Whole Grain Foods

Your grocer's shelf offers whole grain foods…
but check the ingredients for the term whole.

Grains lose vitamins, minerals, and fiber when ground and refined into flour and other food products.

To compensate for this nutritional loss, food manufacturers add isolated nutrients (a specific vitamin or dietary fiber component) to breads, pasta, and other products made from refined grains.

The goal is to improve total nutritional content. However, once refined, a grain never recovers its full nutritional value.

Grain loses more than dietary fiber during the refining process.  Damage occurs to all nutritional components — vitamins, minerals, protein, carbohydrates.

A whole grain food product typically has about 25% more protein than a product made from refined grain. Compare the nutrient differences between whole wheat and white flour.

Fiber in Grain Products

Food production standards allow a product to be called whole-grain even when made from cracked, split, crushed, or ground grains, if adequate germ and bran nutrients enrich the food item to the same nutritional potency as the original grain kernel. (U.S.D.A. nutrient data)

These standards can make marketing labels confusing. Check for two details on packaged food products:

• The ingredient list starts with the word whole.
• Nutritional content lists at least 3 grams of fiber.

Whole grain products available in Western markets include:

• Cereals
    Quick-to-Fix, High-Fiber, or Ready-to-Eat
• Popcorn
• Rolled Oats
• Oat Groats
• Whole Wheat Flour
• Whole Wheat Bread
• Whole Wheat Pasta
• Triticale Flour
• Teff Flour

Grains

Grains commonly available in whole form and easy to prepare include:

• Barley
• Brown Rice
• Wild Rice
• Popcorn
• Corn Grits
• Oats and Oatmeal
• Buckwheat

Gluten-Free Grains

Foods containing grain, even healthy whole grain, can be a problem when you have an allergy. Some people cannot tolerate or digest gluten, which is a protein-starch composite in many grains. Wheat, rye, and barley are common grains that do contain gluten.

These grains provide good nutrition for gluten-free diets:

• Amaranth
• Buckwheat
• Corn
• Millet
• Quinoa
• Sorghum
• Teff
• Wild Rice