How Cereal and Bread important for Human -Nutritional Factor?
- Cereals form the staple of the Indian diet.
- These grains are the main source of energy in the Indian diets contributing as they do 60-70% of daily energy intake of majority of Indians. This is because they are rich sources of carbohydrates.
- Proteins in cereal grains, as you may recall studying earlier, are partially complete as cereals are low in one or two essential amino acids lysine and threonine. However, cereals when eaten with pulses, as is the common practice in India, the protein quality improves due to mutual supplementation between the cereal and pulse proteins, the former being deficient while the latter (pulse) being rich in lysine.
- Cereals are low in fat, but contain 1-3% omega-3 fatty acids.
- Cereals in general, cannot be considered rich sources of minerals. However, ragi is rich in calcium (i.e. 344 mg1100 gm); bajra, and whole wheat flour are high in iron content. The non-nutrient factors such as phytates, oxalates and fibres which are present in them interfere with the absorption of calcium and iron.
- Cereals, particularly the whole grains, are important sources of B-vitamins. Since most of these vitamins reside in the outermost layer of the grains, they are lost depending on the extent of polishing and refining. Parboiling, which involves soaking in water and subsequent steaming of paddy, results in seeping of vitamins present in outer layer into the grain; thus parboiled milled rice retains much of the vitamins.