http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/11/d...WELL.html?8hpib

The New York Times
August 11, 2004
EATING WELL
It's Better to Be Whole Than Refined
By MARIAN BURROS

IN just a couple of years, low-carbohydrate diets have accomplished what the government has failed to do in decades of trying: convince the public that refined grains are bad actors and whole grains are good.

"Low-carb diets have steered people toward whole grains," said Bonnie Liebman, the director of nutrition for the Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest, "and made millions of people cut back on things made with white flour, like white bread, hamburger buns, megamuffins, 400-calorie bagels, pizza crusts, cakes, cookies, doughnuts and other sweets, even pasta and white rice.

"If you were asked to compare the impact of the South Beach diet with dietary guidelines, there would be no contest."

Now if only consumers could distinguish between grains that are refined and grains that are whole. Just because bread is brown and has specks of something in it, does not mean it is whole grain.

Whole grains (and foods made from them) consist of the entire grain seed, usually referred to as the kernel. The kernel is made of three components: the bran, the germ and the endosperm.

Refined grains have neither the bran nor the germ, which means that most of the B vitamins, certain minerals and the fiber have been stripped from them. In enriched products, some of the B vitamins are added back.

All grains are chiefly carbohydrates, but generally whole-grain cereals have three to seven times more fiber to a serving than refined cereals.

When the grain has been refined, destroying much of the fiber, the carbohydrates turn to glucose quickly and enter the bloodstream. In whole grains, with their fiber intact, carbohydrates are not absorbed quickly. This helps to regulate blood sugar, increase satiety and delay the return of hunger. That is why low-carb food labels emphasize the terms "effective carbs" or "net carbs," meaning the number of remaining carbohydrates after fiber has been subtracted from the total.

Being satiated is the point. Because, no matter the source, calories count: the only way to lose weight is to eat fewer calories than you burn up.

Food manufacturers do not make it easy to figure out which grains are whole and which are not. Color is no clue: brown bread may contain molasses or caramel food coloring, but no fiber. Some whole grains, like oats, are light in color.

Terms like multigrain, cracked wheat, seven grain, stone-ground, 100 percent wheat, enriched flour and degerminated cornmeal are not whole grain. Pumpernickel is made with rye and wheat flours, but they are seldom whole grain.

The list of whole grains, however, is long. Some of them are well known in this country: whole wheat (wheat berries), bulgur wheat, whole oats and oatmeal, whole rye, barley, buckwheat (kasha or buckwheat groats), whole corn and nondegermed cornmeal, brown, wild and other whole rices and popcorn. (Yes, popcorn.) Others are little used here: grano (lightly pearled wheat), farro (another form of wheat), kamut, quinoa, amaranth, millet, sorghum, spelt (similar to farro) teff and triticale. A thorough discussion of each kind of whole grain may be found at www.foodsubs.com.

Botanically, a few of these grains are not real cereals — amaranth, buckwheat and quinoa — but only botanists are likely to notice.

The healthiest cereal has a label that says 100 percent whole grain. For a cereal to be high in whole grain, the first ingredient must be whole wheat, whole rye or the like. The second best products are those that contain at least 51 percent whole grain ingredients. For all of those, the Food and Drug Administration permits a health claim related to the reduction of risk of heart disease.

While the 2000 dietary guidelines, a joint effort of the Agriculture Department and the Health and Human Services Department, recommend "a variety of grains daily, especially whole grains," it is not until Page 20 of the guidelines brochure that the reader learns why whole grains are better than refined grains. Even less helpful than the dietary guidelines, with which few people come in contact, is the food pyramid, the triangle that is generally recognized by Americans as a nutrition guide and is found on packages of food and in marketing and advertising. Even though grains make up the base of the pyramid, the phrase "whole grains" is nowhere to be found on it. So any refined product, whether it is white bread or white rice, can use the pyramid to proclaim its health benefits.

Now the committee at Health and Human Services responsible for the new dietary guidelines, due out at the beginning of next year, appears to be ready to put more emphasis on whole grains.

There is pretty good science to back that decision. A number of studies show that in addition to making you feel fuller on fewer calories, the fiber in whole grains (along with fruits and vegetables) may reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and stroke.

"The committee has discussed recommending that most Americans increase their intake of whole grains," said Kathryn McMurry, the co-executive secretary of the dietary guidelines advisory committee. "One of the bases for recommending whole grains is that they are naturally a good source of dietary fiber, which has many health benefits. Generally, food sources of fiber also contain other nutrients that promote health," like vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytochemicals (protective plant substances).

The base of "the healthy eating pyramid," produced by the Harvard School of Public Health, is whole grains. Refined grains are at the top of the pyramid, along with red meat butter and sweets.

According to the National Academy of Sciences, men 50 and younger should consume 38 grams of fiber a day; women, 25 grams; men over 50, 30 grams; and women, 21 grams. Current recommendations are for 20 to 35 grams of fiber a day, but the average American eats only 5 to 13. It is true that whole grains take longer to cook than refined grains, but it is often only 20 minutes. For those that take longer, soaking will cut down considerably on the cooking time.

If brown rice, for example, which ordinarily takes about 45 minutes to cook, is soaked overnight, or at least two hours, it will cook in 17 minutes, the same time as long-grain white rice. I soaked farro, that marvelous firm-textured Italian grain with the delicately nutty flavor, overnight, and it cooked in 10 minutes.

Y'know, when it comes to nutrition and the media, I feel like I'm living in a bomb shelter because it's such a MESS out there.

why is everybody worried about how long it takes to cook things?
at the same time everybody is trying to find some time for themselves!!! just cook the whole grain stuff.... and take that time to read, or relax.... water your plants....goodness... it isn't that terrible of a thing to wait....and yes I work full time too... so I am also strapped for time... just calm down and relax... and eat well...

Whole grain has a lower net carb count !
I bake with flax seeds (whole grain) and psyllium husks. (A dietician described it as Scotch brite for the stomach). I also use wheat bran, a great source of potassium.

danny

I'm generally not a fan of Marrian Burros, but she's mainly on the mark here. At least in her definition of whole grains. But she's a little off about the bread business. If you take whole grains and grind them into a powder (flour) and make it into bread, there will be a few extra minerals, but it will have much the same metabolic effect as white bread. The glycemic index isn't all that different.

Using whole grains -- whole, not smashed or pulverized -- is probably not a bad idea as a side dish, say a half-cup's worth, for those who can tolerate them. But as the 'base' of your diet? Some 50% to 60% of your calories? Wouldn't work for me. I'd be fatter, hungrier, and my teeth would be falling out. Been there, done that.

That claim about whole grains helping to prevent heart disease or diabetes is a bit of a cheat, though. Compared to eating white flour, maybe. Its probably a slow-release form of white flour, so whole probably LESS harmful. I'd like to see a comparison to eating NO grains at all, with low carbs coming only from vegetables.

Personally, I pass on whole grains, since I don't like the taste, and can't see how they'd be a natural human food. Wheat grains coming in from the fields are as hard as buckshot. Basically inedible until you do a lot of pounding or soaking or fermenting.

"Personally, I pass on whole grains, since I don't like the taste..."

I agree! I don't like them. I love meat and real cheese and fresh veggies with real butter or dressings.

I'll be making some bread from time to time....but as a treat, not as a regular food!

I have wondered about that too. I just can't visualize my Gothic barbarian ancestors gnawing on birdseed.

really? haven't you ever wandered along and picked up a long shoot of grass and chewed on it? ....doesn't every body do it?

Sure, we all do it. But try getting 60% of your calories that way, every day. Me, I'd grab a stick and try to catch something.

Nutritionists are concerned with what you put in your mouth. What happens to it after you swallow is outside their jurisdiction. Sure, whole grains contain substances that may prevent cancer, so nutritionists tell you to eat them. However, all the carbohydrates that come packaged with those nutrients, by raising insulin levels, will compromise your ability to absorb those nutrients.

It's a similar story, for instance, with orange juice. Orange juice contains vitamin C, so nutritionists tell you to drink orange juice. But orange juice contains a lot more glucose than vitamin C. Glucose and vitamin C have a similar chemical structure, so they use the same receptors at the cellular level. If there's a lot of glucose in your blood, those receptors will never get around to the vitamin C. So the vitamin C in orange juice is pretty much useless; it never gets absorbed. That doesn't stop nutritionists from telling us that orange juice is healthy because it contains vitamin C.

The beneficial nutrients in whole grains are available in plenty of other foods with fewer carbohydrates. There's no need for whole grains and no appreciable health benefits to eating them. To say that whole grains are better than refined grains is akin to saying that filtered cigarettes are healthier than non-filtered cigarettes.

That's sort of like chewing on a veggie... and I never actually swallow my chewed grass/cud. To get the carbs you'd have to munch on the grass tops with the seeds. In fact, you'd better cook them first because our bodies don't digest them well like ruminants do - you'd probably just get a stomach ache.

Yeah, eating a blade of grass is equivalent to eating lettuce. What's that have to do with grains? Grains would be the seedy portion of grass, the seed head. No, I've never picked a seed head from my lawn and chewed on it. It never crossed my mind.

Whole grains are to white refined grains what arsenic is to cyanide. Just choose your poison. Whole grains are every bit as inappropriate to the human diet as the white flour and will destroy health, but perhaps a bit slower.



When this nonsense emanates from the government, it's understandable-- When it comes from Harvard, it's scary.

I lost the last message I was trying to type...it went something like this....
Thanks for everyone's input.
I do not believe that grains are bad for you.
Jesus fed the multitudes bread and fish.
He wasn't trying to slowly poison everyone.
No doubt the bread was a whole grain bread...
Perhaps the balance is out....we emphasize the carbs.. and refined ones at that...where it really should be meat and veggies.
Interestingly enough...the bible also says to eat eggs....that they are good.
and another place, it says to eat honey, it cleans(!) ,but not too much .
He invented and designed humans....so I'll go with what He said.

I have to disagree with you... at least in my case. Grains are bad for me. I'm allergic to them, especially wheat and corn. I am much healthier and happier not eating any of them at all.