How to eat healthy grains?

Grain products, including whole grains, are best known for providing valuable fiber in the diet. Whole grains have been shown to help in weight loss and decrease your risk of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. Grains should make up the base of your diet—aim for six or more servings per day. Here's Why:

Grain products, such as bread, rice, pasta, oatmeal, cereal, and tortillas, are generally low in fat. They provide fiber, vitamins, minerals, and some phytochemicals. Most of the foods we eat are refined grains; for example, white bread, white rice, pasta, pretzels, and many others. Refined grains do not contain as many nutrients as whole grains.

A whole grain is the entire edible portion of a grain. A whole grain includes three parts, each with a valuable store of nutrients:

• Bran—contains large amounts of B vitamins, minerals, and fiber
• Endosperm—houses most of the protein and carbohydrate and small amounts of vitamins and minerals
• Germ—contains B vitamins, minerals, and some protein

White flour is made by refining whole grains. During the refining process, most or all of the bran and germ are removed. White flour that has been enriched has certain nutrients added to it: iron and some B vitamins (including folate). However, many other nutrients are lost. These include:

• Fiber
• Vitamins E and B6
• Minerals (magnesium, copper, zinc)
• Phytochemicals

Whole grains are a healthier choice because the ingredients they contain can help lower your risk for heart disease and diabetes. Soluble fiber (found in oats and barley) can lower cholesterol levels, reduce body weight and prevent type 2 diabetes. Here's How:

It is easy to eat six grain servings per day. One serving is equal to:

• 1 cup flaked cereal
• 1/2 cup of cooked oatmeal, grits, or cream-of-wheat cereal
• 1/4 cup nugget or bud-type cereal
• 3 tablespoons wheat germ
• 1 pancake or waffle, 4 inch diameter
• 1/2 English muffin, hamburger roll, pita, or frozen bagel (those from bagel shops can be up to four servings.)
• 1 slice of bread or dinner roll
• 1 tortilla, 6 inch diameter
• 1/2 cup cooked rice, pasta, or barley
• 1/2 cup quinoa, bulgur, millet, or other whole grain
• 1/2 cup pretzels
• 3-4 small crackers

Finding the Whole Grain

The trickiest part about eating whole grains is figuring out which grains truly are whole. To do this, check the ingredient label. The product is a whole grain if the first ingredient is whole wheat or oatmeal. Do not be fooled by brown breads; some are dyed to be that color. Also, a food label that reads wheat bagel, stoned wheat, or seven grain is not necessarily whole grain.

The following are whole grains:

• Oatmeal
• Whole wheat
• Quinoa
• Brown rice
• Popcorn
• Some cold breakfast cereals, such as: Cheerios, Granola or muesli, Grape-Nuts, Nutri-Grain, Raisin bran, Shredded wheat, Total, Wheat germ, Wheaties

Many of these cereals contain large amounts of sugar, honey, or fructose corn syrup. These types of sugars add calories without any food value or health benefit. Whenever possible, choose cereal products without added sugars.

Some hot breakfast cereals, for example:

• Oat bran
• Oatmeal
• Quaker multigrain
• Roman Meal
• Wheatena

Some crackers, for example:

• Triscuits
• Wheat Thins

1. Flight I, Clifton P: Cereal grains and legumes in the prevention of coronary heart disease and stroke: a review of the literature. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2006;60:1145-59.

2. Jensen MK, Koh-Banerjee P, Franz M et al: Whole grains, bran, and germ in relation to homocysteine and markers of glycemic control, lipids, and inflammation. Am J Clin Nutr. 2006;83:275-83.

3. Kaline K, Bornstein SR, Bergmann A et al: The importance and effect of dietary fiber in diabetes prevention with particular consideration of whole grain products. Horm Metab Res. 2007;39:687-93.