Concept in Definition ABC

The cereals They're a family of grass and herbaceous plants that bear grains or seeds that are essential at the base of the feeding human and animal, especially livestock, being the most common grinding to generate flour. Likewise, the term designates the grain corresponding to these plants.

Among the cereal species, the following stand out: wheat, oats, rice, rye, barley, sorghum, millet and corn, meanwhile, depending on the type of treatment that is practiced on them, different types of food.

The structural composition of the cereal is as follows: embryo or germ (it is in the center of the seed; it is from this that a new plant can be generated), endosperm (It is a rather mealy structure that encloses the embryo and gives it the nutrition necessary to develop), head (It is the outer and laminar layer that covers the grain and is the one that transmits both the nutrients and the vitamins) and shell (It is the outermost layer of all and shows an outstanding hardness because it deals with the protection of the seed; made up of vegetable fibers).

Regarding its contributions and provisions, the starch turns out to be one of its components and as for the benefits, in the germ, the lipids that allow the extraction of vegetable oil; the shell that surrounds the seed, made up of cellulose, is the main element of the dietary fiber. Likewise, there are some types of cereals that have gluten, an important protein when making bread. In numbers, to be more precise, wheat contains: 58 to 72% starch, 8 to 1% starch protein, from 2 to 5% of lipids, mineral salts and between 2 and 11% of fibers.

It should be noted that the process carried out in cereals reduces their nutritional value and affects their chemical composition.

At the time of consumption, the consumption prevails in: grains, flour, porridge, semolina, pasta and flakes.

A significant amount of what is produced in cereals is destined from where we will be converted into food for humans and livestock, although, the industry also uses them when it comes to the production of ethyl alcohol, alcoholic beverages and biofuels.

And in common parlance, colloquial, It is also called cereals to those foods recommended especially for breakfast by the Energy and nutritional value that they show, however, it is important to note that it is not about one hundred percent cereals but rather they observe additions such as salts and sugars.