Most folks really like granola. It’s sure a favorite at our house. Whether store-bought or homemade, it could be breakfast every day for us. And then there’s the bedtime snack routine as well.

Speaking of homemade, I’ve made some that’s good enough to be dessert. I’ve shared our preferred recipe before (and I’m sharing it again). We call it Pauper’s Granola because if all you have is oats, peanut butter, brown sugar, and honey, it’s STILL yum-yum-yummy.

ALICE’S PAUPER’S GRANOLA (the basic version…gussy this up any way you please!)

8 cups old-fashioned oats

1 cup powdered milk (or instant)

1 cup whole wheat flour (or any whole grain flour you prefer)

½ teaspoon salt

3 cups water

1 cup healthy oil (almond, sesame, coconut, olive, or even melted butter)

1 ½ cups raw honey

1 cup brown sugar

2 cups old fashioned peanut butter

3 tablespoons vanilla extract

Add-ins, if you have them; if not, it’s so OK! (raisins, dried cranberries, diced dried fruit, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, nuts, shredded coconut, etc. etc.)

1. Preheat oven to 210°F.

2. In a large roasting pan, mix the dry ingredients.

3. In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine water, oil, honey, brown sugar, and peanut butter.

4. Stir until peanut butter is dissolved and mixture is smooth.

5. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

6. Pour mixture over dry ingredients and mix well, being sure all ingredients are thoroughly coated.

7. Slow-roast granola for 4 hours or until it has turned golden brown, stirring every half hour or so to ensure even roasting.

8. Remove from oven and mix in raisins and/or dried fruit (if using).

9. Allow granola to cool, then store in an airtight container up to 3 months. (Will keep in refrigerator or freezer longer.)

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But before you make your own granola, RED ALERT: there's something you should know. You want to be sure your oats aren’t toxic. Yup, buyer beware.

(I can’t tell you how anxious I get over so often being the Cook’n bearer of bad news. But somebody’s gotta speak up…)

Anyway, here’s the scoop (as found on a very reputable and informative site, Sustainable Preparedness, www.suspre.com). GLYPHOSATE is consistently found at surprising levels in Cheerios® and other breakfast cereals containing oats and wheat. Glyphosate, by the way, is the active ingredient in the popular herbicide Roundup®.

When I read this I was skeptical and very disappointed. Cheerios®? Their box makes all sorts of health claims. Why in the world would they show up with this nasty herbicide?

Desiccation, that’s what it’s about. Research revealed that in northern states and Canada, glyphosate is sprayed on grains like oats just before harvest. Yes, that’s the report…very shortly before harvest! This technique is called crop desiccation.

As crazy as it sounds, this is true. If the farmer is looking for a more uniform harvest or feels that he needs to dry the crop sooner, he may spray an herbicide (such as Roundup®) on the crop to kill it for drying and then harvest it at the right moment.

Now it all made sense. This is why these breakfast cereals are testing so high in glyphosate residue. And be sure if processed oat-laden boxed cereals are showing up with glyphosate, our packaged oats are as well.

Glyphosate is in 80% of our food supply in the U.S., and may well be the most toxic chemical ever approved for commercial use, according to some scientists. It has been classified as a “probable carcinogen” by the World Health Organization. And interestingly enough, a 2009 study found glyphosate to be an endocrine disruptor in human cell lines—in other words, it can disrupt your hormones.

And beyond disrupting hormones, scientists now link glyphosate to kidney disease, antibiotic resistant bacteria, inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, depression, ADHD, autism, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, multiple sclerosis, cancer, cachexia, infertility, and developmental malformations.

In other words, it destroys the microbiome of humans and plants, the root cause of these modern diseases.

Another study found that endocrine disrupting chemicals (like glyphosate) can have unpredictable consequences when exposure is at “low” doses--lower than what is traditionally evaluated during toxicology testing. Those are exactly the kind of doses we are being exposed to in many foods.

So there’s the crummy bad news. Now on to WHAT TO DO. I’ve been digging through google looking for anyone that provides non-glyphosate oats. This hasn’t been easy, because the EPA and the USDA allow certain amounts in our food. Most producers adhere to these ridiculous standards.

BUT, ha ha! I did find one company that’s aggressively tackling this dilemma: Healthy Traditions (https://healthytraditions.com/glyphosate-tested/). This is an arm of the company, Tropical Traditions. This is a nice surprise, because I’ve actually purchased from Tropical (coconut oil and shredded coconut) and love these guys. (It’s here I should say that I get no benefit whatsoever from recommending them. I have no connection to them other than being one of their satisfied customers.)

Unlike the EPA and USDA organic program, they don’t like any glyphosate residue in their food at all. So the Tropical/Healthy Traditions product line has a zero tolerance level for glyphosate.

For all grains now, they test every batch for the presence of glyphosate. If they detect any residue present, they don’t sell it. They’re also beginning to test other organic products besides grains. While they can’t guarantee any food that has been outside is 100% glyphosate-free (since glyphosate has even been detected in our rain water now), if they find any glyphosate present at all, they will stop selling it.

The only issue is that they cost more than those found in the grocery store. But paying more for healthy oats is OK with me. After all, what’s our health worth? Considering the ongoing risks of glyphosate consumption, paying a little more for toxic-free food makes sense, right?