Cereal grains are essentially grasses that are grown for human consumption. These cereal grains are the world's largest food source, often called staple crops. Cereal grains include wheat, rice, maize, barley, sorghum, millet, oats, rye, triticale, which is a hybrid of wheat and rye and fonio. Buckwheat and quinoa are considered pseudo cereals, because they are not true grasses. Whole-wheat flour contains the complete grain, while wheat flour only contains the endosperm.
Whole Grains
Whole grains consist of the bran, germ and endosperm. The endosperm is the fleshy center of the grain. The germ, when cultivated, sprouts into a new plant. The bran is the hard outer shell of the grain. Separating the bran and the germ from the endosperm occurs through a process called refining or milling.
Refined and Enriched
Refining refers to the process of breaking down and separating the three essential parts of a cereal grain to produce flour. Refining involves stripping the bran and the germ from the endosperm by either grinding or milling the seed grain. A large portion of the grains nutritional value is lost as a result. Manufacturers often add back thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and iron to enrich the flour's nutritional value.
Nutrition
The endosperm accounts for about 85 percent of the seed grain or kernel; the germ comprises about 3 percent and the bran makes up the remaining 12 percent. Whole grain wheat contains protein, pantothenic acid, riboflavin, niacin, pyridoxine and thiamin. Whole grain wheat flour retains 100 percent of the wheat's vitamin E content, while refined wheat flour only retains 5 percent. Whole grain rice retains 100 percent of its original vitamin E content, while refined rice only retains 18 percent.
Flours
All-purpose flour comes from wheat grains and has a finer texture than whole wheat, and wheat flour. Atta, the Hindi word for flour, is made from durum, which is hard wheat that is high in starch. Bread flour is often made from hard wheat and has high gluten content, while cake flour is made from soft wheat, giving it a finer texture and lower gluten content than bread flour. Flours made from buckwheat are gluten-free. Rice flour has a fine texture and can be milled from white or brown rice. Spelt, a sub-species of wheat, also has no gluten.
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