This is going to be a multi-part series with one food/food group being covered in one post. Obviously, despite all the sales-pitch, I as a Type 2 diabetic for over seven years now, ain’t convinced by the “whole grain” and “over-hyped” fiber in diet theory. More so, because I live by the Indian LCHF Diet that has helped me to stay off all diabetic drugs, and yet achieve an A1C of 5.6 max year after year, for over seven years now. And, I am not alone, as dLife.in forum has many Indian Diabetics who replicate that success, many in a much better way than I have.
Good food does not need advertisements. It doesn’t need endorsements by celebrities, nor does it need independent researchers, dietitians and nutritionists to speak about how good some breakfast cereal from a company is. If you find any such “promotion” being played out for any food item on the shelves of supermarkets, you may feel that something is not right. And, in fact, you are justified in having such doubts. A recent case was that of Kellogg’s, a breakfast cereal company, which among other things, paid so called “independent experts” to promote and praise their product line-up in return for commercial benefits. Yes, “so called” as their expertise hinges on a handsome remuneration for what they endorse as “healthy”.
On its website, Kellogg’s touted a “Breakfast Council” of “independent experts” who helped guide the company’s nutritional efforts.
Nowhere did it say this: The maker of Froot Loops paid the council members, and fed them talking points, according to a copy of a contract and emails obtained by The Associated Press.
The company paid the experts an average of $13,000 a year, prohibited them from offering media services for products “competitive or negative to cereal”, and required them to engage in “nutrition influencer outreach” on social media, or with colleagues.
“I’m still feeling great from my bowl of cereal & milk this morning! Mini-Wheats are my fave,” a dietitian on the council posted during a Twitter chat with Kellogg’s. Another council member and dietitian chimed in to say they were her favorite, too, and included a photo of the cereal. (source)
This is just the tip of the “corrupt practices” iceberg, to attract ignorant-of-details buyers to its fold. As per a recent study,
“A standardized meal of cornflakes and milk caused glucose elevation in the prediabetic range (>140 mg/dl) in 80% of individuals in our study. It is plausible that these commonly eaten foods might be adverse for the health of the majority of adults in the world population.”
So, if non-diabetics cannot handle these toxic-for-health breakfast cereals touted as healthy, how can we diabetics handle them, when our ability to process carbs is severely hampered. These so called healthy breakfast cereals are nothing but loads of sugar and carbs. No one should ever be having them, not even non-diabetics.
So What Do We Diabetics Do?
Short answer, I dumped these so called healthy breakfast cereals, irrespective of which company makes or markets them. Don’t believe what experts have to say, as they can say anything just for a few dollars more! These breakfast cereals are damaging global health on a large scale, and the recent study quoted above just proves the point.
What Else Comes Under This “HORRIBLE” TAG?
The list is pretty long, but I list some of the more horrible items. These are not based on some marketing literature but on actual glycemic response of diabetics who took them:
- Oats. Yes, even these spike hard.
- Barley
- Anything and everything corn, rice, wheat, soy, high fructose corn syrup, in any form.
- Any bread – white, brown, multi-grain, fortified or not makes no difference. All are horrible.
So What Do We Have For Breakfast?
We have a whole list of recipes and options available. Here’s one set of seven recipes where ingredients, macros, preparation method and pics are all included for you to get started on Indian LCHF Diet:
Seven Day Vegetarian Breakfast Options
Bottom Line: Your insulin needs are dependent on the carbs that you have to process. Whether you take simple carbs or complex carbs, at the end of the day, same amount of digestible carbs will need same amount of insulin. So, don’t fall for this whole grain marketing gimmick. Just adding some fiber to something horrible doesn’t make it healthy! So, focus on total carb intake in a day, rather than being impressed by all the sales pitch and shill marketing.
Updates
Sep 5th, 2018: – CDC reports 30 more cases of illnesses linked to Kellogg’s tainted cereal
