BEWARE: TOXIC

Picture this: waking up in the morning after a long night out in search for that perfect bowl of cereal. Who doesn’t love a nice big bowl of cereal to start you day off right? What we don’t know about these delicious grains is what they are really made out of.

Cereal is made by a process called extrusion. An extruder is a machine that produces cereals with high temperature and pressure. Puffed cereals and rice cakes are prime examples of the cereals that are made from these extruder machines. The Weston A. Price Foundation claims that the cereal industry has convinced the United States Food and Drug Administration that extruded grains have no effect on human health or animal health. But new studies show that these extruded grains DO indeed effect our health, and are extremely toxic.

preschooler-eating-cereal-for-breakfast

In the book Fighting The Food Giants by Paul Sitt, this phenomenon is proven. The study included four sets of rats that were put on diets, in order to see how they reacted to the extruded grains. One group was given wheat, water, vitamins and minerals, the second was given puffed wheat, water, and the same nutrient solution, the third received water, and white sugar, and the fourth was given nothing but water and chemical nutrients. As a result, the rats that were given Puffed wheat died in two weeks. This proves that something in the puffed wheat is very toxic. 

Another study was described in Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon Morell and Mary Enig, performed at the University of Michigan.18 rats, in groups of 3, were studied, and they were given different foods, as well. First group was given cornflakes and water, the next was given a cardboard box that the cornflakes came in, and the last was given rat chow and water. As a result, the rats that ate the cornflakes died first, and the rats that received the cornflakes box died directly after. The other rats lived on.

Clearly, we should stay away from cereals made with these toxins. Although these studies were not proven on humans yet, I feel as if rats are a great way to test experiments. Also, we should always account for chance in situations like these. There could have been many different experimental effects that occurred, as well. As a result, we should stay more cautious to the types of cereals we are consuming from a day to day basis, in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle!

4 thoughts on “BEWARE: TOXIC

  1. Tiffany Elizabeth Breon

    Like previously stated, we cannot determine if cereal is actually harmful to humans based on a study of rats. For rats, certain ingredients in the cereals might be very toxic, much like chocolate to a dog is toxic (http://www.vcahospitals.com/main/pet-health-information/article/animal-health/chocolate-poisoning-for-dogs/537). Given this information, I personally believe that this study would not sway me to give up certain cereals and it’s not because I’m a “risk taker” or that I just don’t care, I just feel as if this study is very inconclusive.

  2. Xiaotong Wang

    Cereal, as the most popular fast food in America, has such serious potential problem make me feel really sad. It can be a good thing at the beginning if those companies keep going in their original way but not do their best to short the cost and expand the income. But since we are here now, there are other good choices for breakfast and people don’t have to stick with cereals. Like we can choose fruits like banana and avocado which can bring to us calories for a whole morning, and eat some wholemeal bread at the same time. Actually, if we can get up early for 20 minutes, we can have a good breakfast made by ourselves instead of a iced milk cereal.

  3. Kelsie Emma Ahern

    It makes me sad that these big food companies, like those in the cereal industry, are more concerned about their profits than the health of their customers. Clearly, if rats that are on a diet of only these cereals are dying after two weeks, there is something wrong with these cereals. It appears that if this studies were conducted well, that either there are no nutrition benefits from the cereal or that they are in fact, like you said, toxic. However, there could be other explanations. The rats’ stomachs may not be able to process the cereals as well as human stomachs can. Also, the rats may require other types of food to live, like protein. The best way to conclude if these cereals did have major effects on humans would be to run human trials and test the changes in humans after eating the cereals.

  4. Taylor Michael Evcic

    More and more people are pushing towards natural and organic diets these days. Even the organic section in the grocery store is getting bigger and bigger. I know that personally I try my best to eat fresh fruits and vegetables but who doesn’t love a good bowl of cereal? I always considered cereal pretty healthy as long as you didn’t buy the overly sugared cookie crisp or Reese’s Puff’s cereal. I would have never thought that cereal could pack such a danger. It’s a little strange that they sell these things on the market yet they killed rats in a study. We can’t base everything off the experiments on rats though because we have to remember they are animals and we are humans. It would be interesting to see if scientists can look at the chemical make-up of rats in order to see what it is that causes the puffed cereal to kill them. I say this because clearly there is something in them that is not in humans and it causes their death. I don’t think a trial on humans with this would ever be ethically possible but it is an interesting topic to investigate.

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