What Really Is A Wholegrain ?

I see the word wholegrain on everything from pasta to cereal. I know it is suppose to be healthier for you. But I really have no idea what it is.

Usually, we are talking about cereal grains when we say whole grain but beans, peas and lentils are grains, too. So, the Cannellini beans in your soup bowl are whole grains.

Here are corn whole grains:


They don't really need to be so colorful .

@seedcorn told us how they could be ground without using a mill.


So, cornbread ... with our bowl of hot bean soup and pumpkin pie dessert:



Steve

Here are more wholegrains:


Hulless oats. But, Boy did I have to beat on them to get their "hulless" hulls off!. Here's what I made:


I decided to use a "rice salad" recipe.

Steve

Following is the official definition of whole grains, approved and endorsed by the Whole Grains Council in May 2004:

Whole grains or foods made from them contain all the essential parts and naturally-occurring nutrients of the entire grain seed in their original proportions. If the grain has been processed (e.g., cracked, crushed, rolled, extruded, and/or cooked), the food product should deliver the same rich balance of nutrients that are found in the original grain seed.

This definition means that 100% of the original kernel – all of the bran, germ, and endosperm – must be present to qualify as a whole grain.

List of whole grains
The following, when consumed in a form including the bran, germ and endosperm, are examples* of generally accepted whole grain foods and flours. Click here to learn more about each one.

• Amaranth
• Barley
• Buckwheat
• Corn, including whole cornmeal and popcorn
• Millet
• Oats, including oatmeal
• Quinoa
• Rice, both brown rice and colored rice
• Rye
• Sorghum (also called milo)
• Teff
• Triticale
• Wheat, including varieties such as spelt, emmer, farro, einkorn, Kamut®, durum and forms such as bulgur, cracked wheat and wheatberries
• Wild rice

Theoretically, you could add Chinese Pearl Barley (a.k.a. "edible" Job's tears*) to the list, bearing in mind that, due to the Chinese pretty much using it exclusively in soup (and polishing it like rice for that purpose) and a functional non offering of the "edible" kind, to actually get whole grain Job's tears, you'd probably have to do as I did (comb through tons of soup tears (preferably lower quality) in bins in Chinatown over the year to find the odd kernel the cracking/polishing machine missed, then plant them and hope for the best.

* Technically, ALL Job's tears are edible, but the standard hard shelled one used for jewelry (and commonly sold in catalogs) is SO hard to open (with it's level of silica, you need pliers) that doing so on an eating scale is completely infeasible.

Thanks guys

@Nyboy , one of the best advice tidbits I ever gave you had to do with Fruit Loops. I suggested that you put fruit in the bowl first and fruit in the bowl last, to cover a little sprinkle of Fruit Loops. Use your regular size cereal bowl!! Limit those Fruit Loops that way. In fact, I use that technique to limit my cold cereal, whatever the brand.

Let's do a comparison with wholegrain cereals:
Cheerios
Protein 3.39 grams
Sugar 1.22 grams
Zinc 1.22 milligrams
Iron 9.29 mg

Wheat Chex
Protein 4.61 g
Sugar 4.84 g
Zinc 5.26 mg
Iron 14.38 mg

Fruit Loops
Protein 1.54 g
Sugar 12.09 g
Zinc 1.5 mg
Iron 4.50 mg

Vitamins are added. Cereals are "fortified" by federal law. Otherwise, we would have some very sickly kids.

I was surprised by the difference in minerals. Fruit Loops, you are getting close to nothing!

https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list

Steve

Thanks Steve one of my biggest problems is, breakfast for me is just coffee. I have to force myself to eat something in the morning. I have lost 7 pounds since ER .

Good for you. Wow!

I'm not hungry early in the AM.

Nope. But, you remember how it is said that it's your most important meal. Take that to heart ... Shoot, I'll run down to totally exhausted about 4 hours after rising if I didn't have breakfast! I mean a brick wall!!!

Then. I might just eat anything ... and, lots of it! Rational thought will have gone right out the window.

Okay, hunger is a great seasoning. So what? Don't you like to play with your food, NyBoy? Play away! That's a pretty good seasoning, too! Spice up your life with simple, whole foods. We will have you and the spaniels out wrestling down the tree squirrels and Stalking the Wild Asparagus in short order!

Steve