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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.
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a product that contains a minimum of 51% whole grains by weight can carry the FDA-approved health claim that "a diet rich in whole grain foods . may reduce the risk of heart disease and certain cancers."
Taste and Texture Trump
Knowing the benefits of whole grains often isn't enough. Taste and texture can play a bigger role in our decision making process. "While white bread remains by far the largest segment of the bread category; 8 out of 10 white bread consumers are interested in bread that has real whole grain nutrition, but prefer the taste of white bread," according to research conducted by Harman Atchison Research and reported on the Wonder Bread website.
Sara Lee and Wonder Bread both debuted new products in summer 2005 that are made with whole grains but boast the taste, texture and appearance of white bread.
Sara Lee's "Soft and Smooth" made with whole grain white bread is a blend of 30% whole grain, 70% refined flour. The whole grain source is Ultragrain white whole wheat, from Conagra Foods inc.
Both breads are making use of white wheat. White wheat is relatively new to the U.S. market, but it is well known in other countries, such as Australia.
What Is White Wheat?
There are three main classifications for wheat:
- Growing season (winter vs. spring)
- Kernel hardness (hard vs. soft)
- Color of the bran (red vs. white)
Traditional wheat flour comes from red wheat. The bran layer contains tannins and phenolic acid, which are bitter and account for much of the taste difference between whole wheat and white bread. The red bran coloring is responsible in part for the darker color of whole wheat.
White wheat is a natural albino variety. It does not contain the tannins or acids that red wheat does, so the taste is sweeter and milder. The flour coloring is lighter, more golden. What's more, it is touted as being the nutritional equivalent of its red wheat counterpart.
To get the texture similar to refined flour, the whole grains going into many of the new white wheat products are processed. The technology to pulverize whole grains into tiny, uniform pieces is very new.
While the finished product is not refined flour, what nutritional value is lost in processing is still being investigated. Even if all nutrition does remain, the fact is that the white whole wheat flour produced is a processed product, entirely changed from its original wholesome kernel form. In addition, many of these new white breads contain preservatives, sweeteners and dough conditioners, a far cry from the four essential components of bread: flour, water, salt and yeast.
Whole Grain Stamp of Approval
The properties of white wheat and new manufacturing technology are helping populate store shelves with whole grains. Still, it can be difficult to discern whole grains in the marketplace.
To simplify things for consumers, the Whole Grains Council (WGC) has developed the Whole Grain Stamp. The Basic Stamp shows the number of grams of whole grain per serving, starting with a minimum of 8g (considered a half serving of whole grains in the USA). You'll see a different number on different foods - often 8-16g in breads, 20-30g in a good whole grain cereal, and 45-60g in foods like brown rice or whole grain pasta. If ALL of the grain in a food is whole grain - there's no refined grain - the Stamp will have an added 100% banner, signifying that 100% of the grain is whole grain.
The Whole Grain Stamp is a voluntary effort, run by a non-profit educational organization. It is now used on over 2,100 products in the US and Canada, and has recently been introduced in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and the UK. The stamp may be a useful tool to help easily identify whole grains; however, keep in mind this is not an official government standard.
Bottom Line
Many of these new white wheat breads are transitional products. They can be a steppingstone for those not ready to make the leap from refined to 100% whole grains. With such focused attention on whole grains, it is important to keep the bigger picture in mind. As recommended, strive to make at least half of your grains whole, but don't forget whole grains are just one part of a healthy diet.
Stumbling Blocks
Until recently, hardly anyone has looked at whether whole grains as opposed to substances (like fiber) in whole grains-can lower the risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or other illnesses.
Now that scientists are starting to look, they're hitting some stumbling blocks:
- Poor data. "People know if they ate an apple and they know if they ate brown bread, but they may not know if the bread is whole grain?
What's more, the diet questionnaires in some studies never asked people what kind of bread, cereal, crackers, or other grains they ate. "If you just have data for 'breakfast cereals,' you can't distinguish between Special K, Cheerios, and All-Bran.
And researchers who did ask for specifics are just beginning to sort out the whole from the refined grains.
"In the Iowa Women's Health Study, we see a lower risk of heart disease in people who consume dark, but not white, bread," says Lawrence Kushi, a University of Minnesota epidemiologist. (Even if some of the "dark" bread isn't whole grain, some of it is.) "But we haven't looked at breakfast cereals, and we haven't looked at cancers yet."
- Confounding. "People who eat whole grains may also be eating more fruits and vegetables.
Whole-grain-eaters have a lower risk of cancer or heart disease in some studies.
But researchers have to make sure that it's the grains, not the fruits and vegetables they also eat, that make the difference.
- Limited intakes. It's tough to find a lower risk of disease among wholegrain-eaters if few people eat them. "Most of the data we have is from Europe, because hardly anybody consumes whole grains in the U.S.
Despite the difficulties, researchers are unearthing new clues that whole grains may reduce the risk of disease.
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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