Finding Whole Grain Products

A grain is considered whole when the entire grain seed is milled as opposed to processing only a portion of the grain. This means that the endosperm, germ and bran are processed as well. These components of the grain are rich in healthy fats, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, and fiber, and are commonly removed during the process of refining while the endosperm is left behind.

It’s easy to know if the food you are placing in your cart contains, or is made of, whole grain. Food manufacturers normally take pride in having wholegrain as the primary component in their products and you will see it first on the list of ingredients at the back of the package. If you see the label say bromated or enriched, the product will usually have little wholegrain in it and more of the processed counterpart. Though the word “enriched” may seem to sound healthier and more packed with nutrients, whole grains are healthier. If you are on the lookout for wholegrain products, don’t base your food choices on the physical properties of the food alone. A few brands of bread may look brown but this may be because of the high content of molasses. Food manufacturers will intentionally make their product look like wholegrain products.

Always read the list of ingredients if you are looking for real wholegrain products. Having “wheat flour” doesn’t really mean wholegrain. Look for “the whole wheat flour” or the “wholegrain wheat flour” on the list and make sure that it appears first. If it only follows other ingredients, it’s possible that you are not getting enough of the wholegrain goodness. Though whole grain products are known to have high contents of fiber, other sources of fiber like bran can be used to improve the food’s fiber content. And the quality of the fiber content of the product may not be similar compared to that of pure wholegrain. Wholegrain products that are easy to find in supermarkets are whole wheat flour, barley, brown rice, oatmeal, popcorn, and wild rice.

The Wholegrain Goodness

Including sufficient amounts of wholegrain products in your diet proves to be beneficial.  Grave conditions affecting major body systems may be prevented, and the risks of developing such conditions are considerably lowered.

Against Cardiovascular Diseases and Diabetes

Through the years, different studies have proven that wholegrain is more recommendable than refined grains. One of the most significant health benefits of whole grains is its effects in reducing the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases by lowering triglyceride and LDL levels in the blood. It has also been found to reduce the risk of other diseases like diabetes, hypertension and obesity.

Researchers from the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University found that people who eat many servings of wholegrain products a day while reducing the amount of refined grain intake showed less of the fat tissues associated with different cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes. Their study showed that increased wholegrain diet constitutes to reduced levels of visceral adipose tissues. A scientist from the Nutritional Epidemiology Program at the HNRCA, Nicole McKeown, said that visceral adipose tissue, or VAT, in adults who consumed three or more servings of whole grains and only one serving of refined grains a day is 10 percent less than the adults who don’t get that much servings of whole grains. One serving is equal to a single slice of pure whole wheat bread or half a cup of oatmeal. A cup of rice, on the other hand, is one serving of refined grains.

McKeown and his team of researchers analyzed the data from 2,824 questionnaires answered by the people who enrolled in The Framingham Heart Offspring and Third Generation study cohorts. They were aged between 32 to 83 and underwent a series of physical examinations including MDCT, or multi-detector computed tomography scan, to determine their levels of visceral adipose tissue and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT).  VAT is the layer of fat encasing internal organs in the abdominal area while SAT can be found just beneath the skin. Studies on VAT suggest that the fat tissue is linked to the development of metabolic syndromes, increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes by worsening the body’s resistance to insulin and by increasing bad cholesterol levels. The director of the Nutritional Epidemiology Program, Paul Jacques, said that it is not surprising that wholegrain had more significant effects in reducing VAT than SAT and adds that the benefits persisted despite taking into account other factors like vegetable and fruit intake, alcohol intake and smoking.

The results of the study supports other findings on the health benefits of whole grains and further suggests and recommends the increased intake of wholegrain products on a daily basis. Whole grains have been found to reduce the risk of insulin resistance and metabolic syndromes, and the more whole grains a person eats in a day the more evident the benefits will be. The study was published in September 29 on The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The researchers also observed that the study participants who ate an average of 3 servings of wholegrain products, but who also had high intakes of refined grains experienced no significant reduction in VAT. McKeown said that whole grain consumption did not affect VAT levels if refined grain consumption is more than three servings in a day. This implies that taking wholegrain products as an alternative to refined grains is better than wholegrain supplementation. Using whole wheat bread in making sandwiches instead of white bread or eating brown rice instead of white rice, for example, can reduce a person’s VAT volume more effectively than eating whole and refined wheat together.

Another related study conducted by researchers from the Wake Forest University found that consumption of wholegrain products lowers the risk of heart diseases and stroke. The lead author of the study, Philip Mellen, said that consuming an average of 2 and a half servings of whole grains a day lowers the risk of cardiovascular diseases by 21 percent compared to consuming only 2 servings. The result of the study was based on the analysis of the data from seven different studies on more than 280,000 participants. This was conducted between 1996 and 2006.

Against Cancer

The protective properties of whole grains against cancer is yet to be subjected to further studies to obtain sufficient evidence comparable to the already established benefits of whole grain against cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. But studies have shown a strong link between cancer risk reduction and high wholegrain diet. Different case studies on different types of cancer have shown that people with high wholegrain diet have a lower risk of developing cancer than people with very minimal intake of whole grains by 34 percent.

Sources
newswise.com
sciencedaily.com
lpi.oregonstate.edu