Cereal foods are a major source of energy in diets worldwide, and contribute to the intake of dietary fibre, carbohydrates, protein, vitamins and many minerals. Many of them are characterized by rapid glycaemic responses, and also carry refined ingredients such as sugar and fat. In order to increase the nutrient density of cereal-based foods it is important to use as much of the grain raw material as possible in the consumer end product. The strong evidence that foods rich in whole grain and dietary fibre and with slow glycaemic response have health-protective effects has stimulated interest in developing new technologies to improve the nutrition profiles of cereal foods, and to modulate physiological responses in consumers. These developments should address the issues raised by the increased content of insoluble dietary fibre in recipes, which requires a re-examination of the relationship between structure and properties, in the light of current rheological models. These aspects are reviewed in this paper.