Hot Cereal . . . Your Mother Would Be So Proud

Winter creeps in at different speeds in different parts of the United States, but we all seek comfort in warm and familiar foods as temperatures drop.

Hot cereal will usually do the trick. It’s good, it’s nutritious, it’s easy to cook, and it always takes us back to a simpler time, when Mom served us a big steaming bowl before sending us off to school. Or maybe that was just on “Leave It to Beaver.” Anyway, even now, in this last winter of the 20th century, with all of the food choices we have available, it’s still a great way to start--or end--the day.

Hot cereal is different from cold cereal, and not just because it’s cooked or heated. Many cold cereals are so highly processed that a lot of the natural nutrients are puffed, popped, mashed, milled and extruded right out of the grain. To make up for this, the manufacturers “enrich” and “fortify” their products to restore the nutrients lost in processing and to add extra vitamins and minerals, which many people then duplicate in a daily multivitamin--and for which you pay dearly.

But manufacturers don’t tamper with hot cereals as much. Take oatmeal, for example. It is primarily groats (the hulled kernel of the oat grain), which are cut up, steamed and then flattened under very heavy rollers. The size and thickness of the pieces determine the cooking time, but nutritionally, instant and regular are about the same.

Other hot cereals, like farina and cream of wheat, are processed more highly and lose their entire bran layer. This makes them very smooth and creamy, but unfortunately, much of their fiber is also lost this way.

Although cereals are naturally very low in fat (usually less than 2 grams per serving) and calories (usually less than 150 per serving), it is easy to sabotage them with butter, cream, syrup or other refined sugars. However, you can fortify your hot cereal with fiber, by adding fresh or dried fruit, and with calcium, by using skim or low-fat milk. This will keep your breakfast from becoming a hot bowl of candy.

A few years ago, the oat-bran/fiber/cholesterol story was everywhere. In fact, people became so oat-bran crazy that Quaker Oats couldn’t make enough to satisfy the incredible national demand. We now know that although the kind of soluble fiber found in oat bran (and in barley, rice bran and some fruits and vegetables) is certainly important in a low-cholesterol or cholesterol-lowering diet, it is not magic in and of itself.

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If you are primarily interested in insoluble fiber (the kind that prevents constipation and may protect against colon cancer), look for a cereal made with whole wheat. The best idea, of course, is to either eat a multi-grain cereal that will provide you with both kinds of fiber or rotate among different types of cereals. When you are reading the labels, look for a cereal that contains at least 2 grams of fiber per serving.

Many hot cereals are now available in single-serving packets, which are not only a waste of packaging material, but may be twice as expensive. Hot cereal that you buy in large, economical boxes is just as easy to cook on the stove or in a microwave. The instant varieties may seem like a great idea, but they often contain quite a bit of salt and sugar that you don’t need.

If time is your only reason for buying them, you should know that even old-fashioned oats take no more than six minutes at 50% power in your microwave. Quick-cooking oats can be done in a minute and a half at full power in the microwave. It hardly seems worth it to save four or five minutes. In fact, if your supermarket carries generic varieties of hot cereal, take advantage of the price difference here as well. They are nutritionally equivalent and may even be manufactured in the same factories as the national brands.

You can also save some money by flavoring your hot cereal with your own cinnamon and other spices for which you pay a premium in the premixed packet.

If you’re interested in some comparisons between brands, this may be helpful. Note that these values are for cereals prepared as directed with water and do not include any added milk, sugar, butter or other ingredients.

* Cream of Wheat, regular, 1 cup: 133 calories, no fat, 1.8 grams of fiber.

* Quick Cream of Wheat, 1 cup: 130 calories, no fat and 1 gram of fiber.

* Wheatena, 1 cup: 136 calories, 1 gram of fat and 6.5 grams of fiber.

* Maypo, 1 cup: 170 calories, 2.4 grams of fat, 5.8 grams of fiber.

* Regular Quick or Old Fashioned Oats, 1 cup: 145 calories, 2.3 grams of fat, 4 grams of fiber.

* Cream of Rice, 1 cup: 127 calories, no fat, less than 1 gram of fiber.

* Roman Meal (wheat and other grains), 1 cup: 147 calories, less than 1 gram of fat, 8 grams of fiber.

If your favorite brand isn’t on this list, take a good look at the label and see how it compares.

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If you have questions you’d like to see answered in this column, please e-mail us at daogar@uclink4.berkeley.edu, fax us at (510) 642-2857 or send regular mail to Dale Ogar, School of Public Health, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7360. We regret that we cannot answer questions personally.