210 STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
THE: NUTRITIVE VALUE OF PREPARED CEREAL 
BRODUC Eas: 
BY: Rood. MILNER: 

Within recent years there has come into very popular use in 
this country a class of cereal food products known as ‘‘break- 
fast foods,’’ or ‘“‘breakfast cereals.’’ These products are in 
general attractive and palatable, and afford a pleasing variety in 
the diet; and because of special treatment in manufacture, which 
in many cases includes partial or entire cooking, their prepara- 
tion for the table is very materially simplified. In view of these 
conditions it is easy to understand why this class of food mate- 
rials should increase in popular favor. 
In spite of the intrinsic value of the materials, however, it is 
doubtless true that their prevalent use is due in very large 
measure to the method of advertising them. Noclass of food 
materials is so extensively or ingeniously advertised. Accord- 
ing to the statements made for them, they are not only the most 
perfect of foods, sufficient in themselves for all man’s needs for 
nutriment, but they also have a variety of other virtues, from 
that of brain tonics to that of substitutes for pie crust. Some 
of the claims made for them are founded on fact, others are 
obviously preposterous, and many contain an ingenious mixture. 
of fact and fancy. 
Whether this class of food materials will be permanently as 
‘ popular as at present it is impossible to say. It is noticeable 
that many of the brands remain on the market only a short 
time; but new ones appear at frequent intervals, until their 
name is legion. In some cases the disappearance is due to 
failure to catch popular fancy, but in many cases there is simply 
a change in name, in order to attract attention to something 
seemingly new, but in reality an old article under a new name. 
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