Conscious Choice: Conquering Cerealphobia

February 2001

Conquering Cerealphobia

by Molly Birk

There I stood, immobilized in the cereal aisle. Again. I’m sure I’m not the only one that has experienced Temporary Cereal Aisle Paralysis. The array of brands and flavors is astounding, and it can be difficult to separate the healthy choices from the junk. For example, cereals labeled "all natural" may contain genetically engineered (GE) ingredients, artificial flavoring, and any number of preservatives. Hot cereal packaging can be especially misleading, with nearly all brand labels using phrases like "hearty goodness" and "wholesome," when in fact, the list of ingredients is far from good and nowhere near approaching wholesome.

On my most recent venture to my neighborhood natural foods store, however, I found several good hot cereal options made with organic and non-GE ingredients by companies that use sustainable farming practices and run their operations with respect for the earth.

I also discovered that hot cereals are not the bland, lumpy mush that I remember from childhood, and can make a great start to a blustery winter day. Today’s cereal manufacturers offer products made with whole grains, rice, flax, and such "exotic" grains as quinoa, millet, and kamut. I also discovered that I may not need to add gobs of sugar, honey, or fruit to make the hot cereal taste bearable — some companies have been kind enough to do the work for me, with natural sweeteners and chunks of real fruit mixed right in. Hot-cereal-phobes, pay attention: this is not your mother’s oatmeal.

Hearty Cereals

California-based Lundberg Family Farms offers both plain and flavored hot cereals made from brown rice. And they know what they’re doing; they’ve been in the business since 1937. Today, seventeen different varieties of rice go into their products, and the company is the largest grower and processor of organic rice in the U.S., supplying 65 percent of the market. Their complete rice line includes blends, cakes, syrup, cereals, flour, pasta, risotto, and rice-and-lentil entrées.

Lundberg farmers engage in some unusual practices during the planting season. Before planting begins in spring, farmers and volunteers scour the fields looking for birds and their nests. Eggs are rescued and moved to an incubation center, where the birds are hatched, cared for, and returned to their natural habitats when mature. More mature birds are moved from the planting fields to nearby untilled fields where they may live undisturbed by the farmers and their machinery. The company’s farm has the lowest water usage among rice growers in California, and their farming techniques have been declared "Salmon Safe" by the Pacific Rivers Council.

But the cereals have more going for them than ecological correctness. Lundberg’s Cinnamon-Raisin cereal is warmth in a bowl, and their Sweet Almond — my favorite — has a rich, nutty flavor. It tastes great plain or topped with fresh fruit. Both cereals are made with what the company calls "nutra-farmed" rice. While the nutra-farmed products are not organic, they are produced with the aid of water-conserving irrigation, minimal chemical use, and rotation of nitrogen-fixing cover crops used to enrich the soil. Shoppers who want to stick with organic products can opt for Lundberg’s Purely Organic rice cereal. Its plain, simple flavor allows for dozens of personal innovations.

Hodgson Mill, a company born over a hundred years ago in the Missouri Ozarks, produces all-natural whole grain milled products using old-fashioned techniques. While most companies today use steel roller mills or hammer mills, Hodgson Mill’s oats are slowly ground on flint-hard quartz millstones at a lower temperature to ensure that the oats retain their natural minerals and oils. The slow-grind milling technique has worked well over the years for the company. In the 1970s, the country’s growing interest in natural foods had the factory straining to keep orders met. Today, Hodgson Mill is thriving, despite the increasingly competitive natural breakfast foods market.

Indeed, the company’s unique approach to manufacture is probably a key to its continuing success; it gives Hodgson’s Oat Bran Hot Cereal a thick, fresh-milled texture. The company’s Cracked Wheat Hot Cereal, which is made using the whole wheat berry, can also be used in bread recipes that call for cracked wheat flour. Hodgson Mill also offers a high-protein Bulgur Wheat with Soy Grits Hot Cereal that earns my Most Versatile Hot Cereal award; in addition to its main function as a hot cereal, it can be used in pancakes, muffins, soups, breads, casseroles, and poultry stuffing, and can be baked, boiled, fried, or toasted.

The heartiest of the cereals I tried was Arrowhead Mills’ Wheat-Free Seven-Grain Cereal. Made from oats, brown rice grits, barley grits, yellow corn grits, oat bran, quinoa, buckwheat grits, and hulled millet (all organic), this cereal is a good bet for people with wheat allergies who still want to enjoy a filling hot cereal. Although it takes longer to cook than the others (eight minutes for one serving in the microwave), it is worth the wait. This cereal is excellent with fresh fruit and milk or soymilk, and is perfect for a snowy weekend morning.

Quick and Easy Cereals

Some companies have taken a cue from mainstream cereal makers and developed single-serving packages, perfect for a meal on the go. You remember: just add hot water, let sit for five minutes, and you have a cup of warm, flavorful cereal.

Health Valley’s Hot Cereal Cups are made with organic grains, low in fat, and a good source of protein and vitamin E. The cereal comes in Maple Madness, Amazing Apple, and Banana Gone Nuts. All three are great, and the pre-made single-serving cups are a lifesaver on mornings when there isn’t enough time to cook a healthy meal. Health Valley, which is currently in the process of revamping its packaging, also offers excellent cold cereals and ready-to-pour broths in aseptic (shelf-stable) packaging. Be on the lookout for more exciting Health Valley additions in the coming months.

Fantastic Foods also offers hot cereal, packaged in competitively priced single-serving cups for a fast, portable meal. Founded in 1975, Fantastic Foods has long prided itself on its extensive line of easy-to-prepare vegetarian meals and side dishes, made with the best of ingredients and "no artificial weirdness." Its line of over ninety products has won many awards, including Best of Show awards two years running at the American Tasting Institute’s American Taste Awards.

The company’s hot cereal comes in eight flavors: Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal, Cranberry Orange Oatmeal, Peachberry Wheat & Oats, Banana Nut Barley, Maple Raisin Three Grain, Wheat‘N’ Berries, Hearty Grains, and Hearty Grains with Apricots. All varieties are organic, vegan, and yeast-free, and all but the Banana Nut Barley are certified kosher. For a zesty departure from the typical apple cinnamon oatmeal experience, try Fantastic’s unique Wheat‘N’ Berries or Cranberry Orange blends.

Hot Cereal Hits the Big Time

The folks at Nature’s Path, who call themselves "The Organic Cereal People," offer high quality certified organic ingredients at prices competitive with the non-organic, sugar-laden mainstream brand cereals on the market. The company combines flavor, texture, variety, and convenience into its hot cereals.

Like Health Valley and Fantastic, Nature’s Path has hot cereals in single-serving, just-add-water packages. Since 1988, Canadian-based Nature’s Path is an old-timer in the organic cereal market; Along with its sister company, LifeStream, Nature’s Path has been providing organic and all-natural breakfast foods since 1988. Founder Arran Stephens says the two companies have made a "commitment to provide foods that taste good, contribute to good health, and improve the quality of our environment."

Nature’s Path Organic Hot Cereal Bowls, available in Heritage Raspberry (a hot version of one of the company’s most popular cold cereals) and Apple Cranberry, cook in just three minutes. To get the same taste with less packaging, Nature’s Path also offers an economical eight-pack containing four varieties of hot cereal. The multi-pack cereals cook in the same amount of time as the Cereal Bowls, and come in Apple Cinnamon, Multigrain Raisin Spice, Flax‘N’ Oats, and Maple Nut flavors. The Maple Nut variety contains chunks of hazelnuts, giving it a rich flavor and hearty, crunchy texture.

All Nature’s Path cereals are made from organic grains, and they never contain refined sugar or preservatives. The cereals are sweetened with organic concentrated fruit juice, organic barley malt, organic evaporated unrefined cane juice, agave nectar, and wild honey. Though using and discarding a disposable cereal bowl each morning is not very environmentally responsible, this company has taken the rare step of thinking about the issue. And they’ve developed a rather stringent packaging policy by which all boxes are printed with vegetable-based inks on 100-percent recycled paperboard with at least 70 percent post-consumer fiber content.

The next time you find yourself paralyzed in the cereal aisle, just take a deep breath, reach out to a product, and read the label. Reject fluff phrases such as "wholesome," and go for what really counts — products with organic ingredients sweetened naturally. All of the cereal companies mentioned here follow a simple rule: if you can’t pronounce it, don’t sell it. The happy result? Products we can trust.

Resources

The companies mentioned in this article all have Web sites. Content varies, but these sites are a great source for nutrition information, facts on organic farming, recipes, and company background information.

Arrowhead Mills

Health Valley

Hodgson Mill

Lundberg Family Farms

Nature’s Path

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