What to eat and when

by Susanna Cocroft

TABLE VI
Comparative Cost of Digestible Nutrients and Available
Energy in Different Cereal Breakfast Foods

				Amount for 10 cents
FOOD MATERIALS	Price per pound	Cost of one pound of protein	Cost of 1000 calories of energy	Total weight of material	Protein	Fat	Carbohydrates	Energy
Oat preparations:
Oatmeal, raw	3	0.24	1.7	3.33	0.42	0.22	2.18	5884
”	4	0.32	2.3	2.50	0.31	0.16	1.64	4418
Rolled oats, steam cooked	6	0.48	3.4	1.67	0.21	0.11	1.08	2938
Wheat preparations:
Flour, Graham	4	0.40	2.6	2.50	0.25	0.01	1.61	3790
Flour, entire-wheat	5	0.46	3.1	2.00	0.22	0.03	1.36	3188
Flour, patent	3.5	0.35	2.1	2.86	0.29	0.03	2.10	4700
Farina	10	1.12	6.2	1.00	0.09	0.01	0.73	1609
Flaked	15	1.69	9.3	0.67	0.06	0.01	0.46	1005
Shredded	12.5	1.62	8.2	0.80	0.06	0.01	0.57	1217
Parched & ground	7.5	0.88	4.9	1.33	0.11	0.02	0.94	2050
Malted, cooked and crushed	13	1.43	8.5	0.77	0.07	0.01	0.53	1175
Flaked and malted	11	1.21	7.2	0.91	0.08	0.01	0.62	1389
Barley preparations:
Pearled barley	7	1.06	4.6	1.43	0.09	0.01	1.04	2165
Flaked, steam cooked	15	1.83	9.6	0.67	0.05	...	0.50	1051
Corn preparations:
Corn meal, granular	3	0.44	1.8	3.33	0.23	0.06	2.48	5534
Hominy	4	0.62	2.4	2.50	0.16	0.01	1.97	4178
Samp	5	0.78	3.0	2.00	0.13	0.01	1.57	3342
Flaked & parched	13	1.73	7.5	0.77	0.06	0.01	0.60	1335
Rice preparations:
Rice, polished	8	1.48	4.7	1.25	0.07	...	0.94	1855
Flaked, steam cooked	15	2.31	9.8	0.67	0.04	...	0.51	1026
Miscellaneous foods for comparison:
Bread, white	6	0.74	5.0	1.67	0.14	0.02	0.87	2009
”	5	0.62	4.2	2.00	0.16	0.02	1.04	2406
Crackers	10	1.10	5.3	1.00	0.09	0.08	0.71	1905
Macaroni	12.5	1.08	7.5	0.80	0.09	0.01	0.58	1328
Beans, dried	5	0.28	3.5	2.00	0.35	0.03	1.16	2868
Peas, dried	5	0.26	3.4	2.00	0.38	0.02	1.20	2974
Milk	3	0.94	9.7	3.33	0.11	0.13	0.17	1030
”	3.5	1.09	11.3	2.86	0.09	0.11	0.14	885
Sugar	5	...	2.8	2.00	...	...	2.00	3515
”	6	...	3.4	1.67	...	...	1.67	2940

The less expensive breakfast foods, such as oatmeal and corn meal, are as economical as flour, and, as they supply heat and energy in abundance, as shown by Table [VI], they should be supplied in the diet in proportion to the energy required. They are easily prepared for porridge, requiring simply to be boiled in water, with a little salt.

For invalids, children, and old people, breakfast foods prepared in gruels and porridges are valuable as they are easily digested. All should be thoroughly cooked so as to break the cell-walls inclosing the starch granules.

Oatmeal is the most nutritious cereal. The oat contains more fat than other grains and a larger proportion of protein. It, therefore, contains the proportion of nutrient elements best adapted to sustain life.

On account of the fat, oats are especially well adapted for a breakfast food in winter. Another advantage oatmeal, or rolled oats, have as a breakfast food is in their laxative tendency, due to the coarse shell of the kernel.

Oat breakfast foods keep longer than the foods made from wheat and rice.

There are no malts, or any mixtures in the oat preparations.

The difference between the various oatmeal breakfast foods is in their manner of preparation. They all contain the entire grain, with the exception of the husk. They are simply the ground or crushed oat. In preparing the oats before grinding, the outer hull is removed, the fuzzy coating of the berry itself is scoured off, the ends of the berry, particularly the end containing the germ, which is usually the place of deposit for insect eggs, is scoured, and the bitter tip end of the oat berry is likewise removed.

Rolled oats consist of the whole berry of the oat, ground into a coarse meal, either between millstones, or, in the case of the so-called “steel cut” oatmeal, cut with sharp steel knives across the sections of the whole oat groat.