Foods and home making

Does it seem strange that one small wheat grain contains at least five different materials ? The percentages of materials in a food make up the percentage composition of the food. Figure 24 shows the composition of a cooked cereal. Figure 24. The Composition of Cooked Oat Breakfast Cereal Note that this cooked cereal is almost seven eighths water. Why does it contain about eight times as much as the uncooked food ? Note also the difference in the quantity of carbohydrates. What are foodstuffs? Each of the materials contained in rolled oats has an important use in the body. The body needs all these materials to make it strong and well. We call the nourishing materials of which food is composed the foodstuffs. One food authority has said that foodstuffs are the stuffs of which food is made. Water is a foodstuff. Protein is a food- stuff. Fat also is a foodstuff, as are carbohydrates, mineral matter, and vitamins. Many foods, like cereals, contain all the foodstuffs. A few foods, like lard and sugar, contain but one foodstuff each. (What foodstuff is present in sugar? in lard?) In what foodstuffs are breakfast cereals rich ? A chemist finds that uncooked cereals made from oats contain : Buying and Cooking Cereals 61 Water 7.8% Proteins 16.5 Fats 7.3 Carbohydrates 66.5 Ash or mineral matter .... 1.9 Total 100.0% This shows that there are more carbohydrates than any other foodstuff in breakfast cereals. However, when cooked, water is absorbed and the proportion of carbohydrates is less. Cooked breakfast cereals contain over 10%. The material next highest in percentage is protein. The amount of protein is very much less than that of carbohydrates. However, there is no natural food containing as much as 66% protein but there are foods containing 25 to 30% protein. We therefore consider breakfast cereals only moderately rich in protein. Moreover, cereal proteins are not of excellent quality. There are many foods containing much more fat or oil than do breakfast cereals. We do not consider breakfast cereals rich in fat. Breakfast cereals contain less of ash or mineral matter than of any of the other four foodstuffs. Nevertheless, we say breakfast cereals, especially those made from whole grains, are rich in ash, because in comparison with the amount of ash in other foods, the percentage in breakfast cereals is high. Many foods contain less than 1% ash. A food containing about 1% ash is usually said to be rich in ash. We consider cooked and uncooked breakfast cereals rich in carbohydrates . Those breakfast foods made from whole grains are rich also in ash or mineral matter. Does the chemist’s analysis tell all about the composition of foods ? We learned that there were vitamins in fruit, existing in minute quantity and that not all fruits contain the same kind or amount of vitamins. There are vitamins in many other foods. By chemical analysis and by feeding white rats and other animals certain foods and carefully noting the way they 62 Breakfast develop, scientists are able to determine whether or not the foods fed to them contain vitamins. Most whole grains contain at least one kind of vitamin, vitamin B. Wheat germ is espe- cially rich in vitamins B and PP. How do foodstuffs nourish the body? Our bodies need a fresh supply of food every day. Some part of the body is wear- ing away all the time. Certain foodstuffs build up and repair the worn parts.