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The Cornucopia Institute Rates the Best and Worst Organic and Natural Cereals – How Does Your Favorite Brand Fare?

There is a big, big difference between organic cereal and all-natural cereal.

Unfortunately, most consumers are not aware of this and have been influenced to think that “all-natural” is the healthier option.

It isn’t.

A great example of this is Kashi.

Have you seen their commercials? Attractive people, exercising in the outdoors, talking about the virtues of a healthy lifestyle.

Well, did you know that Kashi (Kellogg’s) is facing a class action lawsuit for using hazardous substances, prescription drugs, and by-products of uranium mining in a few of their “all-natural” products.

What about Naked Juice (PepsiCo)? You take one look at the packaging of this beverage and it appears that you’re buying a super-healthy drink.

Well, they’re facing a class action lawsuit as well. For what?

For using GMOs in the drinks that it specifically claims are non-GMO.

What this all points to is that as consumers, we have to be extra vigilant and must:

1) Become very educated about what we are putting into our bodies and what we are feeding to our families.

As I wrote about before, we need to understand the difference between “organic” and “natural”, and not get swayed by “all-natural” marketing tactics.

2) Buy organic. This will ensure product quality, so that GMOs and synthetic pesticides are not being used.

3) Continue to do our homework.

Fortunately, The Cornucopia Institute has done a lot of this research for us and has come up with a Cereal Scorecard that ranks all of the organic and natural cereal and granola brands.

Click HERE to see the Cereal Scorecard and click HERE (PDF File) to see the full report.

Cornucopia does a fantastic job with its research, and the organization also puts out a similar piece but for eggs – Organic Egg Scorecard.

Hopefully, these scorecards will alert you as to which brands are doing business the right and healthy way and which ones are not.

Remember, “natural” products mean very, very little whereas “organic” has strict enforcement, rules and third-party verification.

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livingmaxwell: a guide to organic food & drink