Wherever it is possible to grow grains, they are staples of man's diet. No food products of the vegetable kingdom equal them in importance. They are cheaply and easily grown, and contain all the food principles in unusually good proportion.

They can be kept for long periods, are not difficult to cook, and furnish a palatable and digestible article of diet. Cereals alone supply nearly one-fourth of the total food in a large number of the American families. Wheat, corn, rye, oats, barley, rice and buckwheat are in commonest use.

The natural grain is surrounded by an indigestible husk which is always removed. Grains simply hulled or husked, and slightly crushed are called groats or grits; more finely crushed, they constitute meal; ground to a powder and sifted they form flour.

Composition

Cereals contain all the food principles, with considerable cellulose, especially in the outer skin, which forms bran in milling. They are comparatively dry materials, having an average water content of about 10 per cent. The protein content is fairly high, averaging 12 per cent.-13 per cent.1 The fat is never large in amount, and varies within wide limits, being greatest in corn and oats and their products, and lowest in rice.

The nutrients in largest proportion are the carbohydrates, which frequently constitute 75 per cent. of the whole. The ash content is as large as in most common food materials, and some of the grains, as oats and wheat, are especially valuable for their soluble phosphates of calcium, potassium, magnesium, etc.

The chemical composition of some of the most common cereals is shown in the following table:

Carbohydrates

Water Per Cent.

Protein Per Cent.

Fat Per Cent

Starch, etc. . Per Cent.

Crude Fiber Per Cent.

Ash Per Cent.

Barley...........

10.9

12.4

1.8

69.8

2.7

2.4

Corn (maize) . .

. 9.3

9.9

2.8

74.9

1.4

1.5

Oats...........

11.0

11.8

5.0

S9.7

9.5

3.0

Rice.............

12.4

7.4

0.4

79.2

0.2

0.4

Wheat (spring) .

.10.4

12.5

2.2

71.2

1.8

1.9

It will be seen that corn is relatively rich in fat; oats in both protein and fat; rye and wheat,in protein with a moderate amount of fat; rice is notably free from crude fiber and fat, and also very low in ash.

1 For further information, see "Cereal Breakfast Foods," Farmer's Bulletin No. 249, Agricultural Dept., Washington, D. C.

Cereal Breakfast Foods are very similar in composition to the grains from which they are made.

Macaroni is much like wheat breakfast foods in composition and food value.