Whole Truth About Grains

Enriched doesn't mean it's healthier

(Tuesday, April 11, 2006) - Buying food made with whole grain is like buying a deluxe, new car.

David Maxwell, manager of a Great Harvest Bread Co. store, teaches students about whole-wheat and whole grains by taking on the persona of "Kernel Wheat.


The Value of Whole Grains
Why should you care about adding whole grains to your diet? Consider these benefits:
Whole grains are a healthy source of carbohydrates needed to fuel the body, and they contain essential vitamins and minerals.
Whole grains are a source of dietary fiber. Fiber reduces blood cholesterol levels, helps maintain blood sugar levels, reduces the risk of diabetes, helps maintain regularity, reduces the risk of colon cancer, helps maintain a healthy heart, reduces the risk of heart disease, contains antioxidants, and helps in weight management and weight loss.


Those with a family history of heart disease, diabetes, and/or overweight or obesity issues are wise to include whole grains in their diet.

Sources: Whole Grains Council, American Dietetic Association and Milwaukee dietitian Colleen Kristbaum

In Your Diet
Here are some suggestions from the Whole Grains Council, wholegrainscouncil.org, to boost your whole-grain intake:

Replace half the white flour with whole-wheat flour in recipes for cookies, muffins, quick breads and pancakes. Or, add up to 20% of another whole-grain flour.
Add cup cooked bulgur (cracked wheat), wild rice or barley to bread stuffing.
Add cup cooked wheat or rye berries, wild rice, brown rice or barley to your favorite canned or homemade soup.
Use whole cornmeal for corn cakes, corn breads and corn muffins.
Make risottos, pilafs and other ricelike dishes with whole grains such as barley, brown rice, bulgur, millet, quinoa or sorghum.
Try whole-grain salads such as tabbouleh, made with cracked wheat.
Try different whole-grain breads. Kids especially like whole-grain pita bread.
Buy whole-grain pasta, or one of the blends that's part whole-grain, part white.
Look for cereals made with less-common grains such as kamut, kasha (buckwheat) or spelt.
Remember that one slice of whole-grain bread or a serving of whole-grain breakfast cereal is roughly one whole-grain serving.
Tell the manager at your local grocery store that you would like to see more whole-grain choices.

Whole Grains Are Catching On
Surveys show whole grains are confusing to the average consumer, but sales of whole-grain products are growing:

88% in one survey rated whole grains as "somewhat or extremely healthy."
73% in the same survey said they were "trying to consume more whole grains."
40% in another survey said it was a "challenge to find whole grains in stores."
62% in a third survey said they purchased a food because it made a whole-grain claim.
Sales for frozen whole-grain prepared foods grew 168% in the first quarter of 2005, compared with the fourth quarter of 2004.
Snacks make up the largest percentage of whole-grain consumption (41%), followed by breakfast cereals (32%), yeast breads (18%) and other foods (9%).
Breads and bagels make up the largest segment of foods that carry the Whole Grain Stamp, followed by hot cereals, side dishes, cold cereals, baking mixes, flour, pasta and snacks.

Sources: Surveys conducted on behalf of the International Food Information Council Foundation, Knorr-Lipton Sides, Whole Grains Council, Uncle Ben's, NPD Group, General Mills and Food Marketing Institute. Other sources include Rodale Inc. and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Labels

Read The Labels
Here's how to tell a whole-grain product from a refined-grain product, according to the Whole Grains Council and Milwaukee dietitian Colleen Kristbaum, spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Dietetic Association:

Look for the black and gold "whole grain" stamp, shaped like a postage stamp, on the front of the package, which flags one of three levels of whole-grain content.

General Mills products may display a seal that also indicates "good" or "excellent" source of whole grains, and Kellogg's may display a "fiber" banner and a "made with whole grain" banner. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not consider any of these terms appropriate at this time but has not restricted use of them. You should still read the ingredients and judge for yourself.

Look at the ingredients list. The first ingredient listed should have "whole" in front of it. Whole grains include oats, corn or cornmeal, bulgur (cracked wheat), wheat and graham flour.
Check the Nutrition Facts Label for dietary fiber. A whole grain product contains at least 2 grams per serving. Adults should consume about 25 to 38 grams of fiber daily, depending on age and calorie needs.
Don't confuse grams of whole grains with grams of fiber - they are not the same thing. Whole grains are a good source of fiber, but they are not the only source. Fresh fruits and vegetables also provide ample amounts of fiber.

Bottom line: The 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that half of an adult's allowed servings of grains should come from a whole-grain source, Kristbaum noted.

The average American eats less than one daily serving of whole grains, and more than 30% of Americans never eat whole grains, according to the Whole Grains Council.

Reading and understanding Nutrition Facts Labels, knowing what to look for in the ingredients list, and understanding the symbols and claims made on packaging are important steps to improving your "whole grain" health, Kristbaum said.

Research, say advocates, shows the benefits of whole grain. And, they say, manufacturers are making tastier whole-grain products.

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Let's say before you drove that new car off the lot, the dealer wanted to "improve" it by taking off one of the four wheels. He also suggested removing 17 parts, then replacing only five of them - each placed in a different location on the car.

"Would you be happy? Would you buy this new car?" asked Cynthia Harriman, director of food and nutrition strategies for the Whole Grains Council and Oldways Preservation Trust in Boston.

Harriman says buying food made with refined grain is no different from buying a car that's been taken apart and reassembled incompletely.

Refining whole wheat into white flour removes 24% of the protein and 17 known nutrients, she says.

Five of the 17 nutrients are added back during the enrichment process, but in different amounts than originally existed.

Refinement is intended to increase product shelf life and "lighten" the product.

To refine wheat, however, both the fiber-rich bran (outer layer) and nutrient-rich germ (inner part) must be removed, leaving only the endosperm (middle part), which is a source of starch, protein and a small amount of vitamins and minerals.

While few would disagree that whole grains "are good for you," whole grains still are a confusing part of the nutrition picture, especially in the wake of the low-carb diet craze, which depicted whole grains rich in carbs as "bad" for your health.

Whole grains haven't enjoyed a full-fledged mainstream status.

They were embraced by the counterculture, back-to-the-earth movement of the '60s and '70s. Their healthful qualities were not disputed, but they made baked goods heavier and the earthy flavor wasn't universally appreciated.

A recent push by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2005 Dietary Guidelines, calling for three daily servings of whole grains, is starting to boost the status of whole grain.

Many food manufacturers, such as General Mills and Kellogg's, have either developed new products or reformulated existing products to hop on the whole-grain bandwagon.

"We feel vindicated now and hopeful that whole grains will catch on like the Atkins diet did," said Rod Hall, owner of the Great Harvest Bread Co. franchise in Whitefish Bay. "The Atkins diet was very hard on business from early 2003 until late 2005. We took a substantial hit - a 20 to 25 percent loss in sales."

Whole grains aren't as easy to understand as carbohydrates, Hall said.

"People will see 'whole-wheat' bread that's made with wheat flour, and think it's made with whole grain. If you can look at a label and the first ingredient has the word, 'whole' in it, then it is whole-grain. But 'wheat flour' isn't 'whole grain.'"

Great Harvest Bread Co., based in Montana, was the first company to adopt the Whole Grain Stamp offered by the Whole Grains Council - a postage stamp that indicates three different levels of whole-grain content, from at least a half serving to a whole serving with all whole grain. Almost 600 food products now carry the stamp, which was developed last year.

Reading food product labels can be time consuming, and some labels can be "misleading," nutrition experts say.

Milwaukee dietitian Colleen Kristbaum, of JCK Consultants, LLC, offered this example:

Wheatables snack crackers advertises "made with whole grain" on the package. But the first ingredient listed is "enriched flour" and the second ingredient is "stone-ground whole-wheat flour."

The dietary fiber provided per serving (19 crackers) is only 1 gram (in 23 grams of total carbohydrates and 140 calories).

Then there's Kavli all-natural Five-Grain Crispbread, which does not market itself as a whole-grain or high-fiber product, Kristbaum said.

One serving of this product offers 2 grams of fiber (in 9 grams of total carbohydrate and 40 calories). The first ingredient is "whole rye flour," and the second ingredient is "wheat bran."

"It pays to know what to look for," said Kristbaum, who also is spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Dietetic Association.

The first ingredient in Wheatables is "enriched," while the first ingredient in the Kavli is "whole." Also, a whole-grain product will contain at least 2 grams of dietary fiber per serving.

Hall said he began appreciating whole grains as a pre-med student concerned about proper nutrition. But he became "hooked" on whole grains because of their flavor.

"I don't believe whole grains have gotten better," Hall said. "People have just learned better ways to use whole grains."

Hall said he intentionally distanced himself from the "intensely classic hippie, organic" movement when he got into the bread business because he wanted whole grains to be accepted as mainstream.

He and his former wife, Jill, bought the Whitefish Bay Great Harvest Bread Co., in 1990, after being devoted customers of Great Harvest Bread in Minneapolis, where they had lived.

"We buy the very best wheat in the world from northwestern Montana - it's kind of expensive - but we grind our own flour fresh and use it within two days," Hall said.

If you consider whole grains in their historical context, appreciating their nutritional value is like going back 100 years.

That was before technology allowed refinement for the purpose of extending shelf life and making bread "rise" easier with a lighter flour, noted Harriman, of the Whole Grains Council and Oldways Preservation Trust.

"The 'fad' really has been the last 100 years, when we've eaten refined grains," he said. "Now we're getting back to whole grains because in the last couple of decades, a wealth of research has shown the benefits of whole grains, and manufacturers have gotten much better at making tasty whole-grain products."

Whole grains absorb moisture at a different rate than refined grains, so recipes can be adjusted for that, Harriman said.

"For consumers, the bottom line is always taste," she said. "The 'hold your nose and eat it because it's good for you' appeal just doesn't work."

Lunch and dinner are a "vast wasteland" of whole-grain products, Harriman said.

The average consumer gets 70% of his or her daily whole-grain intake from breakfast and snack foods, she said.

So the Whole Grains Council has been working with food companies to incorporate more whole-grain pasta, brown rice and other whole grains into lunch and dinner entrees and sides.

"If we get lunch and dinner taken care of, in addition to breakfast, that's three daily servings," Harriman said.

The Whole Grains Council has existed for only three years. It was formed by Oldways, a Boston non-profit think tank that promotes better eating, to counteract the low-carb diet backlash against whole grains.

For more information, visit www.wholegrainscouncil.org.

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