The Better Breakfast: Cornflakes or Cardboard?

IF CEREAL BOXES WERE SERVED to eat in the dining hall instead of cereal, the students might be better off. - photo by Anna Migeon
When I visited my son at college this spring, I ate in the dining hall several times with him and some of his friends. Let’s just say that the dining hall food is nobody’s favorite thing about college at the University of Dallas.
Noticing that Hannah and Helen were eating cornflakes, I told them about some research that had been done on cornflake-eating rats.
This group of rats was given only cornflakes and water. A second group was given only the box the cornflakes had come in and water. A third group got rat food and water.
The rat food group did fine. The other two all died. But the rats who ate the box actually lived longer than the ones who ate cornflakes. The last cornflake-eating rat died on the same day the first box-eating rat died.
The box eaters only became lethargic and died of malnutrition. The cornflake eaters went into fits and convulsions before dying, I told them.
“But they don’t serve the boxes here,” protested Hannah.
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The cornflake research study and many other fascinating stories on food are reported in Sally Fallon‘s Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats

I don’t think any boxed cereals are worth eating, from what I’ve read. The sprouted grain ones might be OK, but I think they’re all pretty bad options. I never buy them anymore. Granola I thought was good for us all these years and recently found out it’s not. We sometimes eat soaked oatmeal for breakfast, but not often. That’s the only cereal we eat. We do eat Ezekiel bread (soaked, sprouted grain). Thanks for your comment!
I called Enjoy Life the other day about their Cinnamon Crunch gluten-free “granola” and learned that the rice-flour in it is
extruded.
It was very good, but I’m glad I just had that little sample of it. I would honestly expect better from a healthfood company. I
also learned that Nature’s Path “Mesa Sunrise” cereal is also high-temp extruded.
I’m hoping that more people start calling companies about this, because as the organic products -movement grows (organics are
often /higher/ in protein, the major component which may be capable of producing toxins during stream-extrusion) this is going to
become /more/ of an issue, not less.
“Before death the cornflake rats developed schizophrenic behavior, threw fits, bit each other and finally went into convulsions. Autopsy revealed dysfunction of the pancreas, liver and kidneys and degeneration of the nerves in the spine–all signs of ‘insulin shock,’” writes Sally Fallon.
Good answer Hannah! It is crazy what passes as food, I wonder what caused the convulsions?