32 Overview and introduction: Nutritive factors in cereal foods.

D. J. Liska. HealthComm International, Inc., Gig Harbor, WA 98335.

Any discussion on optimizing the nutritive value of a food must begin with defining what is meant by nutritive value. Several decades ago, this definition was straightforward. A nutrient was understood to be a component of food that provided calories, or for which a dietary insufficiency would result in an observable dysfunction. In the past decade, however, we have begun to view nutrients not only as components whose absence would produce a nutritional deficiency disease, but also as having a positive impact on an individual’s health, physical performance, and state of mind. This shift is more in-line with the actual definition of nutrient, which is “a nourishing substance”. Consumers are becoming educated about the nourishing substances that support optimum functioning and have potential for decreasing disease risk. Epidemiological and experimental data are showing that cereal grains are a rich source of many health- promoting compounds such as antioxidants (e.g. polyphenolics, flavonoids, vitamins), and modulators of the immune or inflammatory systems (e.g. flavonoids, terpenoids, fatty acids). Furthermore, cereals contain specific types of carbohydrates, such as resistant starch or soluble fiber, as well as amino acid compositions that are also beneficial for health. This review provides a summary of the most recent data about the health- promoting effects of these and other cereal components.