When you go to the health food store your eyes are assailed with advertisements for whole grain products. Many wonder — what’s the big deal?
A reader wrote in:
Do you know if whole grain oat cereals are the same, better, or worse than just plain oat bran?
To answer this question and get to the bottom of whole grains, I went straight to a prestigious medical source — the Mayo Clinic. The Mayo Clinic has a whole page dedicated to just how great whole grains are and why you should add more to your diet.
image via tvol on flickr
First a definition — whole grains are any grains that haven’t had their brand or germ removed by milling. Sometimes bran or the germ are sold alone, but these do not provide the complete benefits of whole grains.
While all grains are low in fat, good sources of complex carbohydrates, and full of vitamins and minerals, refined grains cut out the nutrient-rich bran and germ. The bran contains extra fiber, essential to digestive health and the germ contains selenium, potassium, magnesium, and other vital vitamins and minerals.
Even if you know how good they are for you, it can be confusing to identify whole grains.
Sources of Whole Grains
Did you know white rice is not a whole grain? But wild rice
Couscous, corn flakes, enriched pasta, grits, white rice, and white bread are among the popular foods that use refined grains — avoid these. Brown rice, wild rice, whole wheat (or rice) pasta, bulgur, buckwheat, millet, oatmeal, popcorn, and whole wheat bread all contain whole grains — pick these instead.
Eat lots of whole grains — it’s an easy way to improve your diet and your health! Â And try to buy organic grains to avoid unhealthy pesticides and herbicides.
(A special thanks to the Mayo Clinic for its excellent and informative page on whole grains!)
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So which is better? Bran cereal vs. whole grain cereal.
Bran cereals tend to have more fiber, but they can also be harder to digest. One example would be Fiber One.
But generally speaking bran cereals are a good bet. I for one quite enjoy Fiber One. The most healthful according to several medical sources (not me) are whole grain cereals.
Here’s a great article on the topic:
http://www.drmirkin.com/nutrition/N180.htm
Great post! I like whole grains and just grains in general, I eat them all of the time. Its never been an issue for me. I can’t believe how some people eat tons of white bread though and refined grains. Its kind of dull.
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Hey, Callie:
Glad you liked the post. Appreciate it. Unfortunately white bread and other refined grains are whats more readily available. This is most likely why people still eat tons of it. Not too mention lots of people don’t know the difference between refined grains and whole grains, etc. But i know people try and i also know people do their best. (most of the time)
But that’s what my blog is for. I’m here to educate, inform, entertain, procrastinate, indulge, patronize, castise, etc. LOL.
Thanxs for the visit. Cheers!
I really enjoy the flavours of different grains. Plain white bread is so uninteresting.
Hi, Louie:
White bread is definitely not interesting, but it’s the MOST widely available and as such – is the most accessible. I’m not a bread snob, so we should leave it at that. LOL. But compared to whole grain bread it doesn’t measure up. (nutrition wise)
Thanxs for visiting! Have a great day.
The thing I don’t like about white bread is that when I make sandwiches — like PB&J or PB&Bananas, it really sticks to your mouth. Whole grain bread, though, tastes a lot heartier and goes down easier.
Back to the bran cereal thingy. Just remember, that it has much more of bran part of the grain, as they’ve removed it, mixed it in with processed grains. So you get *more* health benefits associated with the bran that from whole wheat cereal (such as healthy digestion) — however this also raises the risk of over-consumption of digestible fiber, which can be a bad thing (can hurt your digestion). Also you miss out on naturally occurring vitamins and minerals in the germ which whole wheat cereal has — often times bran cereals try to make up for this by using chemicals, but they’re less easily absorbed, typically. My suggestion is to go with whole grain cereals, but either is a step up over corn flakes or other processed grain varieties.
I love whole grain, I HAVE BEEN EXPLORING SO MANY great whole grains ever since I becam ea vegan!
Great blog!
One of my favorite facts about whole grains is that their shelf life isn’t as long as that of refined grains. This is one reason the refined stuff is such a store favorite. But the reason is that the organisms that cause food to rot aren’t interested in refined products because they don’t have any nutrition!
Wow! Matt – you hit a homerun with that comment/insight/fact. Did NOT know that, thank you so much for sharing such deliciously smart info.
Cheers!
P.S. Will drop on by your blog tonite, I remember reading earlier today (on Twitter) you completed something over the weekend. Another marathon? Very cool!
Does popcorn count as a whole grain?
One advantage of whole grains that is not frequently mentioned is that the outer covering (bran) of the grain protects the grain while it is growing from fungal infections. Bran does the same thing in our bodies, it protects our intestines from candida overgrowth. Candida has been implicated in a host of health problems.
Thanks for sharing, Pat. Good stuff!