First and foremost I must get something off my chest. Just because a box of something at the grocery store or even a bagel at the bakery says “multi-grain” does not mean it is a healthy alternative. Multi-grain simply means the food is made with more than one grain and has absolutely nothing to do with whether any of those grains are actually whole grains or not (which is what is really important).
Awhile back I did an in-depth post on understanding whole-wheat and what should be in your sandwich bread. What you know about wheat can easily be applied to many other grains as well. In summary, the wheat berry has 3 parts (germ, bran, endosperm) and when whole-wheat flour is made all 3 parts are included. When highly processed (a.k.a. refined) white flour is made you are only left with the endosperm, which is basically high in calories and low in nutrients (which reminds me a little too much of sugar). Here are a few other popular grains and how this same thought process can be applied…
I know corn easily gets a bad rap because it is so highly subsidized by the government and included in countless additives that you will find in most highly processed foods, but straight-up whole corn by itself is actually a healthy food. Not only is corn considered to be a whole-grain, but it is also sometimes considered a vegetable (that according to the Whole Grains Council “has the highest level of antioxidants of any grain or vegetable.”). Just like wheat though, you want to make sure you only buy the most nutritious whole-grain corn products that include all the parts of the kernel (the germ, bran, and endosperm). Here’s what to look for:
– Whole grain corn, whole grain cornmeal, whole grain flour (also called masa harina), and even popcorn = whole grain
– Corn meal, enriched corn meal, corn flour, degerminated corn, grits, and corn starch = refined
I think that oats are one of the most fabulous grains solely because it is so easy to understand and ensure you are purchasing the whole grain. According to the Whole Grains Council “oats almost never have their bran and germ removed in processing. So if you see oats or oat flour on the label, relax: you’re virtually guaranteed to be getting whole grain.” This rule of thumb applies to rolled oats, instant oats, quick cooking oats, steel cut oats, you name it. Whew! That certainly makes things easy and in summary…
– All oats = whole grain
Rice is thankfully almost as easy to understand as oats. There are just two simple things to know…
– Brown (and other colors like black & purple) rice = whole grain
– White rice = refined (since the germ and bran are removed)
Once again this applies to all brown/colored rice whether it is quick cooking, parboiled, brown rice flour, etc.
- Wheat –
Back to something that often seems as complex and tricky as corn, but really can be looked at simply…
– Whole-wheat = whole-grain
– White flour, something labeled as just “wheat”, enriched flour = refined
One of the reasons this one can be tricky is that a lot of products simply say “wheat” which means it has been refined. If you are after the whole-grain it must (and will) say something like whole-wheat or whole-grain wheat if it truly is the whole grain.
One last important note on the subject of grains….I love the Whole Grains Council. You may have heard of them or at least recognize their stamp (pictured) on some packaged foods. They are what I consider to be the experts when it comes to understanding grains. I call them frequently, and they are always so friendly and knowledgeable when answering my questions. I have one tip though when it comes to looking for the Whole Grains stamp… there is both a basic stamp and a 100% stamp. The basic stamp tells you how many grams of whole grains per serving are contained in that product (and usually indicates the product also contains some refined grains). The 100% stamp means the product contains only 100% whole grains and therefore contains no refined grains at all. So the next time you are shopping at the supermarket, don’t be misled by some of the “whole-grains” health claims on the front of the package. Instead, do a little investigating yourself to ensure you are buying products that contain 100% whole grains (although consuming any amount of whole grains would certainly be better than none!).
Great breakdown, very easy to remember!
Hi Lisa! Thank you for such a great post. I’m sharing it on my blog, Medium Food Mama. I read your blog often and feel a connection to you and your mission. Mine is similar, although I weave in much more convenience items than you do! I also noticed we both did spots on Larabars and are fans of Great Harvest bread. Great minds think alike? Keep up the great work, it’s truly appreciated.
I love meeting others who are on a similar mission…the more the merrier!
Great post! This year I started trying to cut out processed sugars & flours and I was definitely surprised by how many things SEEM to be whole grain but are not! I had all the wheat related stuff down but the part about the corn was definitely helpful. Thanks!
Wow – thanks so much for the simplifying this!!
I’ve never in a million years thought to call the Whole Grains Council. What have you called/learned about?
Pretty much everything in this post with the exception of the wheat section…they know everything when it comes to grains!
That’s really interesting, especially about corn. I never knew that corn actually was healthy. I thought it was just kind of a waste food – all starch. Whenever I saw “whole grain corn” I just thought it was bogus. Good info to know! Also never took a close look at the whole grains stamp. Thanks for all the info!
[…] this so-called vegetable). Three of the next four ingredients are all highly refined and include potato starch, corn starch and rice flour. Tomato paste is a little further down on the list, but I hate to break […]
Problem… I HATE whole wheat bread taste… I know, I know!! I’ve tried buying different brands, but still hate it when I get home and have to eat it, I end up not eating it and it goes to waste.
What I have done, is tried to find a white bread that has the most fiber and it usually tends to be one of the “12 grain breads,” am I just fooling myself? Or is this at least a little better than the typical white bread?
Any other suggestions?
But also, thank you for breaking it down, after reading this, it’s not so hard to decipher at the grocery store.
I used to absolutely HATE anything whole-wheat as well. I would have rather starved than had whole-wheat bread. The problem was that I had only tried whole-wheat breads from the grocery store. Once I bought my first loaf of freshly baked (5 ingredient) bread from a local bakery I actually thought it was pretty good and got even more used to it over time! They also put a little honey in it which helps. When I am making stuff at home I use a flour called white whole-wheat which is a little lighter variety of whole-wheat and makes the transition easier.
And I hate to break it to you, but you are totally being fooled by reading the nutritional label on white bread. The problem is that there are so many benefits that you get from whole-wheat that food scientists don’t even understand yet (they didn’t even know nutrients existed a hundred years ago…imagine what else will be discovered of the next hundred years) so no matter how hard they try to enrich white flour and white bread you will never get all of the same health benefits as you would just eating whole-wheat. Did you see this post yet? https://thefoodillusion.wordpress.com/2010/03/26/what-should-be-in-your-sandwich-bread/
Wonderful blog! I would also recommend you look into other relatively esoteric grains for your 100 day mission such as quinoa, millet, buckwheat, and barley (although technically, some of these are considered seeds 🙂 Due to the mass production of wheat, some nutritionists believe many people are mildly intolerant to the grain yet, unfortunately, do not realize.
Thanks, again!
I actually bought some quinoa and have been meaning to use it…thanks for the reminder!
[…] not corn, then it’s probably soybeans). Corn is perfectly fine to eat as a whole food or even a whole grain, but food scientists are tasked with coming up with other purposes for this overproduced, highly […]
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Love your 2 blogs! A friend told me about them and now I’m pouring over your old posts.
I share a lot of your goals. I have 2 young kids and they are what motivated me to improve our diet.
In the past several years, we’ve gradually eliminated most refined grain from our diet. We consume mostly whole grains now. We switched to brown rice. I started grinding my own wheatberries to make 100% whole wheat bread. I incorporate a variety of other grains, grinding them for multigrain pancakes and occasional quickbreads.
I do a lot of reading on nutrition and have been coming across a variety of sources suggesting grain is not healthy, even whole grain. It started with my mom questioning me feeding whole grain porridge to my 1-year-old, explaining she thought she’d read it’s too difficult to digest. I dismissed her comments thinking I knew better. Later, I happened to read a book about superfoods which claimed grains are NOT superfoods. Later still, I read all about the phytates and anti-nutrients in grain from Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions cookbook. That was the book that really got me anxious. In an effort to counter the negative health effects of whole grains, I experimented with preparing them more “properly” by soaking or sprouting them. Most recently, with the same goal, I’ve been learning more about fermentation and natural leavening (i.e. making sourdough breads with wild yeast instead of baker’s yeast, the latter which turns out to commonly be genetically modified and bad for us for other reasons. Sigh.). When you’re busy, though, and who isn’t, soaking, sprouting, and souring can be tough to keep on top of.
So I’m discouraged. I felt like we were on the right track with making all our grains whole, and now I feel like a lot of that effort might actually be doing long term damage to our health.
So lately, we’ve been reducing the grains in our diet altogether, but man we reeeeally miss them.
Because you and I have similar goals in feeding our families and our approach to food, I’d love to see you do some research and a post on this topic when you get time. It would help me put things in perspective. Thanks!
I just found your blog & im loving it!! We also buy our bread from a local bakery.It has 5 ingredients & its 100% organic,the whole family loves it!
I have researched the whole soaking grains & honestly i dont think the soaking process eliminates all the phytic acid it may reduce it some,but how much? Dowe really know? The phytic acid would be leached into the water that the grains are sitting in…Just doesn make much since to me..It takes a lot of time for one and two phytic acid has benefits as well.Phytic acid’s “chelating” ability is considered by some to be a detriment to one’s health. On the other hand, many researches embrace this ability to bind with minerals as its most powerful asset. In her book, Diet for the Atomic Age, Sara Shannon, lists 11 nutrients in particular that protect against heavy metal toxicity and radiation damage. Phytates bind with radioactive and toxic substances and carry them out of the body. We live in a toxic world so i think the benefits far out weight the risks as far as the phytic acid goes.In the book “Healthy at 100″ for John Robbins describing the eating habits of several communities in the past century around the world with the longest living healthy documented records ( In Peru,In Caucasus , In Japan ….) He describes Whole grain as one of the daily main foods with almost zero incidence of autoimmune,cardiac disease, diabetes or cancer and almost all of those long living people are astute at their later years with good vision and healthy teeth . Now if Whole grain itself is the problem, those people will not be so healthy. In some cases soaking may be necessary but for every body id say no.I like Weston A Price as well but dont follow it to a T, every thing in moderation:)
Thanks for sharing, Kari.
I appreciate the book references as I am looking to read countering views. When I first started researching phytic acid and grains, most everything I found led directly back to Fallon/Price which makes me really question their viewpoint. I could not find much literature or studies from independent sources that even mentioned these ideas.
On the other hand, I had read about the values of fermentation and natural leavening before, so I put more stock in that than the soaking theories. I’m just intimidated by the time and commitment required to pursue that right now.
One benefit I found with my soaking experiments is that, regardless of any pros or cons with respect to phytic acid, my whole grain baked goods (cookies, pancakes, quickbreads, yeasted breads) are MUCH lighter and more tender when I soak the whole grain flour overnight in the wet baking ingredients. Perhaps that’s just because it gives the flour a chance to absorb more of the liquid this way. In fact, until I tried it, I was ready to give up on homemade 100% whole wheat bread (which I’m determined to make without the addition of vital wheat gluten because of its downsides). The soaking of the flour with whey and water/milk prevented my usual brick-like results. 🙂
But back to my original point… I appreciate your comments and feel encouraged about feeding whole grains to my family without the guilt that was starting to paralyze me. Thank you!
“Everything in moderation”, indeed.
I also couldnt find any literature or studies on the soaking of the grains besides Weston A Price,Sally Falon. Hey i will half to try the soaking next tiem i attempt to make bread lol mine turns out like a hockey puck hahahaha.I could not do it for every thing,the main thing i soak is beans b4 i cook them.I buy my bread from a local bread company so i havent made my own in a long time. Yesi was a little overwhelmed at first with the whole grains soaking ( my friend does it) So i just kept researching & couldnt really find any thing to really go on.We eat 100% organic grains like oatmeal,bread,rice.On occasion i do pizza dough but its not bleached.They have the sprouted bread but they are like eating card board! My kids or hubby wont touch it.So dont stress it sounds like ur on the right track with eating healthy 🙂
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Love all the information about whole-granis. I have been wanting to do this with my family and now I know how!! Thanks
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[…] and whole-grains (find a local bakery for approved sandwich bread and check theUnderstanding Grains post for more […]
This is a great article – thanks! But I’d love to see more information about ancient grains, such as spelt, emmer and farro. These grains have tremendous nutritional value – more more than modern industrialized wheat, which in the process of hybridization for commercial purposes, is missing a lot of the nutritional value of its ancient cousins.
I was trying to find a recipe for a homemade whole wheat bread that would work for the 100 days of real food. Anyone know of one that would work because a lot of them that I have found had all purpose flour in it or bread flour. I’m not using a bread machine either.
[…] and whole-grains (find a local bakery for approved sandwich bread and check the Understanding Grains post for more […]
Mass produced bread is one of the most disappointing foods out there! Growing up my mom used to buy great bread from a bakery near us that was hearty and filling – store bought bread is rarely the same – it’s all fluffy and there is nothing too it…
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If you want a real treat and eat even healthier, try grains that have not been hybridized by man. My favorite is spelt. Nature protected it with a hull so the kernels are less tightly bound makiing it much easier to digest. It has a great taste and spelt pasta is made from 100% whole spelt; not 51% like many “whole wheat pastas”. It has a better taste than whole wheat and the pasta has a silky smooth texture.
Try making a carrot or chocolate cake out of whole spelt flour. You will never want to use pastry flour again. The taste and moistness cannot be beat.
Spelt costs a little more but you cannot get more basic or natural than spelt; it proves its value in every application.
With popcorn, preparation is key. Microwave popcorn is one of the worst offenders when it comes to preservatives. I would recommend air popped organic popcorn.
Here’s the scoop, from Rodale, on why microwave popcorn is particularly unhealthy: http://www.rodale.com/7-foods-you-should-never-eat?page=3
http://paleodietlifestyle.com/what-is-wrong-with-grains/
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I really want to switch to a whole wheat bread, but I can’t find ANY bakeries near me that have bread with only the 5 ingredients you’ve listed. I can find some made with whole wheat flour, but then they seem to always have other ingredients such as soybean oil, cracked wheat, or wheat bran. Here is one example of the ingredient list in the whole wheat bread offered at a local bakery: Organic Germ Restored Wheat Flour, Filtered Water, Organic Whole Wheat Flour, Natural Sourdough Starter, Sea Salt
Are these ingredients okay? I’m feeling a bit frustrated that even the local bakeries seem to have more ingredients than necessary.
Hi, what if something im the ingredients is labeled “rice flour”?
Does this mean all popcorn is whole grain?
[…] starters, I love wheat and whole grains. One of the big recommendations I found on 100 Days of Real Food was to cut out white bread and to bu… (look for the logo below on your food to know it is whole grain approved). That was easy for us […]
Excellent blog post. I absolutely love this site.
Stick with it!
[…] and whole-grains (find a local bakery for approved sandwich bread and check the Understanding Grains post for more […]
[…] and whole-grains (find a local bakery for approved sandwich bread and check the Understanding Grains post for more […]
[…] starters, I love wheat and whole grains. One of the big recommendations I found on 100 Days of Real Food was to cut out white bread and to bu… (look for the logo below on your food to know it is whole grain approved). That was easy for […]
I have been trying to eat more whole grains in my meals lately, so thanks for sharing this info on grains. I like that you mention how oats are almost always whole grain because the bran and germ are never removed during processing. It’s good to know that I won’t have to look all over town just for some whole grain oats.