I would say that Cheerios are neither food nor drug.  I bet they make great compost though.

I agree with Stephen.  Doc wanted my cholesterol down, so I did the low fat diet which included Cheerios.  Cholesterol came down 20 points.  Doc was elated but wanted it lower , so I really hit the Cheerios.  Cholesterol went up 120 points and my triglycerides were up 300 points to 450.  Doc was not happy but probably was elated that he had a reason to hand me the Lipitor prescription.  I refused because I thought my numbers were due to a bad test, after a lot of research,  I now eat  low carb.  Cholesterol total now in the 180 range and triglycerides are around 80.  Fasting blood sugar has now dropped about 10 points, its now under 100.  Dr Davis, thanks for a wonderful informative Blog.

Gayle

Does anyone have a link to the "clinical study" that purports to support the claims made by Cheerios?  I certainly can't find it on their website.

Where did General Mills ever get the idea that there was something in Cheerios that would lower cholesterol?  Fiber?  I don't get what they're latching onto that's supposedly healthy about cheerios?

Sue, if you go back to Dr. Davis's blog entry for Monday, April 21, 2008, you'll find out more. I dug around a little and left a comment about the origins of the study and the companies behind the journal that published it.

Opinions on Cheerios aside, when something like this happens it makes me realize how vulnerable we are to advertising. It seems like the general population should know enough about cholesterol and their health that a cereal should not have this kind of influence. It can be as simple as reading a couple of knowledgeable health sources and watching what you eat.

The report on CBS re Cheerios vs FDA presented a doctor who said that it was scientifically proved that Cheerios lowers cholesterol ... a blatant piece of irresponsible ignorance or wanton lying ... you pick!

@Susan,
Sorry, I should have checked the link to the April 2008 post before I asked!

But it appears that the "study" itself isn't available for review.  What a surprise!

It's entirely plausible that eating Cheerios works better than eating even worse crap.

In exactly the same way that eating Whole Grains is marginally better than eating highly refined grains.

Then the message gets perverted by advertising executives from something being slightly less bad to actually being good.

I wouldn't even put them in the compost, can you imagine worms with bad lipids?

Yeah, I feed my compost worms far better than Cheerios, though I did unintentionally kill a whole bin full not long ago with very fermented steel cut oats.

Don't worry, if they were fermented enough the worms died happy (grins)

One of my bins is currently offline, bumble bees are nesting in it. I'd sooner eat them than Cheerios

The Food and Drug Administration says in a warning letter to General Mills that language on the Cheerios box suggests the cereal is designed to prevent or treat heart disease.

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I'm glad that the FDA has come down on General Mills. But I find this entire episode laughable: The debate is over the purported health benefits of what I would regard as pure junk food, no better in my view than claiming that a cupcake has health benefits, or a carton of ice cream.

I completely agree with you. Directions on how to take medication is required in prescription.

Dr. Davis,

What a great story to share!

Just an aside, most people have no idea the impact of particular foods or the excess of foods on their blood sugar. Still we go about our daily lives, some of us with very high blood sugar after a meal on a daily basis. I think if non-diabetics (the general population) were encouraged to learn to use a glucose meter (that you don't have to be a diagnosed diabetic to use one), some chronic health ailments would diminish.

I find it interesting when wheat and dairy get mentioned at the same time when talking of food addiction. Some years ago I came across information on the opiate- like nature of gluten and casein (proteins in wheat and milk). A quick web search will return lots of leads.

So why is it that cheese seems ok to some people? What about yogurt? Is it the lactose or something else? I have always wondered about these things.

One reason that you may be able to tolerate cheese but not milk is because milk contains lactose and hard cheeses are almost lactose free. Lactose intolerance is caused by the lack of the enzyme to digest this milk sugar.

Cheese is high in casein, a major protein in dairy.

Both lactose intolerance and/or casein intolerance are often associated with gluten intolerance.

I am glad that you turned your health around with lifestyle eating changes.

I had a major gut episode yesterday after eating rice cereal with milk. I've previously tolerated milk, and cheese as well. But I've read that a gluten-sensitive gut can be sensitive to other foods until the gut heals (by avoiding gluten). I'm not sure if it's the casein or lactose, but I'm leaning towards lactose since I've been able to tolerate fermented cheese.

The lady in this post, and your last post mentioned strong cravings for wheat after eating some. I've read theories (at alternative sites) about most people having at least a small amount of candidiasis. I wonder if that might be part of the reason for the strong cravings. I don't crave wheat anymore, but if something causes severe pain enough times, one tends to get over it quickly.

S

Very inspiring to read. I would have to know more about how this 'Type A' personality managed to eat so low-carb and eliminate wheat long enough to lose that kind of weight. I am at a loss as to what to eat in place of wheat, and while it seems like an easy answer, I have almost zero time for meal prep. I eat 2 of 3 meals a day at my office or in the car, and some days even all 3. No way to slow down my schedule either. Anyone know of a elimination-wheat-blog/diary I can follow to get some ideas? Still a wonderful story, and glad you shared it.

Wow, thanks for posting my email comments doc. When I gave permission I didn't realize it'd be front page news. Though I noticed you did leave out my ravings about how wonderful you and my cardiologist are I noticed... very humble of you!

I'm no expert on anything, and my blog isn't a nutrition blog, but I'm at The Divine Lowcarb for anybody who likes layman blogs.

PJ

Just eat a green salad or low-carb vegies in place of wheat.  Salad and vegies easy to prepare if you get them packaged - already washed and cut.

Is that so that carbs are less harmful to physically active people and more harmful to sedentary people?

Since the active muscles of physically active people with tend to utilize glucose more efficiently than not-so-active muscles of sedentary people.

Also does it make any difference if one consumes freshly milled flour of 100% extraction
(the way our ancestors used to eat) with plenty of butter?
(By fresh I mean less than one week old).

Carbs are more harmful to people with the genetic propensity for metabolic syndrome, whether they are active or not!  

Of course, exercise helps whether someone is perfectly normal or flatout diabetic.  

As for wheat, I don't personally think if you're not diabetic and don't have gluten intolerance that it is necessarily bad.  But as far as grains go, it's relatively nutritionally bankrupt.  Barley or buckwheat are the best grain choices.  I think even rice or oats are better choices than wheat.

And, of course, veggies are better bang for your carb buck than any of the grains.

I really think that those who tolerate wheat and choose to eat it should prefer whole wheat berries (they cook up to a nice hot cereal overnight in a crockpot with some apples and cinnamon).  Second best choice is bread or pasta made from freshly ground flour - you can grind it yourself with either a dedicated grinder or some appliances can grind wheat like the Vitamix.  Far behind those choices is freshly baked bread made from preground whole wheat flour.

I just want to add - even for those who have no problems with wheat and eat it as a whole grain... the problem is it's a staple in people's diets.  Same problem with corn.

There's not enough nutrition in wheat or corn foods to make them worthwhile as a significant part of your diet.  Even if you tolerate them just fine now and then, you just don't need them to be at the base of your food pyramid.  Vegetables should be at the base, whether you eat grains or not.  

And if you eat grains regularly, there's so many better choices than wheat or corn.  Barley and buckwheat are the best.  But even oats or whole grain rice are way better than wheat or corn.

Wheat and corn are pretty much "filler" foods at best - they mostly provide calories.  In places  and times where there are food shortages, they're very useful foods cause they prevent starvation pretty well.  They're cheap, store well, and fill bellies, but that's really the best you can say for them.

But in the western world today where we have a wide variety of foods available to us, the primary benefit of wheat and corn is to food manufacturers who make a fortune out of processing such cheapo ingredients into forms that tempt us to pay big bucks for them.

I don't agree that wheat is somehow worse than all other carby foods, but realistically, cutting wheat out of your diet *mostly* results in a much healthier diet cause most folks eat so much crap made from wheat.  

Personally, if I had to give *one* piece of diet advice to *everyone*, it wouldn't be to avoid wheat.  Rather, it would be to eat at least half of your food intake as fresh vegetables.  

Eating loads of veggies provides a wide range of nutrients, probably ones we haven't discovered yet too.  And it also crowds most of the worst foods out of your diet, regardless of what they are.

A recent study using Italian cheese made from ewes milk showed some very strong heart health benefits.

The cheese mentioned in this study is an Italian cheese called Pecerino.
The most popular type in the US is called Pecerino Romano,an aged cheese with a salty taste.

CLA-rich cheese may boost heart health: Study


Quote:
Consuming cheese from ewe’s milk, rich in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), may reduce markers linked to heart disease, suggest results from a small Italian study.

Researchers from the University of Florence report that ewe’s milk rich in cis-9, trans-11 CLA produced favourable changes in inflammatory cytokines and platelet aggregation, both of which are associated with atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries due to the build-up of fatty deposits on artery walls.

Atherosclerosis is the primary cause of coronary heart disease (CHD), which costs the British public health system more than €5bn per year.

“These observations, although preliminary and obtained in a limited study group, seem to be of relevance for the practical implications in terms of nutrition and health of the general population,” wrote the researchers in Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases.

“If the effects of dairy products naturally enriched for their contents of cis-9, trans-11 CLA are confirmed by further examinations, this will likely have important implications for human nutrition and food industry.”

Cheese – ewe decide

Researchers, led by Francesco Sofi, recruited 10 subjects with an average age of 51.5 and randomly assigned them to consume a diet containing 200 grams per week of cheese from ewe’s milk (pecorino cheese), naturally rich in CLA, or cheese from cow’s milk (placebo), for 10 weeks.

Sofi and his co-workers report that consumption of the CLA-rich ewe’s cheese produced significant reductions in inflammatory markers, including a 43 per cent reduction in interleukin-6 (IL-6), a 36 per cent reduction in IL-8, and a 40 per cent reduction in tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha). No significant changes were observed following 10 weeks of placebo, they added.

Furthermore, a 10 per cent reduction in the extent of platelet aggregation, induced by arachidonic acid, was observed for the CLA-cheese group, compared to placebo.

“CLAs have been previously reported to attenuate inflammatory cytokine expression in animals and humans, and it has been recently reported that they are able to inhibit the expression of cytokine-induced adhesion molecules on endothelial and smooth muscle cells,” wrote the researchers.

“Thus, it is conceivable to hypothesise that CLAs are able to attenuate the atherosclerotic process through inhibition of the initiating inflammatory cytokines, such as those measured in our study, as well as through inhibition of the stress signalling cascades these cytokines elicit,” they added.

Source: Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases
Published online ahead of print, doi: 10.1016/j.numecd.2009.03.004
“Effects of a dairy product (pecorino cheese) naturally rich in cis-9, trans-11 conjugated linoleic acid on lipid, inflammatory and haemorheological variables: A dietary intervention study”
Authors: F. Sofi, A. Buccioni, F. Cesari, A.M. Gori, S. Minieri, L. Mannini, A. Casini, G.F. Gensini, R. Abbate, M. Antongiovanni

I wanted to lose weight so I decided to keep it simple.  cut out wheat is the only rule.  However I am not in the obese category, and don't drink soda's or much sugar, most of the sugar I eat is in with the wheat foods (eg: cake).  I also eat fruits ad vegetables every day and very little fast food (now and again when travelling for example)  by day three and four of the no wheat diet, I am WAY less hungry and eat less.  But I am having cravings for toast - previously my staple food.  I used to eat up to six slices of toast a day, plus other wheat based foods, biscuits and such.
The reason I know it's a craving for wheat, is because I look at other foods I like, and I have no appetite for them whatsoever, because I am not ACTUALLY HUNGRY.  It's easy to over-eat on wheat based products, but if you're not allowed them, you just don't want to eat anything.  so your appetite becomes regulated.

Just an aside, most people have no idea the impact of particular foods or the excess of foods on their blood sugar. Still we go about our daily lives, some of us with very high blood sugar after a meal on a daily basis. I think if non-diabetics (the general population) were encouraged to learn to use a glucose meter (that you don't have to be a diagnosed diabetic to use one), some chronic health ailments would diminish.