2) Puffed Wheat, water, vitamins and minerals
3) White sugar, water
4) water, vitamins and minerals
You’d expect the rats given no actual food would fare the worst, right? What actually happened was this: Group 1 lived over a year, Group 2 lived two weeks, Group 3 lived a month, Group 4 lived eight weeks. Clearly adding the puffed wheat to the rats’ diet harmed them.

In another study originally designed as a joke, which Sally Fallon describes in Nourishing Traditions, rats were divided into three groups and put on the following special diets:

1) Rat chow and water (the control group)
2) Cornflakes and water
3) The cardboard box the cornflakes came in and water
Predictably, only the rats in the first group fared well. Both other groups of rats died of malnutrition–but the rats eating the cornflakes all died before any eating the box. While the box-eating rats became lethargic and died a traditional malnutrition-style death, the cornflake rats fared worse. They acted schizophrenic, attacked each other, and had convulsions before dying. These are all symptoms of insulin shock.

It’s hard to figure out what’s really the truth here. The unpublished studies are just that–unpublished, because one was squelched by the cereal company that ran it and the other was a joke, and there’s absolutely no incentive for the cereal industry to examine a process that makes them lots of money. On the other hand, it is scientific fact that proteins are structurally changed by high temperature and pressure and that the cereal proteins are similar in structure to certain toxins. So causing those known proteins to change during the extrusion process is essentially rolling the dice.

In addition, there’s plenty of research going on in the corn and agriculture industry that’s based on the assumption that the extrusion process does in fact significantly alter molecular substances. In the fields, corn is often infected with toxic molds; researchers are hoping that the high heat and pressure of the extrusion process will change the structure of the molds enough that they will no longer be toxic. What the extrusion process does to any of the other proteins is a question that nobody wants to answer.

Share

Posted under Food, Nutrition & Recipes, Reading Labels.