I first heard of agave nectar five years ago, when a friend of mine went off of wheat and sugar simultaneously. She struggled with the lack of wheat in her diet but thanks to agave nectar, didn't have much trouble staying away from sugar and sweets. She became something of an agave booster and talked it up to anyone who would listen. I became a slow adopter, and began to use agave nectar to sweeten my tea and morning bowls of oatmeal.

I've always wanted to to explore baking with agave nectar, but until now, I'd never had the correct resource (and I worried that trying to use it with one of my sugar-based recipes would be inviting disaster). Enter Ania Catalano's book, Baking with Agave Nectar. This squat paperback is beautifully photographed and contains 100 recipes that all use agave as their primary sweetener. Catalano became interested in agave nectar when she was diagnosed with hypoglycemia and needed to find a sugar substitute that tasted good and wouldn't spike her blood sugar levels the way that processed sugar, honey and maple syrup did.

One of the things I appreciate about this book is that Catalano doesn't just replace sugar with agave nectar. She is careful to incorporate whole wheat and sprouted flours into her recipes, so that when you bake her treats, you know that you are making something that will be far healthier than what you can pick up at your local bakery. In these times, when we're all looking for ways to improve the quality of the foods that we eat, this volume is a wonderful assistant in allowing you to have tasty, sweet baked goods that are good for you as well.

Over the years, I've actively tried to expand the number of grains I eat regularly. I grew up eating quite a lot of brown rice, and my mom frequently added barley to soups and stews, but beyond that, I was fairly clueless. I acquired a copy of The New Laurel's Kitchen not long after I moved to Philadelphia and it became my go-to resource for learning about new grains. It opened my eyes to quinoa (not exactly a grain, but it acts like one), millet (both as a cooked and raw grain) and kasha (buckwhat groats) and I continue to explore.

If you're also trying to incorporate more whole grains into your diet these days (after all, it is the new food trend) then I have a helpful resource for you. Last week, Carrie Floyd put together a whole grain glossary on Culinate and it has become my new favorite repository of grain information (Laurel's Kitchen is still wonderful, but since I often plan meals while sitting at work, I can't really carry it around with me all the time).

Check it out and let yourself be inspired to check out some new grains. It's a little more challenging that buying the box of Cheerios that now has more whole grains, but it's a whole lot more interesting and tasty.

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.

Chocolate cereals that are designed to appeal to adults - to women, specifically - rather than to children are one of the hottest new trends in the breakfast industry. Chocolate Oat Crunch Life is the first one out of the starting gate and is already available in stores. The cereal is regular, whole grain Life cereal that has had chocolate granola pieces added to it. It is touted as being low fat, high in fiber and as a generally healthy (2.5 grams fat, 190 calories per 1-cup serving), yet indulgent, breakfast option.

After trying a box, I think I would pass on this as breakfast food.

By now, just about everyone knows that whole grains are good for you and the simple advice to switch to whole wheat bread and substitute brown rice for white is only going to bring in grains in a very limited way. Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way is a cookbook that is also a complete, detailed guide to different types of grains. It covers fairly common ones, like barley and polenta, as well as more unusual grains, such as quinoa and amaranth.

The book has a tremendous amount of well-researched reference material in it that is intended to make the book instructive, a reference guide in addition to a regular cookbook - and one that you can turn to again and again for clarity on cooking methods and the properties of various grains, regardless of what cookbook you are using. The recipes themselves are very varied, with meat dishes, vegetarian dishes and plenty of desserts. Some are simple and others more complex, but thanks to the clarity given in the book's tables and descriptions, all are easy to make. Highlights include Quinoa and Calamari Salad, Popcorn Crusted Catfish, Posole with Pork and Chipotle, Bulgur Pudding with Honey and Dates, Coconut–Black Rice Pudding and Chocolate Chip-Hazelnut Cookies.

A new study gives a good reason for young women to switch to whole grain bread and to generally increase the amount of whole grains in their diets. Conducted at the University of Leeds, the study showed that women who ate at least 30 grams of fiber each day cut their breast cancer risk by half.

The average fiber intake in the UK is 12 grams per day for adults and 15 g per day in the US. Since the results of the study suggest that benefits will not occur when women eat less than 20g per day, it is worth noting that there are a couple of easy ways to eat more fiber. A medium apple, for example, has 4g of fiber. An artichoke, cooked, has 4.5 grams. Beans vary in their fiber content, but tend to have around 16gper cup. 1/2 cup of corn has 5g. There are many other vegetables and fruits that provide low calorie ways to add fiber to the diet, as well.

The benefits of eating more fiber could be overridden by other factors, including weight, but a generally healthy lifestyle that includes the recommended amount of fiber should decrease the risk enough to make dietary changes worth the effort for young women.

The USDA's nutritional guidance system, MyPyramid, has not been the smashing success that organizers hoped it would be when it was unveiled almost two years ago. The problem seems to be that the new pyramid, as opposed to the old one, only provides guidance, not hard and fast numbers to follow. This means that diners need to take responsibility for their health and their choices - and motivating them to do so is not an easy task.

Trying to help the public to better understand and make use of the already in-place system, food manufacturers and retailers have joined together to create the Take a Peak program. The program aims to get people thinking more closely about health and using MyPyramid with in-store advertising, banners, signs and kiosk. Displays will how reminders of how many servings of whole grains should be eaten per day and what serving sizes look like. Some products will be given a logo indicating why it maybe a good choice.

The trial run of the program will cover 2,000 stores in 17 states and includes Publix, Raley's and SuperValue. Depending on the response from consumers, it may not be long before the plan (or propaganda, if you prefer to look at it that way) ends up in stores at the rest of the US, as well.

Granola fans should introduce themselves to Bear Naked granola, if they aren't familiar with it already. The award winning, good-for-you cereal is on of the best selling and best tasting granolas in the country. Made with wholesome, all-natural ingredients, the company's goal is to make sure that their customers enjoy living a healthy lifestyle and eating healthy - starting with granola, of course. Their granolas are hand-crafted in small batches with real whole grains and other "bearly processed and utterly naked ingredients." They have been available in three flavors for a couple of years now: fruit and nut, apple cinnamon and banana nut. This month, the company is rolling out two new flavors, Peanut Butter and Jelly granola and Peak Protein Blueberry Walnut. The peanut butter flavor is designed to taste like one of the most popular sandwiches in the country and to appeal to kids as well as adults. The blueberry flavor is intended to remind eaters of freshly baked blueberry muffins.

Only the blueberry flavor is available at their online store right now, but both should be on store shelves alongside the original flavors within a couple of weeks.

When you want chocolate in the morning, once you're over the age of 10 or so, you're probably going to opt for hot chocolate, a mocha or maybe even a small piece of your favorite candy bar long before you reach for a box of chocolate cereal. But cereal makers are counting on the fact that their newest products will change that.

At the beginning of next year, Quaker Oats will launch Life Chocolate Oat Crunch and Kellogg will release Special K Chocolatey Delight. Both cereals are low in fat and are targeted towards nutrition-minded consumers who want to have their chocolate and eat it too. Quaker will be promoting the fact that their cereal is high fiber and full of whole grains, while Kellogg will be sponsoring a two-week weight loss challenge centered around the cereal, just as they offer with regular Special K. Reps from Kellogg have also noted that the cereal is not necessarily going to be promoted as just a breakfast item and that it is designed to appeal to those who like to snack on cereal as well.

While Atkins may be out, the idea of "good carbs" vs " bad carbs" is still at the forefront of the thoughts of healthy eaters everywhere and whole grains are definitely a hot topic for cooks. Against the Grain not only provides whole grain recipes, but it is rooted in Mediterranean cuisine, which is not only heart-healthy, but might play a role in Alzheimer's prevention.

The recipes, most of which are formulated for weight loss or "maintenance," are not limited to Italian food, which many cookbooks seem to think is synonymous with "Mediterranean cuisine." They come from Morocco, Tunisia, Greece and the Middle East, as well. There are appetizers and snacks, soups, salads and lots of main courses, all of which are light on potatoes, breads and other white-flour foods. Instead, there are lots of proteins, vegetables and combinations of whole grains, including brown rice, bulgur wheat. Recipes include Pork Medallions Marinated with Olives and Orange, Roast Chicken Stuffed with Spinach, Wild Rice, Walnuts, and Feta and Sicilian Fisherman's Stew.

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.

We already got some advice on which white breads were the best tasting (although you can always opt for homemade if you want to avoid store-bought entirely) but what about whole grain breads? There are so many different varieties to choose from, it's actually quite a feat to narrow down your criteria to the point where you can compare similar breads. One glance at the shelf in the grocery store shows whole wheat, honey wheat, oat bran, oat nut, multi-grain, 8-grain and dozens of other "whole grain" breads. Rather than trying to work out which might be the best, Food & Wine magazine picked out a few of their favorite whole grain products as a jumping off point, a benchmark that you can work from to find your own favorites. They selected De Cecco Whole wheat pasta, Pepperidge Farm Natural Pepperidge Farm whole wheat bread and Keebler Wheatables.

It's worth noting that the Pepperidge Farm bread did well in the white bread tasting, too, but I would choose Kashi's Tasty Little Crackers over F&W's choice of Wheatables for a whole-grain snack any day.

I know that there were more than a few people who found the labels "good source of whole grains" and "excellent source of whole gains" to be confusing and that the FDA has been working on developing a better definition of the term for some time now. The FDA has worked out a new system of classification based on the number of grams of whole grains in a food and has eliminated any good/excellent designations. The new labels are an eye-catching black and gold and clearly state the number of grams of whole grains per serving, as well as the recommended daily amount of 48grams, as suggested by MyPyramid. This eliminates any guess work - though it does call for a little bit of math - on the part of the consumer.

Products must be authorized to use the stamp, getting approval from the FDA or the UDSA, depending on what type of food the item is, since the two groups regulate different commodities. The USDA covers meat, dairy and eggs and the stamp is approved for use on those products, as well as the grains and other foods that the FDA regulates, if they contain whole grains.

So far, more than 800 products are approved. You can see a full list here or, of course, keep an eye out for the labels while you shop.

The sales of White Whole Wheat Flour have increased dramatically this year over previous years and as consumer interest has grown, so have supplies. More grocery stores, large and small, now carry the flour. While the product is not new, having been available for more than a decade, its sale is no longer limited to specialty stores and it is far more widely available than ever before. This increased availability means that more people are exposed to it but many are still unfamiliar with the product.

White whole wheat flour is made from a naturally occurring albino variety of wheat. The wheat does not have the tannins or phenolic acid that are found in the outer bran of ordinary red wheat, so not only does it lack the color, but it does not any of the slightly bitter taste that is often associated with whole wheat flour. The flavor is mild and sweet, very similar to that out plain or all-purpose flour, though it does have a hint of the nuttiness of whole wheat.

According to Australian researchers, a high carbohydrate, low-GI diet is the best for weight loss and for cardiovascular health. At least, they produced better results than the high-protein diets that they were compared to in an intensive 12-week study - the first study in the world to directly compare the two types of diets and their impact on health and weight/weight loss.

Over 120 women classified as overweight or obese participated in the study and were assigned to one of four (reduced calorie) diets: high protein/ low GI, high protein/high GI, high carbohydrate/log GI, high carbohydrate/high GI. The high carb dieters showed the most weight loss, but lowering the GI of that high carb diet doubled fat loss. Low GI coupled with high protein was the better of the two protein diet choices. Low GI also led to lower risk factors for heart disease, including having a lowering effect on the levels of LDL cholesterol.

The Glycemic Index ranks foods based on how they affect blood sugar levels. Low GI foods cause a slight increase, while high GI foods will cause a sharp spike. Low GI foods include oats, bran, apples, pears, peas, milk and yogurt.