Professors Square Off On Cereal

Frederick J. Stare, head of the Department of Nutrition at the School of Public Health, thinks shredded wheat is good for you, and he told a Senate subcommittee so Tuesday.

But Jean Mayer: professor of Nutrition, disagreed in front of the same subcommittee Wednesday.

The committee, which is studying the problems of consumers, is holding hearings on the nutritional value of dry breakfast cereals. The hearings opened with testimony by Robert Choate, an independent nutritional expert, that dry cereals contain little nutritional value and do not contribute to a good breakfast.

Chartists

Scientists representing the cereal companies counterattacked Tuesday, denouncing a chart prepared by Choate which listed popular cereals in descending order of nutritional value.

Appearing with the director of research at the Quaker Oats Co., Stare said that tree chart failed to evaluate the cereals "the way 95 per cent of breakfast cereals are consumed, that is, with milk."

He contended that cereals with milk make a more nourishing breakfast than many other common breakfast foods.

A chart presented by the Quaker Oatsrepresentative ranked common breakfasts in order of nutritional value. It showed that black coffee alone contains no nutrition.

Mayer, who served as chairman of the White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health last December. disagreed the next day and called for restrictions on cereal advertising by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Communications Commission.

In a letter to the subcommittee, Mayer suggested that food advertising might be monitored by an impartial committee of nutritionists, doctors, and educators.