What is the difference between cereal and grain?

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Cereal is a specific type of plant — when we talk about cereal, we mean the whole plant. The grain is the seed that the cereal produces. So easy.

Cereals are a type of grass, a family of plants that brings together more than 6,000 species across the planet, such as wheat, oats and barley. All of them can be ground and turned into flour, giving rise to other foods, such as bread and beer. “Cereals are very important vegetables for food, as their grains are rich in carbohydrates and store energy in the form of starch”, says agronomist Maria Regina Sartori, from the Food Technology Institute of Campinas (SP).

Now that we’ve cleared up the confusion between the two terms, it’s worth clearing up another mess: plants like beans, peas, and peanuts cannot be called cereals — therefore, their seeds are not grains. The reason is quite simple: they are not part of the grass family—they are, in fact, part of the legume family. There, the rule is even simpler: the seeds of beans, peas and peanuts are just called… seeds.