Marketing Scoops: Cereals For Kids Are Less Healthy Than a Decade Ago

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On any given morning, there are two things kids in the U.S. consume for breakfast more than anything else: milk and cereal. More specifically, it’s ready-to-eat cereals which can go straight from the box to a bowl in no time flat. But if you think the mass popularity of cereal means they are nutritious, think again……..Continue reading…..

By: Liz Regalia

Source: Parents

Critics:

Cereal production has a substantial impact on the environment. Tillage can lead to soil erosion and increased runoff. Irrigation consumes large quantities of water; its extraction from lakes, rivers, or aquifers may have multiple environmental effects, such as lowering the water table and cause salination of aquifers. Fertilizer production contributes to global warming, and its use can lead to pollution and eutrophication of waterways.

Arable farming uses large amounts of fossil fuel, releasing greenhouse gases which contribute to global warming. Pesticide usage can cause harm to wildlife, such as to bees. When the cereal is ready to be distributed, it is sold to a manufacturing facility that first removes the outer layers of the grain for subsequent milling for flour or other processing steps, to produce foods such as flour, oatmeal, or pearl barley.

In developing countries, processing may be traditional, in artisanal workshops, as with tortilla production in Central America. Most cereals can be processed in a variety of ways. Rice processing, for instance, can create whole-grain or polished rice, or rice flour. Removal of the germ increases the longevity of grain in storage. Some grains can be malted, a process of activating enzymes in the seed to cause sprouting that turns the complex starches into sugars before drying.

These sugars can be extracted for industrial uses and further processing, such as for making industrial alcohol, beer, whisky, or rice wine, or sold directly as a sugar. In the 20th century, industrial processes developed around chemically altering the grain, to be used for other processes. In particular, maize can be altered to produce food additives, such as corn starch and high-fructose corn syrup. Some cereals such as rice require little preparation before human consumption.

For example, to make plain cooked rice, raw milled rice is washed and boiled. Foods such as porridge and muesli may be made largely of whole cereals, especially oats, whereas commercial breakfast cereals such as granola may be highly processed and combined with sugars, oils, and other products. Cereals can be ground to make flour. Wheat flour is the main ingredient of bread and pasta. Maize flour has been important in Mesoamerica since ancient times, with foods such as Mexican tortillas and tamales.

Rye flour is a constituent of bread in central and northern Europe, while rice flour is common in Asia. A cereal grain consists of starchy endosperm, germ, and bran. Wholemeal flour contains all of these; white flour is without some or all of the germ or bran. Because cereals have a high starch content, they are often used to make industrial alcohol and alcoholic drinks by fermentation. For instance, beer is produced by brewing and fermenting starch, mainly from cereal grains—most commonly malted barley.

Rice wines such as Japanese sake are brewed in Asia; a fermented rice and honey wine was made in China some 9,000 years ago.Cereals and their related byproducts such as hay are routinely fed to farm animals. Common cereals as animal food include maize, barley, wheat, and oats. Moist grains may be treated chemically or made into silage; mechanically flattened or crimped, and kept in airtight storage until used; or stored dry with a moisture content of less than 14%. Commercially, grains are often combined with other materials and formed into feed pellets.

As whole grains, cereals provide carbohydrates, polyunsaturated fats, protein, vitamins, and minerals. When processed by the removal of the bran and germ, all that remains is the starchy endosperm. In some developing countries, cereals constitute a majority of daily sustenance. In developed countries, cereal consumption is moderate and varied but still substantial, primarily in the form of refined and processed grains.

Some cereals are deficient in the essential amino acid lysine, obliging vegetarian cultures to combine their diet of cereal grains with legumes to obtain a balanced diet. Many legumes, however, are deficient in the essential amino acid methionine, which grains contain. Thus, a combination of legumes with grains forms a well-balanced diet for vegetarians.

Such combinations include dal (lentils) with rice by South Indians and Bengalis, beans with maize tortillas, tofu with rice, and peanut butter with wholegrain wheat bread (as sandwiches) in several other cultures, including the Americas. For feeding animals, the amount of crude protein measured in grains is expressed as grain crude protein concentration.

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