Hello everyone i am new here and to whole foods in general. Me and my boyfriend are slowly transitioning over to whole foods.

I just had a couple of questions

1. Are there whole cereals out there?? If so can you list some brands??

2. Are there whole salad dressings out there?? If so can you list brands?? If none what do you put on your salad??


3. How about butter?? Is reg butter ok?

4. Is stevia ok as a sweetner??

Thanks

For cereal, oatmeal is about as whole as it comes. I've been making my own granola with oats as the base. though teh nuts make it higher in fat, it is really yummy, high in protein and fills me up. There are lots of flake cereals that are just whole wheat, sugar and preseervatives. Wheat or bran checks come to mind.

I eat Fiber one, sometimes, but it is sweetened with artiificial sweeteners, which I hate... but Fiber 1 helps me to lose.

Kashi makes some pretty good WF cereals, IIRC

my fave dresings are Annie's Naturals. The Goddess dressing is TDF. Drew's is another natural brand

I still use butter on my veggies. orgainc, raw butter is best, and EVOO is even bette. I now bake with coconut oil.

stevia is a good sugar sub, IMO from a WF perspective.

HTH

I like olive oil and white basalmic vinegar for
salad dressing.

I used mashed banana to sweeten yogurt.

1. My favorites are, Steel cut oatmeal w/ 1T ground flaxseed (I usually add some berries, soymilk, and sometimes a touch of honey) and Uncle Sam cereal-It's wheat flakes with flaxseeds (10 grams of fiber per serving and only 1g of sugar which comes from the grains not added sugar.)

2. For salads I use, salsa, olive oil and vinegar (1/2 and 1/2), or I make my own. I've found some great recipes that use tofu as the base. As long as all the ingredients are "whole" then I deem the dressing to be "whole" as well.

3. Butter is fine. Organic unsalted is best, but use it sparingly since it's high in saturated fat. Olive oil is a better fat to use.

4. Stevia is fine as a sweetener as is honey, maple syrup and agave syrup (if you are okay with the calories.) Although, more often then not, I forgo all sweeteners. Once you get used to it, you can taste the natural sweetness in foods and you no longer need to sweeten things.

Need to amend my answer!
I use the olive oil and white basalmic on the family
tossed greens.

On my lunch time salad I mix salsa and organic cottage
cheese - then I mix up chopped cabbage, onions, corn,
a bit of Parmesan cheese, some sliced grape tomatoes.

You really do lose your taste for sweet things. My treats
are one square of 85% dark chocolate. Literally spit out
anything sweeter.