Whole Grains Revisited by Ruth Paget
The words “whole grain” on a package always prompt me to look twice at it to see if the product is really a whole grain product. I learned about whole grains in health and nutrition classes in junior high and high school classes in Michigan.
My teachers emphasized that whole grains were good for maintaining weight and good health thanks to the fiber and nutrients in them.
As an older woman, I decided to review the health benefits of whole grains and looked at three websites that had information on them: Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins Medical School, and the Mayo Clinic.
These sites identify a whole grain as being made up of three parts:
-bran – the fiber-rich outer layer of a grain
-germ – the cored of a seed where growth occurs
-endosperm – the interior layer that holds the seed together
Each of these three separate parts of grain contains nutrients that the Harvard site writes about in detail:
*Bran Nutrients include:
-fiber
-B-vitamins
-iron
-copper
-zinc
-magnesium
-antioxidants
-phytochemicals
*Germ Nutrients Include:
-healthy fats
-Vitamin E
-B-vitamins
-phytochemicals
-antioxidants
*Endosperm Nutrients include:
-carbohydrates
-protein
-small amounts of vitamins and minerals
The sites all note that fiber helps lower cholesterol in addition to moving waste through the digestive tract.
Whole grains do not have to be soupy porridges. It is possible to obtain whole grain benefits in delicious recipes like those in Betty Crocker’s Whole Grains cookbook, which has 150 recipes (available on Amazon Kindle).
Three recipes that I thought looked delicious and easy to prepare include:
-Summer Quinoa – Tomato Salad made with tomatoes, quinoa, red onion, garlic, basil leaves, parsley, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, and Parmesan
-Tabbouleh with Garbanzo Beans made with bulgur wheat, tomatoes, green onions, bell peppers, cucumber, and parsley
-Wild Rice with Cranberries made with wild rice, butter, salt and pepper, chicken or vegetable broth, mushrooms, almonds, and cranberries.
Betty Crocker’s Whole Grains Cookbook contains a long list of whole grains for reference including several less common ones like amaranth and teff. Cooks interested in expanding their knowledge of whole grains would probably enjoy trying the recipes in Betty Crocker’s Whole Grains Cookbook.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
