What is ready-to-eat cereal?

Ready-to-eat cereals are designed to be eaten without cooking; hence, they are cooked at one of the stages in their processing.

They are produced from endosperm particles that are broken and ground into a mash, cooked and covered into flakes by squeezing the broken girts or mash between rollers.

Usually, they are then with added flavorings and other ingredients such as malt, syrups and heat stable vitamins, and minerals. Then, the cooked cereals are further processed by flaking, puffing shredding or other operations.

The early ready to eat cereals were wheat flakes, shredded wheat, Grape-Nuts, corn flakes, wheat/flax flakes.

Ready to eat cereals may be divided into categories of flaked shredded, directly shredded, oven puffed, gun puffed, microwave puff, and baked.

One study published in the Journal of Aging Research in 2012 noted that adults aged fifty five and older who ate ready-to-eat cereal had higher intakes of dietary fiber, whole grains and several vitamins and minerals than those who did not.

A growing body of breakfast research demonstrated that regular ready-to-eat cereal consumption is associated with more consistent body weight regulations, lower waist-to-height ratio, healthier BMI measures, smaller waist circumference, lower body fat, and improve blood lipid profiles.
A Canadian study that appeared in the Journal of Nutrition in 2013 found that eating breakfast- particularly when it included ready-to-eat cereal - was positively associated with better nutrient intake and nutrition status in adults.
What is ready-to-eat cereal?