breakfast cereals

Deadly Mycotoxins Found In Breakfast Cereals

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Deadly Mycotoxins Found In Breakfast Cereals

It’s been estimated that mycotoxins infect around 25% of the world’s cereal crop.  Mycotoxins include over 300 toxic compounds produced when certain molds or fungi infect crops.

A new study shows that breakfast cereals can be a significant source of these toxins. Researchers in Pakistan collected 237 breakfast cereal samples and analyzed them for 3 different types of mycotoxins.  They tested for aflatoxins (AFs), ochratoxin A (OTA), and zearalenone (ZEA).  They found these toxins in about half the breakfast cereals tested.[i]

Aflatoxins Cause Liver Disease and Liver Cancer

Aflatoxins are potent mycotoxins that cause liver disease and liver cancer in humans and animals.  The molds causing aflatoxin infect cereals and nuts.

Aflatoxin is classified into a number of subtypes. The most important ones are B1, B2, G1 and G2.

According to the Pakistan study, 41% of breakfast cereal samples were found contaminated with AFs.  Of the contaminated samples, 8% were above the European Union’s maximum safe levels for total AFs.

And 16% were above the EU’s limit for AFB1.  In fact, unlike most other mycotoxins, there is no tolerable daily intake (TDI) for aflatoxin B1 because it is carcinogenic. The highest levels of AFB1 and total AFs were found in semolina.

An earlier 2012 Pakistan study of cereals found 38% were contaminated with four types of AFs.  And 21% of processed foods intended for infants contained AFB1 levels above the EU’s maximums.[ii]

And just last year the European Food Safety Authority issued a technical report entitled Aflatoxins (sum of B1, B2, G1, G2) in cereals and cereal-derived food products. A total of 2,183 food samples were collected between 2007 and 2012.  The EFSA found 10% of the products contained one of the four most common aflatoxins.  Of those, 6 cereal and milling products were above the maximum EU limits as were 2 breakfast cereal samples.

Aflatoxin is associated with both acute and chronic toxicity.  It causes acute liver damage, liver cirrhosis, and liver cancers. Chronic toxicity has been linked to eating peanuts and cereals.[iii]

Aflatoxin was discovered some 30 years ago in England following a poisoning outbreak causing 100,000 turkey deaths. Among mycotoxins known to cause human disease, aflatoxins have been studied most.

Ochratoxin A Is Toxic to Kidneys and a Probable Human Carcinogen

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a mycotoxin formed during the storage of crops.  Contamination has been reported in cereals, coffee, vine fruits (grapes), and nuts.

OTA is toxic to the kidneys (nephrotoxic) and the immune system.  It’s also been classified as a probable human carcinogen.

In the Pakistan study, about 48% of the breakfast cereal samples were found contaminated with OTA.  Of those, 30% were found to be above the EU maximum. The highest levels of OTA were also found in semolina products.

Zearalenone (ZEA) Mycotoxin Disrupts Hormones

Zearalenone (ZEA) mycotoxins originate in grains such as corn, barley, oats, wheat, rice and sorghum.[iv]  They’ve even been found in beer.  But animal products containing the toxin are also affected.  ZEA can be found in grain-fed meat, eggs and dairy products.

In Pakistan, 53% of the breakfast cereal samples were found contaminated with ZEA.  Of those, 8% were above the permissible EU limit.  Cornflakes had the highest ZEA contamination levels.

A groundbreaking 2011 study found ZEA in the urine of 78.5% of New Jersey girls sampled. The girls (aged 9 and 10 years) who tested positive for the ZEA toxin “tended to be shorter and less likely to have reached the onset of breast development.”[v] The researchers also found an association between the young girls’ ZEA urinary levels and their intake of commonly contaminated sources such as beef and popcorn.

Research from 30 years ago had shown the estrogenic properties of mycotoxins.  Young female piglets fed mycotoxin-contaminated grains showed abnormal sexual development.

How To Protect Yourself From Mycotoxins

Mycotoxins form while cereal crops are growing or in post-harvest storage.  The contamination is nearly impossible to eliminate.  They may not be completely removed by cleaning.  And they are not killed during cooking or processing so they frequently make their way into final products.

Whether mycotoxins pose a serious health risk depends on how toxic a particular strain is, how much contamination is present, and how much of the contaminated product is consumed.

It affects both conventionally grown and organic grains.[vi]  And GMO grains may be particularly susceptible.  A recent study revealed Roundup herbicide enhances the growth of aflatoxin-producing fungi.  It’s been suggested that GMOs may be responsible for an alarming increase in fungal toxins in U.S. corn supplies.

Reducing mycotoxin risk may require a move away from cereal grains altogether and toward other vegetarian options such as leafy greens.

Also, regularly eating healthy spices may boost your resistance to the toxins’ effects.  Garlic has been found to reduce the adverse effects of zearalenone toxicity.  Another study found turmeric, curcumin, garlic, and ellagic acid (found in pomegranate) significantly inhibited damage from the aflatoxin B1 strain.  Researchers suggested that antioxidant food additives may be useful in ameliorating aflatoxin-induced mutagenicity and carcinogenicity.[vii]

This is a great reason to add healthy seasonings to your cooking.  Regular use of herbs and spices may well protect us from a range of dangerous pathogens in the food supply.

Eggs or Cereal: Which Is a Better Breakfast for Weight Loss?

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According to a 2011 NPD food market research study, 31 million Americans (one in 10) skip breakfast.

Eggs are better than cereal for weight loss.

One of the top reasons people gave for skipping breakfast was, “they didn’t have time and were too busy.” I understand what they’re saying about being busy. As the head of content for LIVESTRONG.COM, the third largest health and fitness website, every morning I’m rushing to fit in a workout or a run and then get ready for work (all the while reading the news on my phone, checking my email and Twitter feed), I don’t have a ton of time to eat. Still, I never leave my house without eating breakfast.

Quick breakfasts are important to me. I grew up eating cold cereal with milk for breakfast. Raised by a single working mother, cold cereal was the easiest breakfast for us kids to grab quickly (and safely – i.e. no stove or oven required) when we were little and woke up early in the morning in a rush to get ready for school. When you start eating cereal every day at 5 or 6 years old, you develop a habit. And I REALLY loved Golden Grahams. (Now that I know that a serving of Golden Grahams with milk contains 20-30 grams of sugar — it’s all too clear why I loved it so much!)

In my 20s and 30s, my cereal tastes had “matured” somewhat. I almost always ate a rather large (two serving size) bowl of Kellogg’s Special K, Kellogg’s Product 19, Kashi GOLEAN Crunch, or General Mills Total cereal, and I was convinced that breakfast was my healthiest meal of the day. How could it not be when those cereals’ boxes bragged of being fortified with so many added vitamins?!

Eggs are shown to be better for weight loss than cereal.

(Photo by twenty20/@dragonflyproductions)

It never occurred to me that my breakfast of cold cereal might be the reason why I was always starving again several hours before lunchtime.

It wasn’t until I worked at Beachbody and participated as a member of the fitness test groups for RevAbs and LES MILLS COMBAT that I was put on a meal plan that was 100 percent low carb/high protein. Cereal was never a breakfast option on this meal plan. Our breakfasts were always an egg dish of some sort. I thought it would get boring, but I found out that there were a ton of ways to eat eggs that I had never even tried. I lost several pounds in just a few weeks and eating eggs for breakfast was a big part of this. The best part: I was less hungry and more full than when I had been eating cereal for breakfast. No sugar crash to make me cranky.

Why Are Eggs a Better Breakfast Choice Than Cereal?
From this personal weight-loss experience, it seemed to me that eggs were a superior breakfast choice than cereal to achieve fullness throughout the morning and weight maintenance or weight loss, but I wanted to understand the science better of why.

By reading labels on cereal boxes and looking online (and tracking a few of my favorite breakfast cereals in LIVESTRONG.COM’s Calorie Tracker), I found out that boxed cereal contains a high amount of sugars. A breakfast of one cup of Kashi GOLEAN cereal and one cup of milk contains 26 grams of sugar (13 grams in the cereal and 13 grams in the milk). That’s about six teaspoons of sugar!

No wonder I was experiencing a sugar crash and hunger spike halfway through my morning.

For optimal health and weight maintenance, the American Heart Association recommends 20 grams of sugar per day for women and 36 grams daily for men. My morning breakfast cereal was pushing me over the daily limit.

A breakfast of two scrambled eggs, in comparison, contains only two grams of sugar.

Then I read about a 2013 study from the University of Missouri that studied 20 overweight or obese adolescent females who either skipped breakfast, ate a breakfast of eggs and lean beef, or ate a cold ready-to-eat breakfast cereal. The breakfasts were all approximately 350 calories.

The study found that those who ate the high-protein egg-based breakfast led to increased feelings of fullness along with reductions in the type of brain activity that is responsible for controlling food cravings. Wow.

I consulted with LIVESTRONG.COM’s nutritionist Kelly Plowe to see what she thought about eggs vs. cereal as a healthy breakfast option. “A breakfast of eggs is a great way to start your day,” she says. “The protein in eggs will help steady your blood sugar for the rest of the morning and keep you satiated until lunch or your mid-morning snack which is an excellent strategy for weight loss.”

It all began to make a lot of sense about why eggs kept me feeling fuller than a breakfast of cereal and helped me to lose a few pounds at the same time.

Like everyone else out there who is so rushed for time in the morning, I had been concerned that cooking eggs for breakfast would take too long (and also require me to wash dishes and pans – something that I despise). Then I discovered two ways I could enjoy a tasty, filling egg breakfast in less than three minutes without even dirtying a pan.

Two-Minute Microwave Coffee Cup Spicy Egg Scramble with Salsa

Ingredients
2 eggs
2 tablespoons salsa
2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons shredded cheddar cheese
1 dab of coconut oil (to grease the mug)

Directions:

1. Coat a 12-ounce microwave-safe coffee mug with dab of coconut oil.
2. Add eggs and milk; beat until blended.
3. Microwave on HIGH for 45 seconds; stir.
4. Microwave until eggs are almost set, 30 to 45 seconds longer.
5. Top with salsa and cheese.

Pro Tip: If you’re like me and you don’t like having any dishes to wash (not even one coffee cup!), you can hollow out a red or green bell pepper and cook your eggs inside the pepper and eat it!

Three-Minute Breakfast Burrito

Ingredients:

* 2 eggs
* 1 8-inch whole-wheat sprouted grain tortilla
* 1/8 cup salsa
* 1/4 cup black beans
* 2 slices avocado
* 2 tablespoons milk
* 2 tablespoons shredded cheese

Directions:
1. Coat a 12-ounce microwave-safe coffee mug with cooking spray.
2. Add eggs and milk; beat until blended.
3. Microwave on HIGH 45 seconds; stir.
4. Add in black beans and stir again.
5. Microwave until eggs and beans are almost set, 30 to 45 seconds longer.
6. When the eggs and bean mixture is hot, spoon it out onto the tortilla, and top with shredded cheese, chopped avocado and salsa.
7. Wrap it up and enjoy.

Pro Tip: If you’re one of those people who says even this quick two-minute burrito recipe takes too much time (or that it costs too much to make breakfast at home), check out this guy Trent Hamm’s plan where he made himself 32 breakfast burritos on the weekend (at a cost of 72 cents per burrito!) and wrapped them each in plastic and put them into the freezer. Then, he re-heats them each morning by removing the plastic wrap and putting them into a microwave with a paper towel.

 

ALARMING AMOUNTS OF ADHD-CAUSING ARTIFICIAL COLORS FOUND IN KID-POPULAR FOODS.

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If you allow your child to eat highly processed foods like cereals, candy, and soft drinks, you might as well be feeding them artificial colors by the spoonful. A new study indicates these colors are present in amounts most parents wouldn’t expect, and yes, they are having an affect. Research has indicated artificial food colorings to have modest effects on child attention. But this research was largely done decades ago, when the amount of coloring in foods was much smaller. Now, researchers say, many foods popular with children contain dozens of milligrams of such artificial colors in a single serving, having untold effects on our youth and ourselves. The latest study, from researchers with Purdue University, found that breakfast cereals marketed towards children have some of the highest levels of coloring. Trix, for instance, had 36 mg. per serving and Cap’n Crunch’s OOPS! All Berries had 41. Not surprisingly, these same cereals also had high levels of sugar.

Cookie-crisp-cereal-side

Candies were no different—with a serving of M&M’s containing 30 milligrams of artificial colors, and a serving of Skittles containing 33. The researchers noted that the foods with the brightest colors are those that usually have the most artificial colorants. And it’s these foods that are largely marketed to kids rather than their parents. In other words, food makers are giving more of the harmful stuff to children than they are to adults.

“We don’t need to make these products appeal more to kids, kids are already obese,” said lead researcher Laura J. Stevens to Reuters Health.

A few cereals, including Special K Red Berries and Berry Berry Kix, used natural colors like strawberries and fruit juice. But food makers are largely resistant to using these colorants because they aren’t as bright and don’t stand up well to processing. Numerous studies have identified these artificial colors as having negative effects on childhood attention and disorder. But like Joel Nigg, an expert in ADHD, points out, these studies were done decades ago when the levels of artificial colors were likely much lower than they are now.

“The dosages were average at that time but weren’t very high by today’s standard,” Nigg told Reuters. “Many of the studies have found fairly small effects, but we may be underestimating compared to what children actually get these days.”

As for the food makers, they aren’t concerned about the new research, or the old research for that matter. They seem to suspiciously put their trust in the FDA to make the right decision.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association had this to say about the latest study:

“Rest assured, if there is new data or research in this area, the FDA will review it thoroughly to determine if a change in current policy is warranted. However, the overwhelming majority of scientific evidence continues to confirm the safety of these artificial food colors.” 

 

ALARMING AMOUNTS OF ADHD-CAUSING ARTIFICIAL COLORS FOUND IN KID-POPULAR FOODS.

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If you allow your child to eat highly processed foods like cereals, candy, and soft drinks, you might as well be feeding them artificial colors by the spoonful. A new study indicates these colors are present in amounts most parents wouldn’t expect, and yes, they are having an affect. Research has indicated artificial food colorings to have modest effects on child attention. But this research was largely done decades ago, when the amount of coloring in foods was much smaller. Now, researchers say, many foods popular with children contain dozens of milligrams of such artificial colors in a single serving, having untold effects on our youth and ourselves. The latest study, from researchers with Purdue University, found that breakfast cereals marketed towards children have some of the highest levels of coloring. Trix, for instance, had 36 mg. per serving and Cap’n Crunch’s OOPS! All Berries had 41. Not surprisingly, these same cereals also had high levels of sugar.

Cookie-crisp-cereal-side

Candies were no different—with a serving of M&M’s containing 30 milligrams of artificial colors, and a serving of Skittles containing 33. The researchers noted that the foods with the brightest colors are those that usually have the most artificial colorants. And it’s these foods that are largely marketed to kids rather than their parents. In other words, food makers are giving more of the harmful stuff to children than they are to adults.

“We don’t need to make these products appeal more to kids, kids are already obese,” said lead researcher Laura J. Stevens to Reuters Health.

A few cereals, including Special K Red Berries and Berry Berry Kix, used natural colors like strawberries and fruit juice. But food makers are largely resistant to using these colorants because they aren’t as bright and don’t stand up well to processing. Numerous studies have identified these artificial colors as having negative effects on childhood attention and disorder. But like Joel Nigg, an expert in ADHD, points out, these studies were done decades ago when the levels of artificial colors were likely much lower than they are now.

“The dosages were average at that time but weren’t very high by today’s standard,” Nigg told Reuters. “Many of the studies have found fairly small effects, but we may be underestimating compared to what children actually get these days.”

As for the food makers, they aren’t concerned about the new research, or the old research for that matter. They seem to suspiciously put their trust in the FDA to make the right decision.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association had this to say about the latest study:

“Rest assured, if there is new data or research in this area, the FDA will review it thoroughly to determine if a change in current policy is warranted. However, the overwhelming majority of scientific evidence continues to confirm the safety of these artificial food colors.”