Here are a couple of comments from Davis on the AHA and others. These Cereal Companies pay millions to the AHA every year for advertising and the right to put "Heart Healthy" on their boxes. I don't have the numbers, but retired people are HUGE consumers of these cereals because they are so easy to fix.
Fanatic Cook on the American Heart Association
The Fanatic Cook has posted a stinging criticism of the American Heart Association (AHA):
American Heart Association My Fat Translator
Beyond the nonsensical nutritional recommendations (e.g., substitute small French fries for large French fries), she lists the major financial contributors to the AHA, a Who's Who in the pharmaceutical and processed food industry.
"For an organization that brought in close to a billion dollars last year, you'd think they could come up with something a little more pronounced. If I was more cynical I'd say the AHA had an interest in keeping Americans fat . . . or at least dependent on a highly-processed, fast food diet, requiring drugs to tweak lab values."
To be sure, the AHA does a great deal of good in funding research and educating the public about the prevalence of heart and vascular disease. But their fund raising interests have clearly subverted the honesty of their nutritional advice. Sadly, it is the AHA dietary advice that hospital dietitians use in counseling people with heart disease after their heart attack, stent, or bypass surgery. After my patients are discharged from the hospital for any reason, I tell them to please forget everything the nice hospital dietitian told them. It is not okay to eat the factory farm-raised hamburger on the sugar-equivalent enriched flour bun. Low-fat ice cream is not a healthy substitute for full-fat ice cream.
The AHA is no different than the USDA and the American Diabetes Association, "official" organizations that have, in effect, sold out to industry.
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Cheerios and heart health
Anna responded to the Heart Scan Blog post, Can you say "sugar"? with the following wonderfully telling comment:
A measured bowl of Cheerios and a bit of milk (whole, because it's what I had), equal to 75 grams of carbohydrate, gave me the highest ever blood glucose reading from a food (not counting glucose solution from a Glucose Tolerance Test). I was attempting a "homemade" version of a 3 hr GTT before going to my doctor with my concerns about my BG.
My BG started to rise very fast within 15 minutes after eating the cereal, peaked at about 250 mg/dL at 45 minutes, then slowly dropped. By about 60-75 minutes, I experienced strong hunger and carb cravings as the BG began to slowly drop, and by about 2.5 hours after eating, my BG had suddenly dropped quite low (in the low 70s) and I had developed a nasty hypoglycemic feeling (shaky, irritable, craving sugary foods, headache, etc.).
It's hard for me to see "heart healthy" Cheerios (or any other highly processed breakfast cereal) as anything other than a bowl of pre-digested sugar that contributes to roller coaster blood glucose and insulin levels, which a great way to start anyone's day. Certainly, I don't do well with Cheerios because I clearly have a damaged glucose regulatory system (probably a diminished or absent first phase insulin response, but I can't imagine that it is doing any good for people with healthy glucose regulation, either.
I banned prepared cold cereals from our house. If my 9 yr old son gets cereal at all at home, it's whole groats (not even rolled or steel cut because those aren't truly "whole grain" anymore), soaked overnight in some water and a tsp of plain yogurt (soaking neutralizes phytates and reduces cooking time), then cooked about 8-10 minutes (water added as necessary). Sometimes I add a bit of quinoa or almond meal prior to soaking to boost the protein content a bit. I garnish with a pat of butter, some heavy cream, and a dusting of cinnamon. If I'm feeling *really* indulgent, I drizzle about 1 tsp of Grade B maple syrup on top (Grade B is stronger in flavor and so less can be used). I don't eat this cereal myself, and truthfully, I'd rather my son not, either, but he sometimes wants cereal. It's the least damaging compromise I can come up with that we can both live with.
I have also seen diabetic effects from Cheerios: rises in blood sugar, exagerration of small LDL, drops in HDL, rises in triglycerides. Yes, it may reduce LDL a small quantity, but so what?
The Cheerios "heart healthy" claim is based on a piece of research apparently performed by Dr. Donald Hunninghake at the University of Minnesota and reported in 1998:
A study conducted at the University of Minnesota Heart Disease Prevention Clinic and published as "Cholesterol-Lowering Benefits of a Whole Grain Oat Ready-to-Eat Cereal" in the May issue of the Nutrition in Clinical Care journal in 1998, showed that people can lower their blood cholesterol by an average of 3.8% over six weeks by enjoying 3 cups of cold cereal made with 100% whole grain oats everyday as part of the meals and snacks in a healthy lower-fat diet.
(Unfortunately, I could not locate the actual publication. It doesn't mean it doesn't exist; I just couldn't locate it. Perhaps it's in a small journal not entered into the online publication database.)
The purported effects of Cheerios should not be confused with that of actual, intact oat bran, as suggested by studies such as those of Brenda Davy et al, High-fiber oat cereal compared with wheat cereal consumption favorably alters LDL-cholesterol subclass and particle numbers in middle-aged and older men, in which significant reductions in LDL particle number and small LDL (NMR) were obtained. (This study was also supported by Quaker Oats.) Several studies have shown that oat bran does indeed reduce LDL cholesterol, sometimes as much as 30-50 mg/dl. Cheerios can not even come close to this.
If Cheerios were nothing more than finely pulverized oats, then perhaps it wouldn't be so bad. But add corn starch and sugar, and you have ingredients that have potential to distort LDL particle size and yield blood sugar-escalating effects like those described by Anna.
The gravity of perpetuating these myths is brought home by a testimonial posted on the website for Cheerios:
"I had unexpected open heart surgery a year ago. As I adopted heart health habits during my recovery, I realized that I should have been eating the Cheerios cereal I carried around in a plastic baggie so many years for my kids!"
Beverly
Scotch Plains, NJ
It makes me shudder.
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Can you say "sugar"?
All of these products bear the American Heart Association Check Mark of approval emblem, signifying that they are "heart healthy":
Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal
Ingredients:WHOLE GRAIN WHEAT, SUGAR, STRAWBERRY FLAVORED CRUNCHLETS (SUGAR, CORN CEREAL, CORN SYRUP, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED COTTONSEED AND/OR SOYBEAN OIL, CITRIC ACID, GLYCERIN, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, RED #40, BLUE #2), NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL STRAWBERRY AND CREME FLAVOR, SORBITOL, GELATIN, REDUCED IRON, NIACINAMIDE, ZINC OXIDE, RED #40, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B1), FOLIC ACID, BLUE #1, AND VITAMIN B12. TO MAINTAIN QUALITY, BHT HAS BEEN ADDED TO THE PACKAGING.
Orville Redenbacher popcorns
Dora the Explorer Cereal
Cheerios
The following requirements must be met to gain approval of the Check Mark program:
1) total fat 3.0 grams or less per serving
2) saturated fat 1.0 gram or less per serving
3) 20 grams or less cholesterol per serving
4) 480 mg or less sodium per serving
5) "Jelly Bean Rule": 10% of the Daily Value of 6 nutrients (e.g., fiber, vitamins A and C, etc.) must also be contained in each serving.
Had the Check Mark program focused on genuine nutrition and rated products by:
1) Healthy oil content
2) Sugar content or sugar-equivalents, i.e., glycemic index or load
3) Impact on HDL, small LDL, triglycerides
none of these products would have made the list, not even close.
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