Whole Grain vs. Whole Wheat: Which is Better for You? Part II

Here’s an easy way to find the healthiest breads and cereals you can. Number one, look for the words WHOLE GRAIN. Look at the first two ingredients, if one of those two doesn’t say WHOLE GRAIN, put it back! Number 2, look for the FDA-approved health claim that says “On a low-fat diet, whole foods may reduce the risk of heart disease and some forms of cancer.” That sounds pretty easy, doesn’t it? Now you no longer have excuses when you are in the store. You can find healthy breads and cereals for you and your family.

Well, we know how to find whole foods, but even so, there is still a discrepancy between the amount of whole grains that should be in the food to be the healthiest. Take another look at the nutritional declaration on the box. There are two things you really want to look for. Grams of fiber and grams of sugar. High fiber and low sugar content is the best option. So what is high fiber, what is low sugar? Generally, the FDA will only put its mark of approval on foods that are good or excellent sources of fiber. A good source of fiber has 6 to 10 grams of fiber per serving. An excellent source of fiber has 16 or more grams of fiber per serving. Using this as a guide, you only need to eat 3 servings of an excellent fiber source, or 6 of the good fiber sources. As for sugar, you should eat foods with 2 grams or less of sugar per serving. The more sugar in the servings, the less fiber there will be in them. The more fiber, the less sugar. Let’s look at a new trend that General Mills comes up with. Grab the new low-sugar, whole-grain Cinnamon Toast Crunch. We need to look at both boxes to compare this. Here are the regular grain stats. 130 Calories, 10 grams of sugar and 1 gram of fiber. How about the new cereal, 120 calories, 2 grams of sugar and 2 grams of fiber. General Mills has done a pretty good job. If you have to have crispy cinnamon toast, then this will be better than the original. But does it compare to our new found knowledge? NO! There is hardly any fiber in this cereal to make it a good source of fiber. It would not be considered a good source, or an excellent source. However, they managed to make it look better on paper or cardboard to be exact. How about one of those healthy cereals? Let’s look at Kashi Go Lean Crunch. It says seven whole grains, it has 190 calories per serving, 8 grams of fiber and 13 grams of sugar, it also contains 9 grams of protein.

When looking at the nutrition facts on the box, the first set of ingredients is whole grain oats, long grain brown rice, whole rye, whole grain hard red winter wheat, whole grain triticale, whole grain buckwheat, whole grain barley, and sesame seeds. The second item is soy protein concentrate and the third is evaporated cane juice, followed by brown rice syrup. So we’re getting better at our picks here. Even with the high sugar content, which is totally natural by the way, they have whole grains and multigrains. I’m not saying natural sugar is much better for you, but at least it’s not the refined white sugar we see so often. These natural sugars will still affect blood sugar levels, but they will take a little longer than refined sugar. Put this cereal next to our new set of standards and how does it compare? Well we are doing well with the fiber, the added protein is a nice addition however the sugar is still above the recommended health benefit. It’s good for you? It’s better than even the low whole sugar Cinnamon Toast Crunch, but you’ll have to decide if this is the best thing to do.

So with all this information, what should we do? We must try to make the best options available. If you’re afraid that eating healthier will make you work like a slave in the kitchen, realize that there are so many products that are good for you and easy to fix. Take the Grinin Grains line as an example. Homemade batches of muffin mixes, pancake mixes, waffle mixes and cereal mixes. These are made in small batches using the whole grain and they pride themselves on the wholesomeness of their product. Breads, cereals, pastas and even baked goods are beginning to emerge and make the switch to provide a healthier eating option for your family. Shouldn’t you try to do the same?