These Cereals Destroy Your Hormones, Zap Your Energy & Cause Weight Gain

Most cereals are promoted as "health foods" by the 
giant food corporations.  
However, these sinister common breakfast foods that almost everyone consumes daily are killing you slowly, zapping your energy levels, causing diabetes, excess body fat, cancer, and even faster aging in your body.  I'll explain why below...

by Mike Geary - Certified Nutrition Specialist
Best-Selling Author:  The Fat-Burning Kitchen & The Top 101 Foods that FIGHT Aging

If you care at all about your body and health, I'm sure you already know to avoid the obvious sugary cereals like the flakes with sugar frosting, the fruity sugar cereals with artificial colors, the frosted wheat biscuits, or the marshmallow cereals that so many parents are poisoning their kids with these days.
However, even most breakfast cereals that aren't frosted in sugar are marketed heavily as "heart healthy", "rich in fiber", and "a good source vitamins & minerals"... Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth!
As a Nutritionist that's studied the biochemistry of nutrition for over 25 years, and how certain foods affect the cells of your body, there are at least 10 important reasons to be extremely concerned about what cereals are doing inside your body.  I'll touch on a few of the important details in this short article...

Most cereals (even "whole grain" or "high fiber") cause extreme harm to your hormones and create runaway blood sugar in your body

One of the WORST things about most cereals, even so-called "whole grain" cereals is that they ALL cause a significant spike in your blood sugar (regardless of whether they are wheat, rice, or corn based) to dangerously high levels, which results in a cascade of fat storing hormones to be released in your body, and causes more carb cravings later in the day.  This is NOT the way to start your day if you care about your waistline or how much belly fat that you have.
In fact, even cereals that have added fiber (such as bran flakes or raisin bran) have been found to cause just as much of a massive spike in blood sugar as the low-fiber cereals such as rice or corn based cereals.  Remember that the starches in wheat, corn, or a bowl of rice cereal break down quickly in your body into SUGAR and immediately do as much harm to your blood sugar regulation system as if you ate 40-60 grams of pure corn syrup or pure table sugar.
Those massive spikes in your blood sugar essentially damage your cells in your body through a process called glycation, which accelerates the rate of aging in your joints, skin, organs, and even your brain.  Ouch...  That tiger on the cereal commercials is never going to warn you about that!
And speaking of hormones, another effect of high blood sugar is that it blunts the ability of your body to release growth hormone (aka, the youth hormone), so if you want to look and feel younger, cereals are NOT helping you in that department!
Note:  Regarding the claims that cereals are a "good source of vitamins and minerals", this is actually FALSE... The majority of vitamins and minerals in most cereals are not naturally occurring, but rather, are synthetically added vitamins, which have been proven to be less absorbed than natural vitamins and potentially even harmful in some cases.  As an example, synthetic vitamin E is shown in some studies to be harmful to us, while natural vitamin E is beneficial.

Crunching your way to Diabetes and belly fat every morning?
Think about this next time you're gobbling down that bowl of bran flakes, rice puffs, or wheat biscuits while you're running out the door in the morning...
The more cereal you eat, the more you constantly stress your pancreas and other organs involved in controlling your blood sugar.  Insulin levels surge every day to try to control your massive blood sugar attacks from all that cereal, and eventually, your insulin sensitivity suffers, leading many people to type 2 Diabetes, and a life of injecting insulin with needles and stabbing your fingers every day for blood tests 3-5x every day of your life.
Not only that, but causing high insulin levels in your body every morning by eating cereal also triggers your body to STORE body fat.  So if you want to be lean, cereal is directly going against your goal, and only making you fatter!

Gut Inflammation and even gut damage?
More bad news about cereal...
Any cereals with wheat ingredients in them can possibly cause gut inflammation and long term gut damage from too much gluten and lectins, even if you're not officially gluten intolerant or gluten sensitive.
Think those corn-based cereals are better than wheat?  Think again!  Corn-based cereals are almost always made with GMO corn, which has many scientists very concerned about long term health threats, since there are no long term studies on the effects of GMO corn to your health, as well as your children's health.
And rice-based cereals (krispies, etc) aren't much better, as they cause just as high of a blood sugar spike as pure table sugar... Ouch!

Cereal causes CRAVINGS for more carbs later in the day, leading to excess calories
The blood sugar spike and subsequent insulin surge from your morning cereal makes your body to try to get all that sugar out of your blood and into cells (usually fat cells), and that causes a big drop in your blood sugar hours later.  This makes you CRAVE more carb-based or sugary foods later in the day.
The result of this is a constant wild roller coaster ride of blood sugar and insulin all day long, leading you to eat more calories in any given day.
I recently read a study about people that ate egg-based breakfasts vs cereal-based breakfasts...  Even though the people that ate egg-based breakfasts consumed far more fat in the morning, they ended up eating much less calories throughout each day because they didn't have the wild blood sugar swings, hormone imbalances, and subsequent cravings.  Egg breakfasts are proven to CONTROL your appetite, while cereal breakfasts are proven to INCREASE your appetite for more food, particularly more starchy and sugary carbs.

Cereal makes your body a carb-burner instead of a fat-burner
The more carbs that you eat each day from foods such as cereal and breads, the more you train your body to rely on carbs for energy.  So when your blood sugar dips again, you need more carbs again, or you'll have a major energy slump.
On the other hand, the more that you get most of your calories from healthy fats instead (avocados, coconut oil, grass-fed butter and cream, olive oil, nuts, seeds, eggs, and pasture-raised meats), the more you train your body to be a fat-burning machine.
This is called creating a "fat adapted metabolism" and you do this by reducing your overall carb intake and simultaneously increasing your healthy fat intake.  This doesn't mean you need to go extremely low in carbs like Atkins, but just a LOT lower than the average carb addict, which is pretty much everyone eating a modern diet.
By relying mostly on healthy fats for energy instead of carbs, this balances your hormones and gives you VERY stable blood sugar levels throughout each day, allowing you to also have VERY stable energy levels throughout each day without the typical spikes and slumps in your energy that most carb addicts feel every single day.
Another benefit of creating a "fat adapted metabolism" in your body is that you will naturally lose body fat easier!  There is no magic ratios of macronutrients that's perfect for everyone, nor do I think you need to obsess over exact calories or exact ratios of carbs to fat... However, to give you an idea of how far off most people are... Most people currently eat a diet that is in the range of 60% carbs, 20% fat, and 20% protein.  What I'm describing to you in order to create a fat adapted metabolism would be more around eating 20% carbs, 60% fat, and 20% protein.
Basically, as you can see, it's like flip-flopping the typical western diet ratios of carbs to fat.

Healthier alternatives to cereal that are still QUICK (helping you to be a fat-burner instead of carb-burner)
Instead of the typical cereal in the morning (that's slowly killing you and making you fatter), try a bowl of plain greek full-fat organic yogurt (which is loaded with healthy gut probiotics, healthy fats, AND protein) and add in a handful of fresh, organic berries (or frozen wild blueberries), a handful of nuts such as either almonds or pecans (more healthy fats), and a little stevia or vanilla protein for a little added sweetness if you need it.
This breakfast will leave you leaner, keep your blood sugar, energy levels, and hormones balanced for the day, and prevent cravings for more starchy and sugary carbs later in the day.
Another option is simply any combination of eggs, veggies, avocado, and even organic breakfast meat if you want.  One of my favorite quick breakfasts is to cook up a couple eggs over easy real quick and slice a half of an avocado on a plate.
I chop the eggs and avocado together with some hot sauce and a couple slices of turkey, and voila... a quick 5-minute breakfast that's incredibly delicious, yet MUCH healthier than that bowl of cereal, and will help balance your hormones for the day instead of creating hormone imbalances and energy crashes like cereal does.
On the next page, I'll show you why you should STOP eating whole wheat bread, vegetable oils, canola oil, energy bars & these 2 particular milks if you want to stay lean and avoid diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes...plus you'll discover the popular restaurant plant-based "side dish" that CAUSES heart attacks according to one New Zealand study:

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Never eat THIS for breakfast (a "healthy" hoax)

Like most people (particularly on this newsletter) you care about your health and the shape of your body and you try to make healthier food choices.  But mainstream media keeps confusing you with conflicting "reports" about what's bad and good for you...

You've probably received no shortage of advice from magazines and TV shows like Dr Oz and others telling you what to eat and what not to eat.

But did you know that most of the popular "health" foods that are being pushed on you in the media and TV ads can actually make you GAIN weight, as well as cause terrible diseases like heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

That's right, the so called "gurus" are falling prey to the same myths as everyone else. And they're passing their faulty food choice advice on to you. 

In fact, on several mainstream popular TV shows (even on the Biggest Loser, which aside from their bad nutrition advice in my opinion, I actually like the show for many other reasons), you'll hear the advice time and time again that you "need" whole grains.  They seem to completely ignore the fact that humans had better health for the 1.9 Million years when we ate virtually no grains at all before agriculture was invented.

Plus they seem to completely ignore the fact that we can obtain ALL of the fiber and micronutrients we need from veggies and fruits without the negatives of grains (excess blood-sugar spiking starch, gluten, and other antinutrients) But the advice shoved down everyone's throat to eat massive quantities of "whole grains" every single day of their lives surely equates to MASSIVE profits for the grain industry, as well as HUGE health problems such as diabetes and heart disease for large portions of the population which feeds the medical and big pharma industries too.

But we're not JUST going to talk about grains in this email...

The truth is, most of the popular "health foods" you see pushed in the media are complete garbage, and will actually increase your waistline instead of making it smaller!

To be honest, I could go on and on about the horrible food choices I see each and every day, even by well intentioned people. But I'll limit myself to 4 of the WORST offenders below (this relates not just to breakfast, but any meal)

Here are my top four BAD foods that get constant praise for contributing to a lean and healthy lifestyle. And I'll explain why you want to AVOID them:


1. Whole Grain Cereals or Breads

I cringe every time I hear someone say, "but it's whole grain, so that means it's healthy, right?"

I realize this is hard to accept for many people, but I want to go on record and say that in my opinion you should completely remove cereal from your diet.  There's just no valid reason to eat it if you care about your body (aside from maybe 1 cheat meal a week).

Forget the breakfast of champions... forget the picture of a lean, attractive woman in yoga pants enjoying a bowl of cereal, and ditch the cereal for good.

Cereal, even whole grain, is highly processed and often loaded with sugar, chemicals, and harsh additives. Whole grain cereal also contains higher levels of antinutrients than refined grains, which means that BOTH regular cereals and whole grain cereals have more detriments than benefits.

The "health experts" claim that whole grains are necessary for a healthy heart, but the only heart healthy component of cereal is fiber, which can be found in much healthier versions in fruits and vegetables.  To be clear, despite the propaganda you hear daily, humans DON'T need the fiber from grains to be healthy... the fiber from veggies and fruits is actually a healthier version.

Cereal is also very high on the glycemic index, which means that it makes your blood sugar rise very quickly -- yes, even whole grain cereals -- an almost certain recipe for thicker love handles and jiggly arms.  And if you missed the explanation in this article, whole wheat contains a unique type of carbohydrate not found in other foods that actually spikes your blood sugar HIGHER than pure table sugar... Ouch!

I can hear you asking,
"Yeah but... what the heck do I eat for breakfast?"

I recommend a good protein source, some fiber, and a good healthy fat source to keep your blood sugar stable and controlled, keep insulin levels low, give you a long lasting energy burn, maintain lean muscle, keep you full for longer, and sustain your calorie-burning efforts.

Having high-carbohydrate breakfasts that are based around cereal, bagels, juices, etc. is a cultural phenomenon, NOT a physiological one.

We eat that way because that's how everyone else in our culture does it [thanks to the big advertising budgets of the food industry], yet a high-protein, high healthy fat, lower-carb breakfast is what's best for our bodies.

Eating a high protein breakfast may take some getting used to initially, but you'll be rewarded with much greater energy, a leaner waistline, and no more mid-morning crashes or hunger pangs caused by carbohydrate abuse!

Here are a few breakfasts that would fit the bill nicely:

-Whole organic eggs (cooked any style), veggies, kimchi or kraut, and organic bacon
-Bison steak, veggies, kimchi or kraut, and cashews
-Chicken sausage, spinach cooked in coconut oil with garlic, and a couple Brazil nuts
-Protein shake with almond butter, berries, raw cacao powder, and stevia
-A vegetable smoothie with added fat such as nuts and avocado (fat increases absorption of nutrients in veggies)


2. Most Yogurts, with this exception...

C'mon. Everyone knows yogurt is a heathy diet snack. Hey, it's fat-free, so it couldn't possibly be unhealthy or derail your diet plan, right?

Wrong!

Most yogurt, even if it's fat-free, is chock full of sugar! I see some yogurts with only 5 grams of protein and more than 30 grams of carbs from sugar... yuck, I asked for yogurt, not syrup! 

To make matters even worse, many times the sugar added is high-fructose corn syrup, which actually signals your genes to store body fat.

This means that what you think is an innocent snack is actually sending messages to your very DNA to stockpile fat deposits all over your body!

This doesn't just apply to "desserts" like frozen yogurt either. Most of the "healthy" yogurt tubs you can find in the store, and that are advertised heavily on TV as great diet foods, are loaded with fat-storing sugars and additives.

Do you have to completely give up yogurt?

No, thankfully you don't. There is one kind of yogurt that will help you with your fat-burning efforts. And that is organic Greek yogurt, or plain unsweetened yogurt.

I prefer to eat my Greek yogurt with a handful of organic blueberries or raspberries and a tablespoon or so of chia seeds mixed in. You can also add a dash of natural stevia sweetener if you like.  The end result is a yogurt meal with more protein than carbs, and a good dose of healthy fiber too, with a nice delicious lightly sweet taste.

Be cautious, however, because not all Greek yogurt is created equal...

Sadly, once word got out that Greek yogurt can actually be quite good for you, yogurt manufacturers started loading their Greek yogurt with sugar to make it taste better than their competitors.

Before you purchase Greek yogurt, make sure you turn the container over and look at the ingredient list. If you see sugar, high fructose corn syrup, agave, honey, or evaporated cane juice on the label, then put it down and find yourself a PLAIN greek yogurt.


3. Energy bars

I must admit, I used to make this critical mistake years ago back when I first started trying to really eat healthy.

I loaded up my pantry with every variety of health bars, energy bars, and protein bars that I could find.

"Now, I'll be able to eat on-the-go and still get the body that I've always wanted" is what I thought as I plowed through box-after box of these little treats. I mean, it is what the advertisement promised, isn't it?

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but most energy bars, health bars, meal replacement bars, and protein bars are simply glorified candy bars.

Most of them are chock full of sugar, corn syrup, hydrogenated fats, gluten, chemical additives, and soy protein... all things that are certain to add girth to your waistline!  Not fun.

I realize that you've got a busy life and need to have some convenience foods. While planning ahead and cooking in bulk will help you in this arena, there are some times when you might just get stuck and need some food on-the-run.

For these instances, I recommend organic nuts and seeds, a little bit of high-fiber fruit, and vegetables. If you're in need of a bit more protein, try some hard boiled eggs or organic preservative-free deli meat wrapped around avocado slices or veggie sticks for a high protein, high fiber snack that will keep you fueled, smash your cravings, and keep you lean.

The only truly healthy bars that I've found were just released about a month ago and I am in LOVE with these bars.  They have 20 grams of protein, a whopping 14 grams of fiber, loaded with healthy fats and antioxidants, and have ZERO gluten or soy.


4. Diet version of [...insert any food here...]

In an effort to lose fat, you may have found yourself reaching for the "diet" versions of your favorite high-calorie foods.

Diet sodas, diet ice cream, diet candy, fat-free this, sugar-free that..... It's all a nightmare for your body composition.

The diet, sugar-free, and fat-free trend began because people were led to believe that calories were the ONLY thing responsible for weight gain, and that by minimizing them, you could ensure fat loss.

Food manufacturers jumped on this concept and created a way for you to enjoy all your favorite junk foods all the time, and still think you would lose fat.

But here's why it doesn't work: Calories are not the ONLY reason why you have excess body fat.

Of course too many calories, even from healthy foods, can cause you to sport a thicker midsection, but another reason for stalled fat loss is because of toxins and hormonal problems.

Any time your body senses toxins in the blood stream, it tries to neutralize them by wrapping them up in fat cells to protect your body from the harmful molecules.

While this is a good thing (I mean, nobody wants toxins entering the brain, reproductive organs, etc) to some extent, it is also why you may not be dropping the pounds despite your best efforts.

So why are diet, fat-free, and sugar free products cause for concern? It's because when they remove the fat, the sugar, and the calories, they need something to make the products taste good, so they use nasty chemicals.

Many common chemicals that are used to sweeten or to flavor food and beverages are highly toxic, especially if you consume them every day.

Because of this, your diet foods and drinks are causing you to create fat cells to trap the toxins for protection.

Rather than relying on diet versions of food, it's best to just eat the real thing but reserve your favorite "junk food" ONLY for your cheat days or cheat meals, when you want to have high calories to revamp leptin and boost your metabolism.

Getting in shape and losing fat should be an enjoyable process. You don't have to deprive and starve yourself. Simply making better food choices, and avoiding some of the false "health" foods that are blocking your progress is the first step.

Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer

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