You know the cereal aisle at the grocery store. Go ahead and skip all that. Because an average cereal aisle has been corrupted for years. I wish it was funny that you have to go to the health food section to get some quality cereal. It’s really not funny, just sad and pathetic. You want less processed and above all, little or no sugar. When I was growing up, I never made good cereal choices, and now that I want to, I’m having a lot trouble finding them. Because many of the choices are misleading. If you want a healthy cereal, first you need to find whole ingredients. Next you need to make sure it hasn’t been dumped over by the sugar industry. I don’t know where the blame lies. Some say that with government subsidies, the sugar industry has to find any and every food it can, and fill it up with sugary essence. Others would say that the cereal companies are simply giving the public what it wants. Solving the problem will no doubt require battles on both fronts. But you can fight your own consumer war by buying really good cereals, and writing letters saying you want less sugar. How do I know this works? Because it worked for peanut butter.

My best two choices for you in cereals are: Uncle Sam’s Cereal with Mixed Berries and Kashi Go Lean Crunch, Honey Almond Flax.

A word of warning. Start small with the Uncle Sam cereal. If you are not used to bran, it can actually cause you pain. You have to build up your “resistance.” I was hungry one morning, and had a couple bowls of it. Don’t do that. You’re stomach and bowels won’t approve. What I’ve been doing lately is getting a bowl of the Kashi, and then putting the Uncle Sam flakes on top. Sound boring? Sure it is. Then you ad some more fruit (because freeze dried fruit is not nutritious) like blueberries and strawberries. And you’ve got a real breakfast meal there. After you do that for a while, you’ll wonder what kind of idiots would buy Oreo or Reese’s cereal. I know because I used to buy those cereals, and I was an idiot for doing it.

Pepsi has created a natural drink with some striking ingredients. The “concoction” is called Pepsi Raw. Apple extract, plain caramel colouring, coffee leaf, tantaric acid from grapes, gum arabic from acacia trees, cane sugar and sparkling water. Sounds a lot better than corn syrup and phosphoric acid if you ask me. Apparently it’s a little less fizzy and likely doesn’t create havoc with your system quite as much as regular cola. But that probably doesn’t matter to us here in the United States because it may not see the light of day here.

So it makes me wonder, does Pepsi require a petition of 10,000 signatures before they might let us enjoy it. I doubt the U.S. is ignored because the test market failed. Why? Because people drink everything here, even ridiculous bottled water. Jone’s Soda makes a killing on the turkey cola. Are we not good enough for Pepsi Raw? Hey if that’s the case, then fine. Just own up to it Pepsi. Tell us American’s that we are slobs and will never understand the discerning English palate.

Thanks for protecting us USDA. You and the FDA already have tainted reputations. It’s already difficult enough to wade through the mass confusion of ingredients trying to find what is legitimately healthy. As if government organizations weren’t already a little too susceptible to corporate lobbying, then we hear about this.

An article from the Common Dreams center:

Another Sneak Attack on Organic Standards: USDA to Allow More Conventional Ingredients in Organics

WASHINGTON - MAY 17 -The USDA has announced a controversial proposal, with absolutely no input from consumers, to allow 38 new non-organic ingredients in products bearing the “USDA Organic” seal. Most of the ingredients are food colorings derived from plants that are supposedly not “commercially available” in organic form. But at least three of the proposed ingredients, apparently backed by beer companies, including Anheuser-Busch, and pork and food processors, represent a serious threat to organic standards, and have raised the concerns of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), as well as a number of smaller organic companies and organic certifiers.

And the best part? The general public has only been allocated 7 days to comment. Again, thanks USDA. And I mean that in a harsh totally sarcastic, disappointed, steaming citizen kind of way. What is it with this “well if no one says anything, we’ll get away with it.” style of lawmaking?

So what’s the point, why do they want to sneak these in? No doubt for companies to be able to lie through food labels, to encourage more sales, and to get some tax breaks or large food service contracts. What if Nabisco could lobby and bribe the USDA to “make” every ingredient and chemical in Oreos (there are a lot) become suddenly organic on paper? Do you think the public would be served by this?

Well, I can do my part and spread the word. Hurry and sign the petition if you feel you want to take my side of this debate.