Whole Grains and Half Truths

If you knew about a product that could reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, obesity and diabetes, aid your digestion and manage your weight while allowing you to eat MORE – would you buy it?

You bet you would. And you’d be smart to do so. Whole grains have tremendous health benefits. They are rich in phenolic acids, phytochemicals, antioxidants and good stuff that’s harder to get from fruits and vegetables such as fiber, iron, magnesium, and vitamins B and E.

The downside? Food companies are falling all over themselves to offer you something that appears to be whole grain, but in truth may be far from it. They’d love to continue selling you the same old crap under a different name.

So how to separate the wheat from the chaff? Best case scenario is to look for foods bearing the “100%Whole Grain Stamp” from the Whole Grains Council. If you can’t find these foods, then you’ll need to read the labels more carefully. Most importantly, look for the word “whole”. Words like “durum”, “wheat”, “organic” and “multigrain” may sound good, but are pretty much meaningless without those five magic letters
“W-H-O-L-E” – so read carefully. Secondly, once you’ve found a bona fide whole grain, make sure it’s first up on the ingredients list. If it’s listed second, the product could consist of as little as one percent whole grain - and you’d have no way of knowing.

So pay attention to your labels. If you don’t, you might not be buying whole grain, you might be buying a lemon.

Visit the Whole Grain Council website for a list of REAL whole grain foods:
http://www.wholegrainscouncil.org/find-whole-grains/stamped-products