Accredited Practising Dietitian and Consultant Nutritionist to Sanitarium Health Food Company

Some ideas on informing and persuading the Australian public that wholegrains are good for us, and how easily they can be incorporated into our diet.

Research shows that many people don’t know what grains and grain foods are.

Examples of grains:

• Rye
• Wheat
• Rice
• Barley
• Corn
• Oats

Examples of foods made from grains:

• Crumpets
• Muffins
• Cakes
• Breads
• Breakfast Cereals
• Cous Cous
• Pizza
• Biscuits
• Pasta
• Pancakes

But not all of these foods will provide you with the more nutritious ‘wholegrains’. It depends on how much they have been processed. 70% of Australians can’t correctly identify wholegrains. 30% of people interviewed believed white rice is a wholegrain and 18% thought white bread is a wholegrain food.

Grains – how much should I eat?

Most Australians recently surveyed (Go Grains, March 1999) thought that they were already eating ‘enough’ grain products, yet they fell short of the amounts recommended by nutritionists. Reasons for not eating more grains were that people didn’t think they were as healthy and fruits and vegetables, breads were seen as ‘fattening’ and breakfast cereals were often thought to contain too much sugar.

The recommended daily intake of grains is 5-12 servings, depending on your activity level. One serve could be:

• 1 slice of bread
• 1 bread roll
• 4-5 crispbreads
• 1 English muffin or scone
• 1/2 cup cooked rice or corn meal
• 1 cup of cooked pasta or noodles
• 1 cup of breakfast cereal
• 1/2 cup of cooked porridge
• 1/3 cup of muesli

CSIRO, Food & Nutrition Plan, 1992.

Nutritionists generally agree that in particular, people need to eat more wholegrains like wholemeal and wholegrain bread, high fibre cereal, brown rice and wholemeal pasta. You should include at least 3 servings of wholegrain foods each day. “3 are key”.

What is a wholegrain?

A ‘wholegrain’ contains the entire edible parts of a natural grain kernel.

1. Bran (outer layer) accounting for 14-16% of wheat, 5-6% of corn
2. Endosperm (middle layer) making up 61-80& of all wholegrains
3. Germ (inner layer) accounting for 2-3% of wheat, 10-12% of corn

There is no legal definition for ‘wholegrain foods’ in Australia but these can generally be considered as those made by using mostly wholegrains or wholegrain ingredients, rather than refined grains or refined ingredients.

In the USA, a new health claim was recently permitted on food labels enabling manufacturers to state that wholegrains can help reduce the risk of heart disease. For products to be considered as ‘wholegrains’ by the Food and Drug Administration, they need to contain at least 51% of their content as wholegrains.

What are the protective nutrients in wholegrains?

There are many important nutrients in wholegrains including:

• Protein
• Carbohydrates
• Dietary Fibre
• Resistant Starch
• B Vitamins including niacin, thiamin, riboflavin, pyridoxine, pantothenic acid, folate
• Minerals including iron, zinc, copper, magnesium, manganese
• Phytosterols - b -sitosterols
• Antioxidants including vitamin E and selenium
• Phytochemicals including phytoestrogens, flavonoids, phytic acid, phenolic acid, protease inhibitors, saponins

Additionally, wholegrains are low in fat and cholesterol free.

Some of these nutrients found in wholegrains are added to refined grain products. But it is impossible to enrich refined products with the complex mix of phytochemicals that are lost upon refining.

Effects of refining

Because nutrients are not distributed evenly within a wholegrain, refining results in the loss of many vitamins, minerals and bioactive substances (called phytochemicals) found within or close to the germ or bran layers. Most of these are not replaced by fortification of refined products.

Refining can remove more than 2 dozen essential nutrients, dietary fibre and phytochemicals, many of which have established roles in helping to protect us against heart disease and other degenerative diseases.

Look at the example of wholemeal and white flour. When white flour is made, 66% of the dietary fibre, 92% of the selenium, 62% of the folate and up to 99.8% of the natural phenolics (phytochemicals) are lost. Some manufacturers are adding back certain vitamins that are lost in refining, like folate, thiamin and Vitamin E, but only to some products.

Where do we get our wholegrains from?

Most people get their wholegrains by eating breads and breakfast cereals. But a look at the top 10 selling brands in Australia shows that many of these do not supply wholegrains.

The brands with an * supply wholegrains.

Top Selling Breads

• Look for symbols or logos suggesting the product contains wholegrains; these are designed by individual manufacturers so will vary from one brand to another.
• Often the manufacturer will make health promoting claims on the packet and often there is a grain element in the name of the product.
• You can also check the ingredient list. Look for words like “wholegrain” and “wholemeal”.

• Choose wholegrain or wholemeal breads, wholegrain English muffins and wholegrain crackers.
• Use wholemeal spaghetti, macaroni, and other types of pasta.
• Eat wholegrain breakfast cereals.
• Make a muesli with a mixture of rolled grains, such as oats, rye and triticale.
• Use brown rice in place of white rice whenever possible.
• Add cooked brown rice when making burgers.
• Make tabouli salad using bulghar wheat.
• Add unpearled barley to soups and casseroles.
• Add wholegrains to salads, eg brown rice or corn.
• Use wholemeal flour in baking.
• Add oats to muffins, slices and cakes.
• Add blended corn kernels to savoury pancake batter.
• Try a pilaf made from different grains, such as millet.
• Use corn-on-the-cob and popcorn as snack foods.

There are many ready-to-eat wholegrain foods to choose from in Australian supermarkets. Wholegrain foods don’t have to be more expensive or take longer to prepare. They can also taste great!

Cooking wholegrains from scratch!

Here is one of my favourite wholegrain recipes, to show you just how easy it is to cook wholegrains from scratch. Investing in a pressure cooker will reduce the cooking time by 75% so I highly recommend it.

Bon appetite!