05/03/06 Understanding "whole grain" foods

Farm and Ranch May 3, 2006 The Wheat Foods Council helps promote consumption of wheat based foods on behalf of the nation's wheat growers and provides nutritional information to consumers. One thing the Council is currently doing is trying to help consumers understand "whole grain" foods. The Food and Drug Administration considers foods to be "whole grain" if they contain the endosperm, germ and bran in the same relative proportions as the intact grain. Marcia Scheideman, who is President of the Wheat Foods Council, says that currently foods have labels that say good or excellent source of whole grain and that can be confusing and deceiving to consumers. Scheideman: "Usually "excellent source" translates into one serving of that particular product will give you 16 grams of whole grain. Others will say "good source" and that usually translates into eight grams in a serving of that particular product." The recommendation is to eat 48 grams of whole grain food products daily. Scheideman: "Their best bet is to look at the ingredient label of their food package and if the first ingredient says whole grain flour or whole grain pasta or whole wheat pasta, if the world whole is there, then the primary ingredient in that product is a whole grain." Research has shown that whole grains contain anti-oxidants that help prevent chronic diseases such as heart disease, certain cancers and diabetes. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.