Health
WHEN WE HEAR talk about cereals we automatically think of breakfast cereals and associate it with a cardboard box. However, we are talking about grain wheat and rice, as they are the most commonly used cereals in human food production although also important are barley, rye, oats, maize and millet. Cereals are the dry seeds of grain crops which take the familiar form of spiky growth, and are not from a cardboard box.
Cereals are the staple food of much of humanity, for its nutritional characteristics, its moderate cost and its ability to immediately satisfy hunger.
Cereals are historically associated with the origin of civilization and culture of all people. Man moved from nomadic to sedentary when he learned to cultivate cereals and obtain from them an important part of his livelihood. Each geographical area of the planet consumes a specific type of grain and creates a gastronomic culture all around them. Among Europeans the consumption of wheat dominates, among Americans corn, rice is the essential food of the Asian people, and millet is unique to African communities. In our environment the form of eating of cereals is varied, bread, pastries, cakes, cereals, etc., but also they are also used as raw material in the alcoholic beverage industry such as beers and whiskey.
The grain of corn, which is the edible part, is a seed consisting of several parts: the cover or outer shell contains vitamin B1 and is removed during milling of the grain. Inside the grain is mainly distinguished into two structures: the seed and germ. Within the germ or embryo is abundant protein of high biological value, rich in unsaturated fat containing essential fatty acids and vitamin E and B1, which are lost in the process of refining white flour.
When the grain is consumed after removing the covers and germ, it is called refined. When processing without removing the covers, the resulting product is called whole grain. The grains and whole grain flour are richer in nutrients; contain greater amounts of fiber, complex carbohydrate and complex group vitamin B.
The nutritional value of cereals is related to the degree of extraction of grain “the whiter a bread is, the less nutritional value it has.”
Tubers are the characteristic swellings of the roots of certain plants. The most common are potatoes, but we also include: turnips, sweet potatoes, parsnips, etc.
These are foods that are grown in the garden but are not considered part of the group of “vegetables” because of their high carbohydrate content in the form of starch.
Potatoes are a common food in Europe and America. Their caloric value is not high, but if these same potatoes are eaten fried, they can triple their energy value, from 70 to 210 g. kcal/100, or even more, due to the impregnation of oil or fat used in frying.
Do we need to consume large quantities of cereals and tubers?
The answer is no. The largest volume of food in our diet should be vegetables and fruits, because of their high water content. About half of the volume of food we consume each day should be fruits and vegetables. The other half should be half cereals and tubers and half meat and vegetable proteins.
Food pyramids reflect the amount of rations and frequency of consumption of different food groups. Within a healthy diet it is recommended that cereals are the base of our food. Most healthy eating pyramids put cereal at the bottom of the pyramid. For some nutritionists, including myself, this representation of the pyramid with grains at the base does not seem quite right because it can lead to misinterpretation of the need to eat a lot of starch.
Healthy Eating Pyramid, SENC 2004
The Mediterranean Diet Foundation has just released a new version, still provisional, of the food pyramid where fruits, vegetables and cereals share the base of the pyramid.
Fruits and vegetables occupy 2/3 of the base and cereal 1/3. This new pyramid of the Mediterranean Diet is more in line with the nutritional recommendations to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables (5 servings a day: 2 plates of vegetables and 3 fruits) because they occupy a large volume of the dish (about 80-95% of them is water).
One of the reasons why cereals and tubers should occupy the base of the pyramid shared with fruits and vegetables is volume. It is true that grain should be at least 50% of daily calories, and therefore the basis of our food, but not 50% of the volume of food we consume. Grains contain many more calories in low volume than vegetables.
For example, a plate full of lettuce contains 8 kcal. and the same volume of a plate full of boiled pasta contains about 278 kcal. Our eye sees two plates full of food, but about 95% of the nutritional composition of lettuce is water.
To reach the 278 kcal of a pasta dish we would need to eat almost 35 plates of lettuce. It is for this reason that the new pyramid has vegetables and fruits occupying 2/3 of the volume of the base.
“The plate method” explains very well this: half of the volume of our food should be vegetables and fruits, the other half should be: a quarter of starchy, and the remaining quarter meat products (meat, poultry, fish, eggs) or vegetable proteins (legumes, nuts, etc.).
An example would be a Sunday Roast: broccoli, onions and carrots (the vegetables occupy half of the plate) and potatoes (the tubers occupy ¼ of the plate), with a leg of chicken (¼ the plate).
Recommendations of daily and weekly consumption of cereals and tubers are 4-6 servings of starchy foods for a healthy adult, depending on their sex, age and energy expenditure. One serving of starch corresponds to (net dry weight):
? 40-60 G OF BREAD
? 150-200 G OF POTATOES (1 UNIT)
? 60-80 G UNCOOKED PASTA OR RICE (1 PLATE OF COOKED PASTA OR RICE)
? 30 G BREAKFAST CEREAL
The recommendations of weekly consumption of starchy foods, preferably whole grain, are as follows:
? RICE: 3-4 SERVINGS / WEEK
? PASTA: 3-4 SERVINGS / WEEK
? POTATO: 3-5 SERVINGS / WEEK
? BREAD: DAILY
Arancha CorominaDietitian-Nutritionist aranchacoromina@gmail.com
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