143. Preparation and Cost of Cereals.—The grains used in the preparation of cereal foods are wheat, oats, corn, rice, and, to a less extent, barley and rye. For some of these the entire cleaned grain is ground or pulverized, while for others the bran and germ are first removed. In order to improve their keeping qualities, they are often sterilized before being put up in sealed packages. Special treatment, as steaming or malting, is sometimes given to impart palatability and to lessen the time required for cooking. As a class, the cereal foods are clean, nutritious, and free from adulteration. Extravagant claims are sometimes made as to their food value, and frequently excessive prices are charged, out of proportion to the cost of the nutrients in the raw material. Within recent years the number of cereal preparations has greatly increased, due to improvements and variations in the methods of manufacture.^[56]

Cereal foods are less expensive than meats and the various animal food products. They contain no refuse, are easily prepared for the table, and may be kept without appreciable deterioration. Some of the ready—to-eat brands are cooked, dried, and crushed, and sugar, glucose, salt, and various condimental materials added to impart taste. Others contain malt, or are subjected to a malting or germinating process to develop the soluble carbohydrates, and such foods are sometimes called predigested. It is believed that the cereals are being more extensively used in the dietary, which is desirable both from an economic and a nutritive point of view. Special care is necessary in the cooking and preparation of cereals for the table, in order to develop flavor and bring about hydration and rupturing of the tissues, as explained in Chapter II.

144. Corn Preparations.—Corn or maize is characterized by a high percent of fat and starch, and, compared with wheat and oats, a low content of protein.^[57] Removal of the bran and germ lessens the per cent of fat. The germ is removed principally because it imparts poor keeping qualities. Many of the corn breakfast foods contain 1 per cent or less of fat and from 8 to 9 per cent of protein. Coarsely ground corn foods are not as completely digested and assimilated as those more finely ground. As in the case of wheat products, the presence of the bran and germ appears to prevent the more complete absorption of the nutrients. Finely ground corn meal compares favorably in digestibility with wheat flour. Corn flour is prepared by removal of the bran and germ and granulation of the more starchy portions of the kernel, and has better keeping qualities than corn meal from which the bran and germ have not been so completely removed. At times corn flour has been sufficiently low in price to permit its use for the adulteration of wheat flour. The mixing of corn and wheat flours, however, is prohibited by law unless the product is so labeled. When combined with wheat flour, corn bread and various other articles of food are prepared, but used alone corn flour is not suitable for bread making, because its gluten lacks the binding properties imparted to wheat flour by the gliadin. It is essential that corn be used with foods of high protein content so as to make a balanced ration; for when it forms a large part of the dietary, the ration is apt to be deficient in protein. In a mixed dietary, corn is one of the cheapest and best cereals that can be used. Too frequently, however, excessive prices are charged for corn preparations that contain no more nutrients than ordinary corn meal. There is no difference between yellow and white corn meal so far as nutritive value is concerned.

Fig. 31.—Corn Starch.

145. Oat Preparations are characterized by large amounts of both protein and fat. Because of the removal of the hulls, they contain more protein than the original grain. The oat preparations differ little in chemical composition. They all have about 16 per cent of protein, 7 per cent of fat, and 65 per cent of starch, and are richer in ash or mineral matter than other cereals. The main difference is in method of preparation and mechanical composition. Some are partially cooked and then dried. Those costing 7 cents or more per pound do not contain any greater amount of nutritive substance than those purchased in bulk at about half the price. At one time it was believed that oats contained a special alkaloid having a stimulating effect when fed to animals. Recent investigations, however, show that there is no alkaloidal material in oats, and whatever stimulating effect they may have results from the nutrients they contain. Occasionally there is an appreciable amount of cellulose, or fiber, left in the oat preparations, due to imperfect milling. This noticeably lowers the digestibility. Oatmeal requires much longer and more thorough cooking than many other cereals, and it is frequently used as food when not well prepared. Digestion experiments show that when oatmeal is cooked for four hours or more, it is more readily acted upon by the diastase ferment and digested in a shorter time than oatmeal cooked only a half hour.^[5] Oatmeal is one of the cheapest sources from which protein is obtained, and when well cooked it can advantageously form an essential part of the ration. Unless thoroughly cooked, the oat preparations do not appear to be quite so completely or easily digested as some of the other cereals.

Fig. 32.—Oat Starch Granules.

146. Wheat Preparations differ in chemical composition more than those from oats or corn, because wheat is prepared in a greater variety of ways. They are made either from the entire kernel, including the bran and germ, or from special parts, as the granular middlings, as in the case of some of the breakfast foods, and a few are made into a dough and baked, then dried and toasted. Some special flours are advertised as composed largely of gluten, but only those that have been prepared by washing out the starch are entitled to be classed as gluten flours.^[58] For the food of persons suffering from diabetes mellitus physicians advise the use of flour low in starch, and this can be made by washing and thus removing a portion of the starch from wheat flour, as directed in Experiment No. 30. The glutinous residue is then used for preparing articles of food. Analyses of some of the so-called gluten flours show that they contain no more gluten than ordinary flour, particularly the low grades. A number of wheat breakfast foods are prepared by sterilizing the flour middlings obtained after removal of the bran and germ. These middlings are the same stock or material from which the patent grades of flour are made, and they differ from wheat flour only in mechanical structure and size of the particles. Where granular wheat middlings can be secured in bulk at the same price as flour they furnish a valuable and cheap cereal breakfast food.

Fig. 33.—Wheat Starch Grains.

As to the digestibility and food value, the wheat breakfast foods have practically the same as graham, entire wheat, or ordinary patent flour, depending upon the stock which they contain. Those with large amounts of bran and germ are not as completely digested as when these parts of the kernel are not included. Wheat preparations, next to oats, have the most protein of any of the cereal foods. Occasionally they are prepared from wheats low in gluten and not suitable for bread-making purposes. When purchased in bulk the wheat preparations are among the cheapest foods that can be used in the dietary.^[56]

Fig. 34.—Barley Starch.

147. Barley Preparations are not so extensively used as wheat, oats, and corn. Barley contains a little more protein than corn, but not quite so much as wheat; otherwise it is quite similar to wheat in general composition. Sometimes in the preparation of breakfast foods barley meal is mixed with wheat or corn. Barley is supposed to be more readily digested than some of the other cereals, because of the presence of larger amounts of active ferment bodies, and it is frequently used for making an extract known as "barley water," which, although it contains very little nutritive value, as less than one per cent of the weight of the barley is rendered soluble, is useful in its soothing influence and mechanical action upon the mucous membrane of the digestive tract.

Fig. 35.—Rice Starch.

148. Rice Preparations.—Rice varies somewhat in composition, but usually contains a slightly lower percentage of protein than corn and also a smaller amount of fat. It is particularly rich in starch, and has the least ash or mineral matter of any of the cereals. In order to make a balanced ration, rice should be supplemented with legumes and other foods rich in proteids. It is a valuable grain, but when used alone it is deficient in protein. Rice is digested with moderate ease, but is not as completely absorbed by the body as other cereals, particularly those prepared by fine grinding or pulverization. Of late years rice culture has been extensively introduced into some of the southern states, and the domestic rice seems to have slightly higher protein content than the imported. Rice contains less protein than other cereals, and the starch grain is of different construction. Rice does not require such prolonged cooking as oatmeal; it needs, however, to be thoroughly cooked.

149. Predigested Foods.^[56]

150. The Value of Cereals in the Dietary.—Cereals are valuable in the dietary because of the starch and protein they supply, and the heat and energy they yield. They are among the most inexpensive of foods and, when properly prepared, have a high degree of palatability; then, too, they are capable of being blended in various ways with other foods. Some are valuable for their mechanical action in digestion, rather than for any large amount of nutrients. They do not furnish the quantity of mineral matter and valuable phosphates that is popularly supposed. They all contain from 0.5 to 1.5 percent of mineral matter, of which about one third is phosphoric anhydrid. In discussing the phosphate content of food, Hammersten states:^[59]

In the coarser cereals, which include the bran and germ, there is the maximum amount of mineral matter, but, as in the case of graham bread, it is not as completely digested and absorbed by the body as the more finely granulated products which contain less. The kind of cereal to use in the dietary is largely a matter of personal choice. As only a small amount is usually eaten at a meal, there is little difference in the quantity of nutrients supplied by the various breakfast cereals.

Total and Digestible Nutrients and Fuel Value of Cereals