Cheerios: An Ultra-Processed and Unhealthy Cereal
Written by Ajay Chohan, Founder @ Small Batch Goodness
Honey Nut Cheerios - General Mills
Why the Cheerios product labeling is misleading: The toxins creating and inflammation causing manufacturing process used by Cheerios to extrude grains contradicts all the touted health benefits and the ‘natural’ & ‘real’ labeling theme
Potentially Harmful Ingredients and Contaminants in Cheerios: Modified Corn Starch, Tripotassium Phosphate, Glyphosate
Potentially Harmful Process used by Cheerios: Extrusion
KUDOS TO CHEERIOS for having whole grain oats as the first ingredient. Unfortunately that’s where the positives end as the cereal still has its share of processed ingredients and is made via the harmfully high heat + pressure generating extrusion process.
Cheerios is made via Extrusion - an unnatural process that denatures our grains and makes them toxic
The puffy Cheerios are created via a process called extrusion. In this, the extruder takes a mixture of grain, sugar and fats through extremely high pressure and temperatures and emits this mixture out of tiny holes on the other end. This process changes the very nature of grains and their protein structures.
The denatured proteins become foreign and potentially toxic to the human nervous system. Extrusion also destroys the fatty and amino acids in whole grains. Extrusion creates an inflammation causing ultra-processed food. According to Paul Stitt, author of Fighting the Food Giants, rats who were fed extruded cereal died faster than those who were starved and only given water! Thus, there is nothing healthy about puffed Cheerios coming out of a high pressure and high heat extruder. Paul Stitt goes in-depth on extrusion in his book so feel free to check it out. You can also look at the awesome research piece by The Weston A. Price Foundation linked in my Sources section below.
The Making of Cheerios - a brief independent investigation :)
This video by Cheerios itself provides some cues on the additives facilitated ultra-processing that oats go through. It’s interesting listening to how the employee from General Mills describes the production process @ 1:07 : “…making Cheerios is a pretty simple process [gasp-pause]…the oat flour comes in, we add a few ingredients, cook it, puff it, and then you put it in a package.” LOL what? That was descriptive and detailed. Also, the video was uploaded 9 years ago and has 174K views, BUT only 1 comment, think the rest of the comments might have been deleted?
Anyways, this video shows more details on the extrusion process, and you can see the extruder machine @ the 1:07 mark again (well, that’s a synchronicity ;)). Now, this is also a sponsored video by the food manufacturer Post Consumer Brands, so we can’t take the entire content at face value. But at least they provide more details and the narrater unknowingly narrates the concerns with extrusion whilst describing the process, “an extrusion machine now compresses the dough and forces it through a stainless steel forming die.” Well, this compression and force is what unfortunately denatures the grains, making them unsuitable for human consumption at that point.
Cheerios also has food additives like modified corn starch linked with inflammation and insulin spikes.
Sadly, the third most prominent ingredient in Cheerios is modified corn starch. Modified corn starch is made by altering corn's physical & chemical properties to make it resistant to high temperatures and allow it to be used as a stabilizer & gelling agent (1) (ew!). The outer layer and shell of the corn kernel is removed to increase shelf life. The result is a processed food containing mostly calories and carbs.
Even more importantly, let’s remember that wholesome and minimally processed foods do not need modified corn starch in the first place, but cereals made via extrusion do. It all ties back into creating a mixture that will more easily go through the extruder. Any type of processed corn is well known to spike blood sugar; leading to higher insulin and a resulting inflammatory response from our bodies. Modified corn starch is bad for you and should not be a key ingredient in our breakfast cereal!
Please Note: Here is my article on the 3 wholesome breakfast alternatives to the processed cereal.
More questionable ingredients in Cheerios:
Tripotassium phosphate is added to cereals for similar reasons as modified corn starch. Cereals like Cheerios created via extrusion need tripotassium phosphate, which is added to the grain mixture to make it easier to go through the extruder. So while not harmful in itself, tripotassium phosphate is synonymous with processed and dead foods.
We also do not know about the quality of the commercial honey used in Cheerios. Most commercial beekeepers feed high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), often heated, to bees to increase honey production (3). Heating fructose to high temperatures is shown to produce hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), a known toxic substance, which is also a possible contributing factor in Colony Collapse Disorder - i.e. bees dying in large numbers (3). High levels of HMF have also been detected in many big store honey brands. These bees are also transported for thousands of miles in boxes, to take them from one farm to the other. You can learn more about the harmful effects of much of commercial beekeeping practices on nature, bees and humans in my honey section.
Cheerios has faced multiple class action lawsuits around its misleading claims on lowering cholesterol and preventing cancer & heart disease, as well as for Cheerios’ contamination with the cancer causing carcinogen Glyphosate.
Cheerios and its manufacturer General Mills have been under public and government pressure for over a decade now. As this 2009 article by the Center for Science in the Public Interest states, “The Food and Drug Administration took long-overdue action by demanding that General Mills halt its grossly exaggerated and misleading health claims for Cheerios cereal. The company claims that Cheerios can reduce "bad" cholesterol levels by 4 percent in just 6 weeks and ward off heart disease and cancers of the colon and stomach.” Cheerios was consequently instructed to take down this language, but was allowed to keep some of the more generic claims on the health benefits of a diet low in saturated fat & cholesterol in general (as opposed to health benefits to eating Cheerios specifically).
Cheerios also used to have an American Heart Association “seal of approval” until 2013, when the association decided to remove it.
Levels of the carcinogen Glyphosate in Cheerios not negligible.
Cheerios & General Mills also faced a lawsuit after traces of glyphosate were found in the cereal. Glyphosate is a herbicide and a known cancer causing carcinogen (now notorious & well known after the Roundup lawsuits). While the lawsuit itself was overthrown given the plaintiff could not prove that the levels of glyphosate found in Cheerios were indeed dangerous, very important questions still remain. As this Healthline article states,
“The Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that levels of glyphosate in Cheerios were 729 ppb and in Honey Nut Cheerios Medley Crunch the levels reached 833 ppb. The EWG considers 160 ppb to be the highest level safe for children’s food.”
These ppb (parts per billion) levels are not negligible. Equally importantly, why would the highly potent weed killer glyphosate end up in your cereal in the first place? Well, the only plausible explanation is the oats in your Cheerios cereal are sprayed by this herbicide during farming. This is a whole another topic and we can go on length on the harmful effects of spraying herbicides on the soil, microorganisms & the insects that live in it, humans and the environment in general.
Cheerios is not a healthy breakfast choice.
As mentioned, Cheerios has made an effort to make its cereal healthy. However, any extruded cereal simply can not be that. The next time we find ourselves researching if our favorite cereal is gluten free or how many calories it has, let’s make sure to research how it is produced! As the maker of this leading cereal brand, consumers should urge General Mills to lead the industry in moving away from the toxic extrusion process. We should also urge General Mills to help lead better commercial beekeeping practices. Until then though, let’s skip this Honey Nut Cheerios and start our day with wholesome & unprocessed breakfast alternatives.
Much healthier breakfast options.
Foods we eat should be wholesome and alive. This starts with the soil! The soil should be organically tilled, nutrient dense and supporting a biodiverse ecosystem. The whole grains should only be minimally processed. And the breakfast that reaches our bowl needs to be absolutely free of additives, which often go hand in hand with ultra-processed foods. You can read my article here for quick yet healthy + tasty substitutes to eating overly processed cereal.
Lastly, here are other Cheerios cereal varieties that are also made with the toxic extrusion process and should be avoided. These other varieties sadly contain modified starches and tripotassium phosphate as well.
Very Berry Cheerios, Breakfast Cereal with Oats, Gluten Free
Blueberry Cheerios Breakfast Cereal, Gluten Free
Cheerios Oat Crunch Almond Breakfast Cereal
Frosted Cheerios Breakfast Cereal with Oats, Gluten Free
Multi Grain Cheerios, Breakfast Cereal, Gluten Free, Whole Grain Oats
Is (or was) Cheerios part of your daily diet? Share your thoughts below!
Sources - Research for Yourself!:
1. https://foodadditives.net/starch/modified-food-starch/
2. Learn more about food processing and extrusion: https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/modern-foods/dirty-secrets-of-the-food-processing-industry/
3. https://phys.org/news/2009-10-potentially-substance-high-fructose-corn-syrup.html
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