Contents

1.     Link of the week.

2.     Feature Article: Does the USDA Recommend Lucky Charms?

Your HRH Program E-book and Bonuses

If you haven’t yet purchased the HRH Program e-book, there’s no time like the present! Go to www.heartratehealth.com to get a copy, plus nearly $100 in bonus material.  And remember, if it doesn’t work for you for any reason, you have a full year to return it for a full refund.

Link of the Week

This week, we think about the plight of others in need.  If you haven’t yet had the chance, now would be a good time to visit the Red Cross site to make a donation.  They’re at

www.redcross.org.

I’m also going to leave up the chance to help victims through the purchase of the HRH Program e-book.  If you missed my e-mail, you have the chance to save $3 on the book, and I’ll donate another $3 to the Red Cross.  Or, you can pay the full price ($29.95), and I’ll donate $6 to them.

A small donation was given this week in the name of “The Heart Rate Health Program Users Group.”

Another charity that I highly recommend giving to is Habitat for Humanity.  You can find them at www.habitat.org.

Feature Article: Does the USDA Recommend Lucky Charms?

I’ve been watching a little more TV than usual in the past week to make sure I’m up on the latest news from the hurricane and the Supreme Court.  With the news, one also consumes a lot of advertising. 

One of the ads I see popping up everywhere is for General Mills’ cereals.  They are promoting the fact that all of their cereals are whole grain and that the USDA is recommending everyone get 6-11 servings of whole grain per day. 

Grains have three parts.  According to the General Mills sponsored site, www.wholegrainlife.com, “A whole grain is a small kernel made up of three parts: the fiber rich bran, the starchy endosperm and the nutrient-packed germ.”  All of their cereals meet contain these three parts, including brands like Cheerios.

That part is great, and General Mills should be commended for making that commitment, since it is likely more expensive than other methods. 

But in the ad, you’re led to believe that the USDA has specifically endorsed Lucky Charms, as well as Golden Grahams, to solve all your health woes.  And that’s misleading, at best.

The reason this is so misleading, of course, is because the USDA also tells you to limit your intake of sugar drastically.  And cereals like Lucky Charms and Golden Grahams have excessive amounts of sugar attached to those whole grains.  (Look on the label for the grams of sugar in a serving.  In many cases, General Mills cereals contain higher concentrations of sugars than “other carbohydrates”, which are the whole grains.)

My wife’s family has the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I know of.  And what’s more, the cookies contain nutritious ingredients like whole oats.  But should I eat cookies for breakfast because they have whole grains in them? I wish I could answer “yes” to that, but my conscience is getting the better of me. 

Cheerios can be a good choice for people on the HRH Program, as long as you don’t heap sugar on top of it.  (I recommend having it as an afternoon snack, though, as I prefer having almonds and tomato juice in the morning.)  Honey Cheerios, however, is like having Cheerios with sugar heaped on it.  And having Cookie Crisp is pretty much like eating cookies for breakfast—again, not recommended!

Another issue which is unresolved by the whole grain advertising done by General Mills is the amount of processing that their whole grains are put through.  Each “step” in the processing of grains reduces its nutritional value.  And getting whole grains formed into crispy cereal flakes likely takes quite a little bit of processing.

A better choice for whole grains would be to consume something made by Bob’s Red Mill (www.bobsredmill.com), which you can now find in most grocery stores.  (In the spirit of full disclosure, I should mention that I grew up within two miles of Bob’s, and I’m happy to be able to send some business to my home town in Oregon.)

All of Bob’s cereals are whole grain and are very minimally processed—and he doesn’t add any sugar to the mix.

So give credit to General Mills for going whole grain, but please remember that eating some of their cereals could cause you to look and act like the characters they put on their boxes of sugar-coated kids’ cereals.