8 DEPARTMENT BULLETIN 975. U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE. 
respect is low as compared with the juice of oranges, lemons, grape- 
fruit, or tomatoes. 
The points to remember about foods in this group are : 
(1) Milk, eggs, cheese, flesh foods, and the others of this group are the most 
important protein foods in the diet. 
(2) These are the foods that must be depended on for efficient protein, or, in 
other words, for the protein that can be used to special advantage by the 
body. 
(3) Milk is one of the best foods for young and old, and can not be satisfac- 
torily replaced by any other food in the diet of growing children. 
(4) Some of these foods are rich in mineral substances, for example, meats and 
egg yolks in iron, milk in calcium, and peanuts in phosphorus. 
(5) Many of these protein foods, especially milk and egg yolks, are valuable 
sources of vitamines A and B. 
Group III. CEREALS AND CEREAL PREPARATIONS. 
(Charts 31-38, pp. 26-30.) 
Cereals and their products contain comparatively large amounts 
of protein, usually associated with several times its weight of starch 
and, if the outer coatings of the grains are included, with vitamines 
and considerable amounts of mineral substances, particularly phos- 
phorus. The protein, however, is not so efficient as that of the foods 
in Group II. 
In all the charts representing cereals, the first and second lines are 
very nearly the same length. This indicates that in eating a given 
amount of cereal a person obtains about the same percentage of his 
needed energy as of his needed protein. A large slice of bread (1J 
ounces), for example, supplies about 3 per cent of the fuel needed 
per man per day, and also about 3 per cent of the protein. Most 
people use more cereal foods than any other one kind. They gener- 
ally use with the cereal foods some others, such as meat, eggs, or milk, 
which increase the protein, and still others, such as butter or sweets, 
which add to the energy value of the diet. Thus, in the ordinary 
mixed diet, the protein and the energy will probably bear the same 
proportion to each other that they do in the cereals. 
The charts representing cereal foods differ far less one from 
another, particularly in the lines representing energy and protein, 
than those of any other group. As a matter of fact, the cereals 
themselves, which include wheat, oats, corn, rice, rye, and barley, 
differ very little in food value. The foods such as flour, meal, and 
breakfast foods that are made from cereals also differ very little, 
provided the same method of preparation is followed. For example, 
a whole-grain meal or breakfast food would have much the same 
composition whether it were made of corn, rice, wheat, or rye. On 
the other hand, a refined preparation of one cereal differs greatly, 
particularly in mineral substances, from a whole-grain preparation, 
