THE MODERN BREAKFAST

I read this article the other day and thought everybody needs to read this…..

SECRETS OF THE FOOD INDUSTRY By Alicia Melrose and Pip Martin for A Vital Journey, an internet course on health and nutrition, run by Belmont Park Retreat.

The VITAL JOURNEY is a program to gain and maintain health. The best way to achieve this is to become informed. So, this week we have another fascinating discussion, this time about the food processing industry.

As you can imagine the subject is vast.

We hope that by the end of this discussion you will understand why we discourage processed foods and will feel informed enough to either pass on this information or talk to family and friends about the dangers, especially to those with young children.

Processing of food is something that humans have done for thousands of years. Cooking food is one type of processing to make some food more digestible and to preserve food for times of scarcity for instance in making traditional foods like sausages, black puddings and haggis as well as bread, grain products, milk products – cheese, butter or ghee, pickles. Other processing and preserving includes salting and controlled fermentation – wine and spirits, and lacto-fermented food and beverages. Farmers and artisans like the cheese makers, distillers, bakers, and millers processed foods to make delicious foods, retaining and often increasing the nutritional content.

In modern times we have gone from local artisanal processing to factory and industrial processing which destroys much of the food. Industrial processing depends upon sugar, white flour, refined salt, processed and hydrogenated oils, mass-produced ‘dead’ vinegars, additives like colours, preservatives and synthetic vitamins, and extrusion processing of grains, all packaged in plastic. These are the tools of the food processing industry.

Let's have a look at the typical modern day breakfast of cereal.

THE MODERN BREAKFAST

Packaged cereals are produced by extrusion. Cereal companies buy the grains from the farmer for a pittance. The grains are made into slurry in a large tank then forced through an extruder where the paste is pushed through a little hole at high temperature and pressure and shaped into little o's, flakes, shredded, or puffed up. A blade slices off each flake, which is carried past a nozzle and sprayed with a coating of cheap oil and sugar, to seal off the cereal to keep it crunchy.

Paul Stitt (1) has written about the extrusion process that destroys the fatty acids and even destroys the chemical vitamins that are added. The amino acids from the proteins are rendered very toxic by this process, especially lysine which is ravaged by extrusion. This is how all the boxed cereals are made - even those in the health food stores - and mostly in the same factories. ALL dry cereals that come in boxes are extruded cereals. Rolled oats do not receive this treatment but are steamed before drying and packaging.

The only ‘advances’ made in extrusion processing are those that will further cut cost or will make the food more alluring and addictive. Cereals are a multi-billion dollar business that has created huge fortunes. There is little research on the effects on man or animals. There are only two unpublished studies which were done on rats.

THE RAT EXPERIMENTS

Stitt wrote about an experiment conducted by a cereal company in which four sets of rats were given special diets:

- One group received plain whole wheat, water, and synthetic vitamins and minerals as a nutrient solution.

- A second group received puffed wheat (an extruded cereal), water and the nutrient solution.

- A third set was given water and white sugar.

- A fourth set was given nothing but water and the nutrient solution.

The rats that received the whole wheat lived over a year on this diet. The rats that got nothing but water and nutrient solution lived about two months. The animals on a white sugar and water diet lived about a month.  The company's own laboratory study showed that the rats given the solution, water and all the puffed wheat they wanted died within two weeks - they died before the rats that got no food at all. It wasn't a matter of the rats dying of malnutrition. Results like these suggested that there was something actually very toxic in the puffed wheat itself. Proteins are very similar to certain toxins in molecular structure, and the pressure of the puffing process may produce chemical changes which turn a nutritious grain into a poisonous substance.

Another unpublished experiment was carried out in 1960. Researchers at Ann Arbor University were given 18 laboratory rats. They were divided into three groups:

-   one group received corn flakes and water;

-   a second group was given the cardboard box that the cornflakes came in, and water;

-   the control group received rat chow and water.

The rats in the control group remained in good health throughout the experiment. The rats eating the box became lethargic and eventually died of malnutrition. The rats receiving the cornflakes and water died before the rats that were eating the box! But before death, the cornflakes rats developed schizophrenic behaviour, threw fits, bit each other and finally went into convulsions. Autopsy revealed dysfunction of the pancreas, liver and kidneys and degeneration of the nerves of the spine, all signs of insulin shock. The conclusion of this study is that there was more nourishment in the box than there was in the cornflakes. This experiment was designed as a joke. The results were never published and similar studies have not been conducted.

 Most New Zealanders eat this kind of cereal. The food industry must be delighted at sales of these boxed cereals. Many of them are at least 50% sugar. Even so-called health food cereals which use whole grains and better quality sweeteners are made by the same method. The whole grain extruded cereals are possibly even more dangerous, because they are higher in proteins so denatured by this type of processing, and the toxic phthalates are still present.

We should be shocked into action when we find out that our expectations of a nutritious breakfast from the most important meal of the day are false. Sayings in German and Chinese echo the old adage: “Breakfast like a king; lunch like a prince; dinner like a pauper”.

  THE EXTRUSION PROCESS

Putting cereals through an extruder alters the structure of the proteins. ‘Seins’, which comprise the majority of proteins in corn, are located in spherical organelles called protein bodies. One study investigated change in protein body shape and release of encapsulated alphaseins as a result of extrusion processing. During extrusion, it was found that the protein bodies were disrupted and the alphaseins dispersed. The results suggest that seins in cornflakes could then interact with each other and other components, forming new compounds which are foreign to the human body. Thus the

extrusion process breaks down the organelles, disperses the proteins and the proteins

become toxic. When they are disrupted in this way, you have chaos in your food that can result in disruption to the nervous system.

  OLD-FASHIONED PORRIDGE

So what are you going to have for breakfast? Eggs in some form are perfect, especially if the yolk is raw or softly cooked. And we need to go back to good old-fashioned soaked porridge or raw porridge - muesli. Even better, acquire a grain mill and roll your own oats fresh each day and soak them as above – the delicate oils in grains are rapidly made rancid on exposure to air. (This is why rolled oats are steamed.) Many cultures have grains like rice or barley or millet for breakfast.

Fresh ground oats must be soaked overnight to get rid of the anti-nutrients which are neutralized in the sprouting process. Soaking neutralises the tannins, enzyme inhibitors and phytic acid which help preserve the grains.

Soak the grains in warm water and add a dash of something acidic like whey, yoghurt, lemon juice or vinegar.  The porridge cooks in about a minute. And eat it with butter or cream, coconut and/or coconut oil and chopped nuts like our grandparents did. The nutrients in the good fats in the additions are co-factors to help absorb the nutrients in the grains. One of the great lessons of Weston Price was that without the fat-soluble vitamins A, D E, and K (which act as anti-oxidants to preserve fats or oils) you can take mineral supplements, you can drink carrot juice until you turn orange, but you cannot absorb the minerals in your food without vitamins that are exclusively found in the animal fats. Fat also slows the absorption of sugars and prevents sugar highs and lows.

Eggs and porridge are excellent breakfast for growing children and teenagers, and great value for money with good protein to prevent craving for sugary, salty non-foods for a good portion of the day! Provide some good protein at lunch to lengthen the effect.

I will try to bring you more of these articles each month. I hope you enjoy this article and please leave a comment if you wish. Thanks - Linzi☺