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.

Happy Fat Tuesday, everyone.

The whole idea behind having pancakes on Fat Tuesday is to use up the butter, milk, eggs and other indulgent ingredients that you might having lying around the house so that you won't be tempted during Lent. But because everyone likes pancakes and not everyone observes lent, calling the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday "National Pancake Day" makes the tradition open to all - and I think that we can all agree that more pancakes are not a bad thing.

For my pancake day breakfast, I opted not to go with something decadent, but instead with something more wholesome so that I don't feel too bad about starting the day with a couple more pancakes (topped with maple syrup, of course), than I need.

In our quest for a great set of Thanksgiving recipes, we've already seen the recipes from a lot of our favorite bloggers. First, we tackled the turkey and stuffing and then we moved on to the side dishes. Today, we're looking at some great ideas for breads to serve along with the meal. Carbs may be filling, but you need something to soak up all that extra gravy, right?

• First, we have some Pumpkin Thyme Dinner Rolls from Wednesday Chef, which have a lot of flavor and a lovely color from the pumpkin.
• Nothing goes better with gravy than real Southern Biscuits from Andrea's Kitchen with White Lily flour. If you can't find white Lily, try this recipe instead, as it uses all purpose.
• This is a great time to try your hand at the ever-popular no-knead bread (recipe in the comments)
• Cornbread is a classic Thanksgiving option with a great texture. Many prefer skillet cornbread, as Meathenge does, but sweet cornbread, is a popular option, too.
• Culinary in the Desert's Roasted Garlic and Fresh Rosemary Cloverleaf Rolls (pictured) are delicious even without a feast to accompany them.
• Popovers, like Orangette's, are light, quick-cooking and very impressive when served. They're good for sopping up gravy and juices, but are also fantastic with jam in the morning.
• Parker House Rolls are the gold standard of dinner rolls and will be a favorite with everyone at the table. Take the advice from Humble Pie and keep some butter on hand when serving.
• If you prefer to have a whole grain bread for dinner, try a loaf of Maple Whole-wheat Bread, which Seriously Good said had a "nutty sweetness" and certainly looks seriously good.

Whole grains and baked goods? Where can we sign up? At this point, any regular reader of Slashfood is aware that it's good to eat whole grains and that, despite that fact, most people don't get enough of them. As I like to bake, I can definitely say that baked goods might be part of the problem. Most recipes - and definitely most of the good ones - don't call for whole grain flours. You can substitute, of course, but the result isn't quite the same. King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking is a book full of recipes - over 500 pages of them - for baked goods that are designed specifically for working with whole grain flours.

The book has plenty of tips, step-by-step guides and other useful tidbits that make other books from King Arthur worth reading and make it easy to transition to whole grain baking. Many of the recipes use a combination of whole grain and white flours because the blends make sure that you get the best possible textures while still incorporating grains. The recipes include 100% whole wheat pie crust, cakes, tarts, pastries, cookies and a variety of savory dishes, as well.

A study done by the USDA has shown that increasing the amount of whole grains in your diet can have multiple health benefits, including lowering the blood pressure of individuals who have slightly elevated cholesterol. The participants went on a controlled diet for a few weeks, then the refined carbohydrates they ate were all replaced with whole grains that had both soluble and insoluble fiber (barley, whole wheat and brown rice). Some diets had an equal amount of the two types of fiber, while others had more insoluble fiber. The blood pressure for all the study participants decreased on the whole grain diets, though women did better on the diet higher in soluble fiber (more barley).

One other interesting result of the study was that once whole grains were added to the diets from the controlled baseline diet, the number of calories that study participants also increased. Even so, they lost an average of 1 kg each (2.2 lbs) during the several-week program.

Replacing the fat in baked goods is something that we have done a few times now, but for some people fat is not the issue that they want to tackle - it's sugar. Baking without sugar is much harder than baking without fat because fats contribute to the texture of the finished product, but not as much to the flavor. Granted, a buttery flavor can be nice, but I have had fat free cookies (made with applesauce) on numerous occasions that have tasted quite good, even if they are lacking in the texture department.

Few things are better than a tall stack of pancakes on a lazy Sunday morning. Waffles, scones, omelets and bacon are all nice, too, but light pancakes dripping with syrup are hard to resist. If those pancakes are anything like the Whole Grain Pancakes with Blueberry Maple Syrup from 101 Cookbooks, the task might be near to impossible. The pancakes are light and flavorful, due to the buttermilk that Heidi used to make them, and the maple syrup is mixed with whole, fresh blueberries and cooked into a smooth topping. The syrup is a long way from the blueberry-flavored pancake syrups that are stocked in many diners, much lighter and fresher.

As if the sound along weren't enough, Heidi actually thinks that these are the best pancakes she's ever made. Given that the published cookbook author has been blogging for more than 3 years, that's saying something.

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.

In the market, sometimes you win and sometime you lose when you are picking out a new product to try. The Strawberry Yogurt O's from Trader Joe's, unfortunately, fall into that later category. I am a big fan of their other O's, both the plain and the honey-nut. They are light and flavorful and the honey variety has a fantastic honey taste. These, on the other hand, are small and dense, with little to remind the eater of the delicious taste of the other O's cereals. Instead of tasting vaguely oaty, they taste like whole wheat flour.

Their release can be attributed to the popularity of other yogurt-flavored cereals, but these don't have as much to recommend them. Other brands are very sweet, a fact that is often the primary criticism of them. The Strawberry O's themselves are not very sweet at all, any sugar overpowered by the wheat flavor. The yogurt covered freeze-dried strawberries, on the other hand, are incredibly sweet, with a hint of salt underneath and the non-yogurt covered berries were tart, making a strange contrast to the rest of the cereal.

Will I buy them again? No, but there is potential in these. All Trader Joe's has to do is add the yogurt flavoring to their standard O's and ditch the whole wheat ones.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

Sara Lee has just released a new line of hot dog and hamburger buns in time for the summer grilling season. The buns are made along similar lines as their best-selling Soft & Smooth bread, which contains whole grains but has the same texture and flavor as white bread. The names of the buns are a mouthful -  Sara Lee Made With Whole Grain White Hot Dog and White Hamburger Buns - but if the success of their Soft & Smooth bread is anything to go on, it is a mouthful that consumers are eager to take.

How do they make these breads? Spencer Wise is a food scientist for Sara Lee who is credited with the creation of these breads and buns. They are about 24% whole grain, made using a "white whole wheat" flour developed by ConAgra to feel softer and look similar to white flour, and contain 6 grams of whole grains per bun. Wise says that while the basics like flour, oil and yeast are important, any baker could work them out, so "the real secret recipe lies in the amount of monoglycerides, enzymes and other additives, " the combination of which allows the bread to be made successfully on an industrial scale.

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]