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WHEAT FOODS COUNCIL
About 127 million U.S. adults are overweight, 60 million are obese and 9 million are severely obese. Whats even more mind -numbing is that 30.3% of children ages 6 to 11 are overweight and 15.3% are obese.
Whole Grain Info
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Whole Grain Anatomy
Grain, as it occurs naturally, includes three components: the bran, germ and endosperm. Each of these parts to the whole grain kernel contributes key nutrients:
- Fiber in bran
- Vitamins and minerals in germ
- Phytonutrients in both bran and germ, and
- Carbohydrate and protein in the endosperm
Refining grains removes the bran and germ, leaving behind the starchy endosperm.
Whole Grain Goodness
The bran and germ are the most nutrient-rich part of the grain, which is why having all three components may be important in disease prevention. Studies have shown whole grains may be protective against some cancers and chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and obesity.
Wheat is the most important cereal crop in the world. It is a leading source of vegetable protein and has a higher content than rice,maize and the other major cereals. It has been used for thousands of years and was a major source of food for the Romans and Egyptians. The main way it has been consumed is through eating bread and more recently through the consumption of cereals. We believe that by using Naturo many more ways could easily be found giving far greater and more interesting choice.
The discovery that grain could be ground was very important because raw wheat is not very nice to eat. It is thought that the Romans were the first to start a milling industry using large stones to grind the grain. In the 1900's roller mills were introduced and some of the important nutrition in the grain was lost especially vitamins A & B 1. With wholemeal flour nothing has been added or taken away. This means that all the bran, germ, endosperm, and all the associated vitamins, enzymes and amino acids are retained.
Wholemeal Bread v's White Bread
With white bread the flour has been heavily refined and processed. Extra gluten, salt and sugar are added together with bleaching agents. White bread contains a high proportion of GI (glycemic index) Carbohydrates which cause sugar to release even quicker than usual into the blood stream. Eating white bread can increase your chances of becoming diabetic. One advantage of white bread is that it has a lot longer shelf life, this is because it has been altered and refined not necessarily for the benefit of the consumer.
DIABETES
In 1986, Harvard's Walter Willett and co-workers asked roughly 80,000 female nurses to fill out diet questionnaires. By 1992, 915 of the nurses were diagnosed with non-insulin dependent diabetes, the kind that usually occurs in adults.
Then the researchers used two measures to compare the nurses who were later diagnosed with diabetes with the nurses who weren't: fiber intake and "glycemic load." Glycemic load estimates how much carbohydrate the nurses ate and how much those carbs raised levels of glucose and insulin in their blood. "In general, less-refined foods like intact whole grains and legumes are less-rapidly digested, so they enter the system more slowly," says Thomas Wolever, a University of Toronto fiber expert. "That dampens down insulin secretion and puts less stress on the system." Less insulin means a lower glycemic load.
In theory, that should lower the risk of diabetes, which occurs when the body secretes more and more insulin as a person's insulin loses its effectiveness.
Willett's results: "We found that the risk of diabetes increased about two-and-a-half-fold in women who had the highest glycemic load and the lowest fiber intake," he says. "Women who ate the most sugar and refined starches, like white bread, pasta, and potatoes, had the highest risk."
But Willett can't say exactly what parts of the foods made the difference. "It looks like fiber has some independent benefit," he says. "But the magnesium or some other nutrients that come with the whole grain may also matter."
HEART DISEASE
So far, it's largely the fiber in whole grains that has caught the attention of heart disease researchers.
For example, in a recent study of more than 43,000 U.S. male dentists, veterinarians, and other health professionals, those who reported eating an average of 29 grams of fiber a day had a 41 percent lower risk of heart attack than those who averaged 12 grams a day. Fiber from grains -rather than fruits or vegetables -- was "most strongly associated with a reduced risk," noted the researchers.
And among nearly 22,000 Finnish men, those who ate roughly 35 grams of fiber a day, much of it from whole grain rye bread, not the refined rye eaten here-had a 31 percent lower risk of heart disease than those who ate an average of 16 grams a day, which is close to the average for American men. "We see an effect of fiber," says Willett, who worked on both studies. "But that doesn't mean that if you strip it out and concentrate it in pills, it will have the same benefit, because you've left out important things that go with the fiber."
Among those things are antioxidants, which may delay or slow the damage that oxygen wreaks on cholesterol-damage that makes the cholesterol more likely to clog arteries.
"The bran contains a lot of minerals, and some-like selenium, copper, and manganese are components of antioxidant enzymes," says researcher Lilian Thompson of the University of Toronto.
Those aren't the only antioxidants in whole grains. "Phenolic acids are located in the bran layer," adds Slavin. "And whole grains are concentrated sources of vitamin E and phytic acid."
CANCER
Diets that are high in wheat bran or other sources of fiber cut the incidence of colon tumors in animals given carcinogens. But in people, some studies see a link between fiber and colon cancer and some don't. To settle the question, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has launched the Polyp Prevention Trial. It's putting 1,000 people on a low-fat diet that includes 18 grams of fiber a day for every 1,000 calories the participants eat. After four years, the NCI will compare the number of colon polyps (which often become cancerous) in the 1,000 fiber-eaters to the number of polyps in 1,000 people on a typical (low-fiber) North American diet.
But since half of the fiber comes from fruits and vegetables and the other half from grains, the trial is testing not just fiber, but fiber-rich foods.
"It's really a test of a cancer-prevention diet that's low in fat, high in fiber and high in fruits and vegetables," says the NCI's Elaine Lanza. "There are so many phytochemicals, it could take years to sort out which ones matter."
It's also possible that whole grains could prevent other cancers. Toronto's Thompson is especially interested in the phytoestrogens (plant estrogens) and lignans in whole grains.
Some researchers have suggested that lignans and phytoestrogens may take estrogen's place in breast cells, but that they do less damage because they are weak.
But so far, there isn't good evidence that women who consume more fiber from grains have a lower risk of breast cancer.
      
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