Julie Miller Jones
Breakfast Cereals and How They are Made, Second Edition
Pages 411-442
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1094/1891127152.011
ISBN: 1-891127-15-2
Abstract
Archeological evidence shows that grain porridges have nourished humankind since prehistoric times. Today, cereal grains still represent the world's major calorie and protein source, accounting for over half of the average per-capita intake of calories and nearly half of the per-capita intake of protein. In the last 100 years in many Western countries, part of the grain calories has come not only from porridge, bread, and other forms of cereal products, but also from ready-to-eat breakfast cereals.
Although consumption of cereal-based foods has declined in the United States and other affluent nations as higher incomes have allowed more food choices higher on the food chain, consumption of ready-to-eat cereals has risen steadily. In addition, the nutritional importance of cereal foods in diets is being reemphasized as Western populations face many chronic diseases epidemiologically related to excess consumption of fats and animal products.
Dietary guidance directives issued in many Western countries show the need for inclusion of adequate amounts of whole grain and enriched cereal products to increase complex carbohydrate and fiber in the diet. The 1995 U.S. Dietary Guidelines remind adults to consume 50–60% of their calories as carbohydrates and under 30% of their calories from fat. These recommendations to lower consumption of fat and increase that of fiber and complex carbohydrates have made grain-based products reclaim their place as the basis of the diet. The position of the bread and cereal group at the base of the U.S. government's Food Pyramid for Good Eating emphasizes cereal's nutritional importance in constituting the diet (Figure 1). Thus, both the dietary guidelines and the pyramid point to a grain-based diet. Breakfast cereals are just one of many forms of grain products that make it easier for each person to meet these recommendations.
