BANSHEE WAILS: Kellogg's Cereals is TICKING OFF The Princess!!!

I was browsing the offerings on a grocery promotion at amazon.com, since I was ready to stock up on cereal. I want to add a bit more fiber to my breakfast/snacks.

So, they offer things like the sugary cereals kids love (and plenty of adults)--Frosted Flakes, Sugar Smacks, Apple Jacks, etc--which I skipped and went to one of my faves: Cheerios. Three grams of fiber for 120 calories and while sugar is in the ingredients, it's not in the top three--

Ingredients: Whole grain oat, modified corn starch, corn starch, sugar, salt, trisodium phosphate, calcium carbonate, monoglycerides, tocopherols, wheat starch, annatto, vitamins & minerals: niacinamide, calcium pantothenate, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin b6), folate, iron.

It's certainly not for low-carbers, but it's one of those "from my youth" treats. Only as an adult, I sprinkle Splenda on top, or fruit, or both, and NOT tons of sugar.

I shopping carted that and went on to look for something to add more wheat bran. I looked at All Bran Buds after seeing it on another fatfighting blog as a nice additive for Cheerios, and then Raisin Bran, which I used to eat a lot of as a twenty-something.

When I looked at the nutritional info, I, the Princess, wailed along with the ticked off Blue Banshee of Health-Seeking Blogdom:

All Bran Buds, Ingredients:
Wheat Bran, SUGAR, Psyllium Seed Husk, Oat Fiber, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, Salt, Baking Soda, Caramel Color, Sodium Ascorbate And Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Niacinamide, Reduced Iron, Zinc Oxide, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6) Riboflavin (Vitamin B1), Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin B12, Vitamin D, BHT (preservative), Annatto Color.

Raisin Bran, Ingredients:
Whole Wheat, Raisins, Wheat Bran, SUGAR, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, salt, malt flavoring,
Vitamins and Minerals: niacinamide, reduced iron, zinc oxide, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride(VITAMIN B6), RIBOFLAVIN (Vitamin B2), thiamin hydrochloride (Vitamin B1), Vitamin A Palmitate, folic acid, Vitamin B12 and Vitamin D.

You know, with all the info on how very bad high fructose corn syrup is for us, especially those of us with belly fat/Metabolic Syndrome/diabetes/insulin resitance, there's no damn reason to use it. Dr. Mehmet Oz lists it as one of the top five foods to AVOID for better health.

Why can't they sweeten with Splenda and offer sugar-free options and call it their dieter's version? Why not use honey, even. Why something as denounced and derided as HFCS?

And how can they add sugar as the SECOND ingredient in a grown-up cereal. (All Bran). And with HFCS as the fifth ingredient, adding both may mean that some form of SUGAR is really the FIRST, the most prominent, ingredient in the mix. Are you peeved yet with me?

And the Raisin Bran (also aimed at adults, one would assume), has the double whammy of sugar AND HFCS in the fourth and fifth slots--and that means that "sugar" in some form is probably a main ingredient (maybe 2nd, rather than bran.)

I better stop before my ears emit steam.

With my ginormous appetite, I don't need HFCS to increase my appetite!

And, to be honest, I'd rather add the sweetness level I want with my own choice of sweetener (Splenda, Stevia, Honey, Sugar, etc).

How hard would it be for them to just make adult versions, REAL adult versions, of these popular cereals--you know, just make them with wholesome ingredients and vitamins and minerals and let us figure out how to sweeten (or not) to taste? We're not idiots.

Besides, what household do you know without some form of food sweetness enhancer. (In mine, I have various honeys, Splenda in assorted forms, sugar (for hubby's lemonade, which I cut with Splenda), Equal (from an old batch), Sweet-n-Low (from an old box), confectioner's and brown sugar (for when hubby bakes ginger cookies.)) Except for someone who is a real no-sweet eater, we all have something to sweeten tea or coffee or lemonade or cereal or hot cocoa or whatever.

So, why can't they give us a choice?

(I hear they're making sugar-reduced kid's cereals. I think they need to re-evaluate their adult offerings.)

Bottom line: Adding HFCS makes what would be healthy into, frankly, JUNK FOOD! Diet-hazard food. Heart-hurting food.

Adding both sugar and HFCS is, well, cheapskate food production--and with cereal prices per box what they currently are for a tiny amount of cereal, they can afford to use better ingredients or leave out bad ones. These recipes are not healthful, no matter how many vitamins and minerals and dropped into the mix.

Grrrrrr.

Okay, so I'll compromise for now and get the Cheerios with the lower sugar and without the HCFS, and I'll just not eat it every day. But I'm boycotting all HCFS-containing Kellogg's, General Mills, etc cereals.

Badly done, you corporations. Badly done.

(I'm channeling Jeremy Northam as the hunky Mr. Knightley, did you notice? Austen rules!)

So, have you read your nutritional labels lately? Are you getting label-shock yet?

::::Wail::::

~~

Banshee Wails...at the Entertainment Industry

Once, interviewing C.C. DeVille, the guitarist for Poison who’s known for his over-the-top antics, I was asking about his comeback from rock ’n’ roll excesses: Drugs, alcohol and weight gain.

“You can be the biggest drug addict in the world, and they will still like you in this town. But if you’re fat, they treat you like a leper,” he said to me. “You know what I’m talking about, right?”

--Chelsea J. Carter, "From 'Morbid Obesity' to 'Wow!'

BANSHEE WAILS...at KimKins

The Blog Banshee is Wailing a Warning.

It's all over the web. But I'd like to add my own little caveat. Allow me to let the Banshee have her way. She's howling this:

DO NOT GO ANYWHERE NEAR ANY KIMKINS SITE OR FORUM OR PLAN OR PRODUCT.

I recognized the name when I read the 3 Fat Chicks article yesterday. I'd seen a link to it many months ago, round when I started this blog in May. I clicked on the link. I scoped it out. I quickly decided to leave. It was just too extreme a plan for me. It sounded a bit nuts, frankly.

Let me say, with all honesty, that I understand the lure of such hardcore dieting.I can understand, totally, why some folks, feeling desperate, paid money to join this ridiculous diet that, basically, starves you with insufficient nutrition. Desperation makes sense go right out the window. I've felt desperation.

Please. Don't support KimKins. Every report out there rings the "shady" bell. Don't sign up for KimKins. Don't link to the site. If you have links or ads, please take them down.

If you wanna know why, start with "KimKins: Anatomy of a Diet Scam"

There are plenty of links there. A simple google with "Kimkins" and "scam" or "fraud" or similar words will get you other links, many from former KimKins members and some administrators, such as:

Becky and her insider story at KimKins
KimKins Exposed
Kimorexia
KimKins Sucks
KimKins Survivors
Slamboard on the KimKins Diet

Here's a quote from a former KimKins member, who discontinued her KimKins blog and started a new one called "Healthy Low-Carb Living" (emphasis mine):

A few days ago I was reading some comments from others who were once on Kimkins. They were experiencing the same thoughts I was. They had the same feelings I did. Some were afraid to eat anything! Those similar experiences caused something to click in my mind. I realized I could have easily developed an eating disorder. I was on the verge. I was so obsessed with losing weight quickly, that only having 3 protein shakes a day, which totaled 330 calories, actually seemed acceptable. I would have laughed in the past had you EVER told me I'd feel that way.

Yes, eating disorders of the anorexic sort can begin just like this: super-deprivation becoming the norm in the dieter's mind. Rapid weight loss becoming "God"--the end-all and be-all.

Do not support alleged scammers. Do not support diet extremists. Rather:

~Be careful at all times not to be seduced by crazy plans.
~Be sensible. Be alert.
~Eschew the desperation that blinds.
~Think of health and lifestyle, not just "I want it gone now."
~Read and be informed.
~Never listen to anyone who recommends laxatives for weight loss. Ever. (Remember Karen Carpenter?)
~Be doubly-careful as you choose to whom your money will go and which organizations you will join. There are sharks out in the waters, smelling the blood of angst-ridden, heart-shattered, will-try-anything dieters.

It's seductive, claims of such radical weight loss. We all want to LOSE THE POUNDS FAST AND NOW AND RIGHT NOW! But think about it. Eating 300 or 500 or any other extreme diet is almost always detrimental. (Never do it without close medical supervision and with a darn good diagnostic justification. Make sure you get proper supplementation. Unless you're gonna drop dead from co-morbidities without that kind of starvation diet, just don't do it.)

You didn't put on 50 pounds in one month. Or 100 in two. Why expect you're gonna lose it safely in one month...or two?

Be kind to your body and soul today. And be patient.

And nix KimKins.

~~