History and Future Of Cereals
With foods becoming more functional, the future of breakfast cereals might be even more exciting. Like the new range of cereals Believe offer more than breakfast food but also your daily quota of vitamins and nutrients.
THE HISTORY OF CEREALS (7000BC) :
The history of farming records Cereals communities in the ninth millennium BC were found in the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rives in what is now called Iraq. They grew wheat and other grains. And their system of irrigation was complicated and quite sophisticated.
Grains have been around for thousands of years and millet and sorghum are some of the oldest grains known to man. Cereals have always been the preferred crop right through to the Egyptians and on to the modern farms of time.
So your humble bowl of cereal had quite an impressive long winded history. Record shows that from 2300 to 1750 BC, wheat, barley, and rice were grown by inhabitants of northern India. Amaranth was cultivated first in 7000bc, now that going back a long time. And the quinoa that is the latest posh word and the dieter’s food was a staple food of ancient Incas. So our ancestors beyond 5000 BC ate cereals, but perhaps quite not in the same style that we do with our colourful cereal boxes and bowls of milk. It’s quite amazing to think these humble grains have been feeding humanity for thousands of years. They may have been presented differently, cooked differently but the goodness and value of these grains remains the same. The best cereal for breakfast will include these grains in their natural form, whole and not processed.
FUTURE OF BREAKFAST CEREALS :
So what is the future of our breakfast cereal and where does it all go from here. It’s seems it’s pretty clear; cereals will now veer towards becoming functional foods for beauty and health. From health foods they may go on to becoming beauty foods, digestive foods and energy foods. Muesli cereals and granola still top the list in favourite cereals for women especially. While the oats are favoured by the males, all in all cereals are here to stay, grow and diversify into functional health and beauty foods. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds. We already see the healthier sugar free breakfast cereals getting more popular and many health food stores now even offer dispensers that hold single grains so you can mix and blend your own. It’s almost in some way we are going more natural, eating wholesome and wanting to eat foods in their natural states rather than processed or refined. During the seventies and eighties we saw the white bread gain popularity and grains were split and refined. However the healthy attitudes prevalent today dictate we should eat wholesome and whole wheat ingredients, whether on our cereal or in our bread.
So in one way we are veering to our ancestral ways of eating grains as their wholesome best. Whatever it is that we may see, whether digital packaging, virtual cereal buying, the fact of the matter is these wonderful grains will remain just as they have been since the 7000Bc at least.