TODAY IN FOOD: It’s National Cereal Day
| Does National Cereal Day sound like nothing to get worked up over…because you enjoy that bowl of Cheerios 365 days a year? Are you bummed that it isn’t National Bacon Cheeseburger Day or National Apple Pie À La Mode Day? Show a little love, please! Cereals are wild grasses, subsequently cultivated. Their edible grains, or seeds, are staple crops throughout the world (that means that the crops are grown in greater quantities, and provide more energy calories, than other crops). In some developing nations, grain constitutes almost the entire diet. But, here’s a happier factoid: Cereal takes its name from Ceres, the Roman goddess of harvest and agriculture. (The Greek goddess equivalent is Demeter.) |  Amber waves of grain. Note the grains, or seeds, at the top of the stalk. Edible kernels are inside the husks. |
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| Corn, wheat and rice account for 87% of cereals grown worldwide—wheat in temperate regions, rice in tropical regions, corn in the Americas and Africa. Many grains are grown for livestock and for specific human uses—barley (for beer and other malted foods), millet, oats, rye and sorghum (used to make a sweetener). Buckwheat and quinoa (an incredibly high-protein, nutritious grain), both food crops, are not true grasses, but “psuedocereals.”- Read about some of our favorite grain-based foods in the Breads Section and Cereals Section of THE NIBBLE.com. - Read our feature about whole grain cereals. |
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