Barley Cereal
By David Mendosa
Tracking Diabetes on the Web Since 1995
Most Recent Update: November 28, 2006
I don’t know why I never thought of it before. But in the last couple of weeks I have been eating bowlfuls of a great barley cereal that is perfect for people with diabetes. It is really easy to make, tastes great, and is certainly healthy.
I have usually had McCann’s Irish Oatmeal for breakfast, but have now replaced it with barley cereal. I serve both the barley cereal and the oatmeal with soymilk, stevia or sucralose, sliced almonds, and cinnamon. I am now enjoying the barley cereal as my most frequent breakfast.
You probably know that barley is the lowest glycemic grain. It’s even lower GI than oatmeal. Barley has a GI of 25. Because the smaller particle size of the cereal, its GI is bit higher than the intact grain, but anything below 55 is considered low glycemic. You can find the complete list on my website.
Right now this barley cereal is only available on the Whole Control website, but the company hopes to get distribution in Whole Foods, Vitamin Cottage, Wild Oats, and Albertson’s in the near future. Whole Control is in Denver, and its toll-free phone is 1 (888) 946-5326.
Whole Control’s managing partner is Frank Harritt, who was diagnosed in 1987 with type 2 diabetes. Frank brings more than 20 years of successful marketing and sales experience on leading national brands.
Its Golden Barley Cereal sell for $3.95 for a one pound bag or $8.95 for a 2.5 pound bag, which comes to about $.25 per serving — not a bad deal considering all the great health benefits.
The beauty of the Whole Control barley cereal is that, like oatmeal, it addresses blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol — but it has 50 percent more fiber, 30 percent more potassium, and 500 percent more niacin per serving than oatmeal and an even lower GI. This barley cereal is lighter than oatmeal and has a sweet nut-like flavor.
What makes Whole Control different from other barley cereals is the special barley that it’s made from. It is FiberGel barley — a special, all-natural variety of hulless barley patented by Greg Fox, Ph.D., a research geneticist and plant breeder who is on Whole Control’s scientific advisory board.
We have a choice of at least two other brand of barley cereal. Pepsico’s Quaker Oats sells Mother’s Quick Cooking Barley and Bob’s Red Mill sells Rolled Barley Flakes. But I’ve tried only the Whole Control Golden Barley Cereal and like it so much that I don’t plan on trying the alternatives.
This article originally appeared as one of my blog articles that I originally wrote for MyDiabetesCentral.com. You can also read it there along with more than 100 of my other blog articles, together with any comments from readers.
Last modified: November 28, 2006
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David Mendosa is a freelance journalist and consultant specializing in diabetes and lives in Boulder, Colorado. When he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in February 1994, he began to write entirely about that condition. His articles and columns have appeared in many of the major diabetes magazines and websites. His own website, David Mendosa’s Diabetes Directory, established in 1995, was one of the first and is now one of the largest with that focus. Every month he also publishes an online newsletter called “Diabetes Update.” Twice weekly he writes for his blog at http://blogs.healthcentral.com/diabetes/david-mendosa. He is a coauthor of The New Glucose Revolution: What Makes My Blood Glucose Go Up...And Down? (New York: Marlowe & Co., July 2006, and other publishers in the U.K., Australia, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Italy).
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