"WholeGrain" news and stories

It's well known by this time that whole grains are good for you. One of the most important benefits that they offer is that they have been shown to help lower the blood pressure of those with slightly elevated cholesterol levels. A new study takes this one step further and has found that eating whole grain breakfast cereals (those with at least 25% oat or bran) can reduce the risk of heart failure. Presented at the American Heart Association's 47th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention, the study showed that eating 2-6 servings of whole grain breakfast cereals each week decreased their risk by 22%, while those eating 1 serving per week lowered theirs by 14%.

Critics of this particular study say that the fact that whole grains came from cereal, as opposed to from some other source, has nothing to do with the results. The whole grains could have come from any source and as long as the same serving sizes was reached, the results should be the same. The benefit in associating the results with cereals is that it is relative easy to find healthy cereals that meet the minimum standards set by the study. Additionally,because people often skip breakfast (or don't have whole grains with it), eating cereals adds extra servings of whole grains above and beyond what they would normally eat throughout the day.

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The recommended daily guidelines for Americans suggest that at least half of all the grains consumed during the day be whole grains, which comes out to be 3 -5 servings daily. Aside from whole grain breads, like those made from whole wheat flour instead of wheat flour, there are quite a few other foods that will let you get those servings in. The ten most popular sources of whole grains are whole wheat (flour), whole oats/oatmeal, whole-grain corn, popcorn, brown rice, whole rye, whole-grain barley, wild rice, buckwheat and triticale, and as they are the most popular, they are also the most readily available.

Oatmeal, corn, popcorn and both brown and wild rice are easy enough to add into your weekly diet, and barley can stand in for rice or potatoes at many meals. Rye and buckwheat can be found in many breads, most of which will make superb sandwiches during the week. To add them in at home, you can try buckwheat pancakes or a blueberry buckwheat bundt cake. Triticale is a hybrid of rye and wheat, found mostly at health food stores, and can also be incorporated into many recipes.

A great source for some whole-grain recipes online is Bob's Red Mill website, which covers recipes for all of the top 10 grains.

I am a crunch addict. I much prefer crispy tacos to soft. Quickly-cooked veggies to overdone. I even like my pasta so al dente that the toothsome bite is still...toothsome. I think this is why one of my favorite breakfast cereals is the no frills, no hype, no-prize-in-the-box-havin', old stand-by: Grape-Nuts.

Neither grape nor nut, Grape-Nuts are clusters of whole wheat and malted barley so rock-hard they could easily be used to provide traction for your tires during an ice storm. According to the Kraft website, Grape-Nuts are so named because its inventor, Charles William Post, said that "grape sugar was formed during the baking process (huh?) and described the cereal as having a nutty flavor." No matter what it's called, I love the "danger factor" involved in eating Grape-Nuts—with every bite I wonder if I am going to crack a tooth.

Some people like to heat it up and eat it like oatmeal but not me. That takes all the fun out of it. I like it cold, with a splash of milk, and sometimes, depending on my mood, a little sugar. Yep, forget the healthy, soggy fruit, gimme some sugar instead. I also like Grape-Nuts spinkled over Yoplait cherry or strawberry yogurt. It has to be Yoplait for this even though I much prefer other kinds of yogurt for regular eating. Crunch, crunch, crunch! "What's that you say? Sorry, can't hear you, I'm eating Grape-Nuts!" [photo credit: Matthew Klein]