If you were going to develop your own breakfast cereal, you would first decide what type of grain to use. Next would be a sweetener. Numerous cereals contain fruit, nuts and added flavors. Adding fruit will increase your sugar content. Now you need to decide how to keep it fresh to extend the shelf life. Thousands of cereals contain added ingredients, including artificial colors and flavors, and preservatives. Cereal can have from three or four to well over 50 ingredients.
Grains
Cereal grains include wheat, rice, oats, cornmeal and barley. Whole grain wheat and wheat bran are often used in cereals to pump up the fiber content. There are two groups of grains: whole grains and refined grains. Whole grains still have the bran, germ and endosperm intact. Refined grains have been milled or processed, which removes the bran and germ, and unfortunately, a majority of the grain's nutritional value. When the grain is enriched, several of these nutrients are replaced. Typical ingredients you might find in cereal include whole grain oats, whole grain rice, whole grain wheat and cornmeal.
Natural Sweeteners
Natural sweeteners include fruits, brown sugar made from cane or sugar beets, honey, maple syrup, barley malt, date sugar and concentrated fruit juices. Additional names for added sugars that you might find in a list of ingredients include corn sweetener, corn syrup, fructose, glucose, high-fructose corn syrup, invert sugar, maltose, malt syrup, sucrose and syrup.
Fruit and Nuts
Cereal has evolved from simple grains and biscuits to a medley of flakes, shapes, nuts and dehydrated fruits. Popular cereal fruits include blueberries, strawberries, cranberries and raisins. These fruits can provide powerful antioxidants as well as anti-inflammatory compounds. Nuts are essentially a concentrated food source containing protein, unsaturated fats, B complex vitamins, vitamin E, calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus and copper. Typical nuts found in cereal ingredients include pecans and almonds.
Food Additives
Even though they often provide little to no nutritional value, food additives have become a big business. With massive production facilities worldwide, companies look for cheaper ingredients to increase profits. As a result, food additives were developed to add color, texture, bulk and to extend shelf life. Examples of food additives include BHT as a preservative, lecithin as an emulsifier and maltodextrin as a food texturizer, all names that you might find in a list of cereal ingredients.
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