There’s a lot of news about whole grains today, and we’re not getting the whole truth. Whole grains are amazing for us – they contain nutrients as mother nature intended. From big minerals (like magnesium) to micronutrients (like chromium) to the skins (fiber), whole grains pack a nutritious punch that our body needs to prevent disease, for optimal energy, and for satisfying eating occasions.
However, recent ads and food product inventions have made it clear to me that a lot of food manufacturers don’t understand, or do understand but are manipulating, the definition of a whole grain.
So let’s set the record straight. A whole grain is a whole grain – its not that difficult – its the grain with its parts all attached – bran, endosperm and germ …. What this means is the grain looks like, well, a grain – rices, quinoa, oats, wheatberries, etc. – these whole grains are NOT whole if they’ve been ground, refined and then nutrients added back, puffed, flaked, or flattened.
Not ground? What about whole grain flours in pastas, cereals etc? If we are technical, these are NOT whole grains. When we grind them up into flour (even if we don’t remove any nutrients) we break down their fiber outside of the body thus cheating an important nutrition value of whole grains. When we make puffs (rice cakes, cereals etc) we open up grains, creating a higher surface area for digestive enzymes to act on which means that the glycemic load (how the food effects our blood sugar levels) is greatly increased, a negative for our bodies in terms of getting energy more quickly then the body can utilize it all – resulting in fat storage and potential for elevated blood sugar levels / insulin resistance, and the first steps to diabetes.
Does this mean products from these semi-processed whole grains are all bad? No, it just means that they are less nutrient dense, and less healthy than the actual whole grain and they should NOT be allowed to tout the benefits of whole grains in the media or on pack but rather should say made with whole grain flour, if indeed they originated from true whole grain flour vs refined with some nutrients added back.
So before you grab a box or a bag – consider have you had ACTUAL whole grains today? AKA advice: favor true whole grains in your diet for optimal health.
Makes sense.
Even if the “whole” grain has been crushed I still think it is better than the flour that didn’t use the whole grain and was refined with some nutrients added back (as you said). Is that not correct?
And some of the items that claim to be whole grain have so many other ingredients that one should avoid it could sometimes be more healthy to eat the over processed white flour.
I agree as well – think of it like a specturm or continuum where the least healthy would be the white flour and the most healthy would be the organic whole grain