Whole Grain Products

Eating at least 3 servings of whole grains per day is recommended by nutrition experts. Everywhere you look at the grocery store, you see products labeled whole wheat and whole grain. You may be surprised to find out many of them are not true whole grain products. And no, the manufacturers of the products are not considered in the wrong. If a product does not state 100% whole grain or 100% whole wheat, they are not providing a false claim.

Whole grains are beneficial because they contain all the nutrients of the grain, including fiber. Whole grains are less processed than their enriched grain counterparts. 

How can you tell if a product is truly whole grain? Look for "whole" as the first ingredient listed on the label, or "100 percent whole grain" in the title of the product. 

Some examples of whole grain products are: Cheerios, Kellogg's Mini-Wheats, General Mills Wheat Chex, Oatmeal, triscuits, popcorn and breads, rice, and pastas labeled 100% whole grain.

Being a smart shopper is necessary when labels can be deceiving. 

Balanced Breakfast

Eating a balanced breakfast has a wide range of benefits for both children and adults.  Eating breakfast daily has been shown to improve concentration and productivity throughout the morning, to help us eat less fat and cholesterol, and to control your weight as an adult.  For children, benefits include helping meet daily nutrient requirements, concentrate better, be more alert and physically active. 

Eating breakfast is known to be beneficial; however, eating a balanced meal is known to be even more so. 

Components of a healthy breakfast include whole grains (hot or cold whole grain cereals, bagels), protein (peanut butter, eggs, skim milk, yogurt, cottage cheese), and fruits (fresh or frozen).

Make time for breakfast.

Facts on Fiber

Fiber is essential for a healthy diet.  Fiber is mainly in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes.  There are two main types of fiber: soluble and insoluble.  Soluble is "gummy fiber," found in oats, peas, beans, apples, citrus fruits, carrots, barley and psyllium.  It helps lower blood cholesterol and sugars.  Insoluble fiber is "stringy fiber," found in whole-wheat flour, wheat bran, nuts and many vegetables, like celery.  It helps increase stool bulk and prevent constipation. 

Fiber has a wide range of health benefits from normalizing bowel movements to aiding in weight loss.  It helps your GI tract and your heart, and most Americans get nowhere near the recommended amounts.  Above I have created a low fiber grocery list to compare against a high fiber one.  You can see how making small changes in the foods you purchase can have a big impact on the amount of fiber you consume.

Recommended Daily Fiber Intake:

The Institute of Medicine recommends that females get 21-26 grams/day and males should get 30-38 grams/day.

Getting in Whole Grains

Experts are saying we should eat whole grains more often because they are healthy, nutritious, and full of the vitamins and minerals we need to stay at our best. 

If whole grains are so healthy, why do 80% of us eat them less than once per day?

To start, it doesn’t help that many people don’t know what whole grains are.  What makes something whole grain anyways?  What foods are they in?  How much do we need to see health benefits?

Whole grains contain all the essential parts and naturally occurring nutrients of the entire grain seed.  The food products should deliver the same rich balance of nutrients that are found in the original grain seed.

Basically, whole grain means the food contains the entire whole grain kernel.   Each part of the kernel contains important nutrients our bodies need.   The bran contains the fiber, the endosperm the starch and the germ vitamins and antioxidants.  By keeping the entire whole grain kernel in a food, we are making sure we are getting all of these nutrients we need for our health. 

The main benefits of whole grains: 

• stroke risk reduced
• type 2 diabetes risk reduced
• heart disease risk reduced
• better weight maintenance

Other benefits:

• reduced risk of asthma
• lower risk of colorectal cancer
• healthier blood pressure levels
• less gum disease and tooth loss

 Examples of whole grains:

Foods like oatmeal, bulgur wheat, brown rice, popcorn are whole grain and great to eat for both you and your children.

It gets trickier with foods like breads, crackers, pasta, and tortillas to tell if they are whole grain or not.  It doesn’t make it any easier that manufacturers go out of their way to make their products look and sound healthy, even when they aren’t.  Putting words like “100% wheat,” or “multi-grain” on a package of food does not necessarily mean it is whole grain.

We need to know how to tell if a product is considered whole grain or not if we are going to eat more whole grains.

There are 4 things to look for:

1.The Health Claim: diet with soluble fiber, and low saturated fat and cholesterol, may decrease risk of heart disease.

2.Soluble fiber should be listed on the nutrition facts label.

3.Whole grain label statement of being an excellent source of whole grain should be on front of the product.

4.Whole grains should be listed as the first ingredient on the box.

When a food does not have one of these 4 things on the food package, then it is a refined grain instead of a whole grain.

A refined grain has been changed from its natural state, generally involving the removal of bran and germ.

Refined grains are foods like white bread, pastas, baked goods, saltine crackers, white rice.

Since in refined grains the bran and the germ are taken out, we are also taking out the fiber and vitamins within these parts.

Fiber is especially important to our health.  The more we get, the better.  Fiber has many health benefits: it prevents constipation, lowers your risk of colon cancer, makes you feel full longer, and helps keep the digestive system healthy.

Recommended Daily Intake:

The Institute of Medicine recommends that adult females get 21-26 grams of fiber/day. As for children, 1-3 year olds should get about 19 grams of fiber/day and 4-8 year olds should get about 25 grams of fiber/day.

As for whole grains:

Dietary Guidelines for Americans: “Consume at least half of all grains as whole grains.  Increase whole-grain intake by replacing refined grains with whole grains.”  This means that at least three servings of whole grains are recommended for all Americans age 9 and up.

Next time you are at the grocery store, pick out some of those whole grain products!

References

The Whole Grains Council. http://www.wholegrainscouncil.org/