Ratiocinative,

There is a difference between eating for survival and eating for optimal health. Some people need to eat grains in order to make ends meet. Everyone's financial situation is different, so I don't see any need to judge others based on what they eat.

I grew up on Reese's Puffs and Lucky Charms. I ate bowls and bowls of them in one sitting. Not ashamed to admit how much I miss them.

.......And the nostalgia's kicking in.

No. I cringe when I hear the word, "Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän"

"Do you have any idea what breakfast cereal is made of? It's those little curly wooden shavings you find in pencil sharpeners."

-Willy Wonka (not that he was Paleo!)

Hate to say it, but I have the opposite reaction - pangs of longing. Life cereal (20 years ago, before they changed the recipe) soggy with milk. Team. Shreddies with brown sugar and banana. Mini wheats. Honey Bunches of Oats. I could go on and on.

That being said, cereal was also a huge binge food for me during my bulimic years and it was never possible for me to just have one bowl. That shit is inherently addictive. So I'm glad it's out of my life. It would give me stress just to have it in the house, like it was literally yelling at me from the pantry.

I cringe when I watch my office-mate eat special K for breakfast and lunch in an attempt to lose weight.

I wouldn't say I cringe, but sometimes in moments like that I'm struck by how little the mainstream thinking on food has changed. When you spend time with people who tend to question the status quo on things, do your shopping around the edges of the store, read "alternative" magazines about the evils of Big Food, and hang out on paleo sites like this one, you can start to feel like people are catching on. They aren't. Most people (and by most I probably mean 95%, if not 99% or more) still think the person eating Cheerios is being healthy -- hey, it says so right on the box! -- and the person eating beef jerky is suicidal. Every now and then, I'm out in the regular world and see or hear something that reminds me of just how deeply ingrained that belief system is.

On the issue of being too poor to eat well: I don't want to pick on this lady or anything, but sometimes people are too quick to assume that you can't eat properly unless you have extra money to spend. That's just not true, or at least not that clear-cut. Eating well is at least as much about planning ahead and learning to cook as it is about budget. If you're eating cereal, you're not pinching your last penny.

Checking the prices at a local Sam's Club (both in bulk, nothing on sale):

Russet Potatoes: 10 pounds for $3.98. $0.398/pound. 350 calories/pound. $1.13 per thousand calories.

Cheerios: 37 oz for $5.28. $2.283/pound. 1666 calories/pound. $1.37 per thousand calories.

So potatoes are a cheaper energy source. That's actually closer than I expected it to be, but potatoes do have a lot of water weight, while Cheerios are concentrated carbs. A generic brand might even be a bit cheaper than potatoes, calorie for calorie. But clearly, if she can afford cereal, potatoes are not out of her budget, and they would be far better for her. No, they aren't organic grass-fed beef topped with organic pastured butter, but they aren't refined grains with a dozen additives either.

Fry the potatoes in lard or tallow -- which anyone can make from fat which many small butcher shops will give away for free -- and you can add a lot of good sat-fat calories. I haven't done the science, but I would guess that frying would double the calories, at least. No contest between potatoes fried in free lard versus Cheerios, in flavor, health, or price.

Unfortunately, because of what I talked about in my first paragraph, if you fried up some potatoes in lard for lunch one day and tried to share them with her, she'd probably refuse -- quite possibly on doctor's orders.

I cringe every time my grandson grabs his box and makes a large bowl of it. He's nearly 18 and I don't feel I can dictate but I do hate to see him eating that stuff. My tiny victory is that he switched from wheat cereal to rice but it's still awful stuff.

I must admit he's eating a healthy base of ancestral foods by choice AND he's very, very healthy with optimal vital signs but I really wish he'd look at me and his dad and assume it would be a good idea to eat whole foods starting now (and give up soda.)

I wouldn't say I "cringe" but I do think back to articles I read saying that it's probably healthier to eat the cardboard box rather than the cereal. (http://www.realdose.com/eating-cardboard-is-healthier-than-breakfast-cereal)

Not as much as "bagel". Those things are turrible (Cleveland voice).

Cereal looks like dog food to me now.

Great question. I do cringe when I hear that word. I shiver when I look at the cereal section at the grocery store. My IF practice has led me to view breakfast as one of the most overrated phenomena on the planet, at least what passes for breakfast in most of the modern world.

Soup:marked down meat(you can find pig's feet,shank steak,assorted bones for dirt cheap).Veggies(1.00 for large bag of frozen store brand).Potatoes(again,look for mark downs.I've seen 5 pounds for 1.50).Throw it in a crock pot and let it cook overnight.You are talking less than .75 cents a good meal.A medium size hen can make 15 servings. Eggs are cheap,sardines are cheap,canned jack mackerel is cheap.Is it ideal?No,but it's better than cheerios.Hell,eat a banana.I assure you that there are far poorer people in other countries that haven't resorted to eating cardboard out of a cardboard box.You have to be creative.Petite marmite,paella,and gumbo were not designed as gourmet dishes,they were ways to feed 13 kids with minimal resources. As far as cringing when I see cereal,it's mainly when people buy boxes of Kashi and a gallon of skim milk,then complain about not being able to lose weight."Made from all natural ingredients" as a tag line is hilarious.Cow doots are all natural too,but I'm not serving them up with coffee.

Nope, definitely don't. If anything, I have a moment of longing.....I did love me some Kashi berry stuff and crunchy stuff.

But then I just have another strip of bacon and sigh a sigh of pure content. :)

I never really liked cereal anyway, ate too much of it as a kid, along with my vegemite on white bread and bruised apple daily lunchbox fillers.

I must admit I too slink through the cereal isle in a quickstep so as not to be seen there, but I also hide my meat, eggs and butter under everything in my trolley so no one gives me funny looks.

Slimmers are scammed into eating cereal by the food companies and the government advice. It's not their fault they haven't been given the choice of the red or blue pill yet.

Not usually, only when I hear "it has as much protein as an egg".

Actually, I love the word 'cereal' and find it particularly amusing when somebody with a refined, clipped accent refers to them as 'breakfast cereals', with emphasis on the plural. I also get a kick out the word 'lettuces' as well, again with the plural form of the word. If I could listen to somebody pontificate eloquently on the virtues of the terms 'breakfast cereals' and 'lettuces' all day long, I'd probably revel in it with the utmost delight. ;D