The Truth About Whole Grains

My husband absolutely detests whole wheat anything. He thinks it tastes like cardboard and has steadfastly refused to jump on the whole wheat bandwagon. Instead he just eats smaller portions of white bread and pasta less frequently. All my cajoling about whole wheat being healthier fell on deaf ears. Turns out that my non-physician husband with absolutely no formal nutrition training was absolutely right! Processed whole wheat is actually no better for you. So much for telling my patients to just eat the "brown" foods! When you take whole wheat, or any grain for that matter, and grind it into a meal or flour to make bread or pasta, you are increasing the surface area available for your digestive enzymes to break the carbohydrates down into sugars. Whole wheat bread has the same glycemic index (how much a food causes your blood sugar to rise) as white bread! Unfortunately, the Whole Grains Council considers a food to be a whole grain if it still contains the 3 components of a grain (bran, germ and endosperm)after processing. I found the Whole Grain Stamp on a package of Snyder's Multigrain Cheese Puffs whose only "grains" were corn meal and rice flour. Yet the label proclaimed "20 grams of whole grain per serving"! It drives me crazy that we are all being tricked into thinking we are making a healthier choice, when in reality we are being sold products that are no better for us than regular old Cheetos and Wonderbread. So, what can we do? Choose actual whole grains! Instead of instant oatmeal which is basically pulverized oats and sugar, make up a batch of slow cooked rolled oats. Brown rice, quinoa, millet, bulgur and spelt wheat can all be made into delicious side dishes or can form the basis of a whole meal. When it comes to bread and pasta,look for brands like Ezekiel or Mestemacher which use whole grains and sprouted grains instead of flour. Liana Krissoff's excellent "Whole Grains for a New Generation" cookbook offers loads of delicious ideas. And be like my husband, enjoy your white, refined flour products in moderation.