Low Carb Cereal - Where's it at?

Cereal - an American favorite

Cereal is a staple not only of the American diet, but also of much of the rest of the world.  Every day, tens of millions of people sit down at breakfast and pour a little milk over their dry, packaged cereal (or home-made if they're resourceful).

The dilemma is that millions of Americans are also beginning to adopt low-carb and/or Paleo diets.  As a consequence, more and more people are trying to avoid excess sugars, carbohydrates, and grains such as wheat and rice.  You may very well be one of these people - I certainly am.

The question then, is where is all of the low carb cereal?  Surely there must be at least a few major brands out there with a cereal that contains no grains and no carbs?  Right???

Is this really the only low carb cereal?

The sad answer is an emphatic NO.  There is none.  There are a few cereals that claim to be low carb, either on their packaging or by virtue of their name.  And while they may be slightly lower-carb than the sugary kids cereals that we all fondly remember, they are most certainly not anything approaching low carb or often even low sugar.

Furthermore, even for consumers who are not particularly worried about limiting their carbohydrate intake, but who may be concerned about limiting their intake of grains due to general toxicity or perhaps a particular condition such as Celiac, there are practically no cereals on the shelves of any supermarket that are made grain-free.  While products made from rice are generally safer than products made from other grains (due to the fact that rice is much less toxic in general), most of the rice-based products on the market are highly processed and often bleached, such that there is little to negative nutritional value in such products.

Above all else, most cereals contain added sugars, which none of us benefit from.  Whatever diet you're on, if you're on one at all, processed sugar plays no healthy role, and more and more scientific evidence is building up on the detriments of consuming fructose.

Personally, I'm astonished that there isn't yet a good low carb cereal on the market, but perhaps I shouldn't be too surprised, as most of the other low carb products I see (mostly in the form of bars) are both disgusting and relatively non-nutritious (sugar alcohols anyone?).  I think we all know that it's healthier in the end for us to actually eat whole foods, but the fact of the matter is that I just find it easier to have a bowl of cereal in the morning, and I'd like for someone to satisfy that need.