288. Sources And Kinds

The so-called breakfast foods are sold under a great and steadily increasing variety of names and forms. They are extensively used, being now found on the table of nearly every family of well-to-do communities. The sources from which they are derived are the cereal grains, corn, oats, wheat. There are three general methods of preparation: (1) grinding the decorticated grain, (2) steaming or otherwise cooking with subsequent grinding or rolling, and (3) malting, that is, the production of materials in which the starch has been partially changed to a soluble form by the action of heat or diastase. It should be stated that these foods do not receive special mention because of inferior quality. They appear to be prepared in a hygienic manner, are not adulterated, are so thoroughly dried as to keep well, and, in general, may be considered to be among the very best of the foods carrying a high proportion of carbohydrates. It is the claims that are made for such extensively used materials, and the wide differences in their cost, that render it advisable to consider the real facts touching their nutritive value.

289. Composition

The composition of these foods is found to be similar to that of the grains from which they are made. The following table will bear careful study on this point.

Table LIV. Average Composition of Cereal Breakfast Preparations Compared With Wheat Flour Variously Mllled

290. Changes In Preparation

In the cooked and malted foods, the starch has been more or less changed to other carbohydrates, mostly dextrin (see Table LV).