| “The key is to find recipes that you like. If you like white rice Mexican-style with beans, peppers and chili sauce, you’ll almost certainly enjoy it after substituting brown rice for white. If you like Italian dishes with white pasta, vegetables and marinara, try whole wheat pasta while keeping the other ingredients just as before. One word of warning on whole wheat pasta—some brands are richly flavorful but others taste like cardboard. As is true of many other foods, it’s worth finding the right brand. If you get it wrong the first time, don’t assume that all other brands will be that way.” |
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| Even those with gluten sensitivity (gluten is the protein in wheat, rye, corn, barley and some other grains) can eat whole grains, as long as they limit themselves to gluten-free grains like brown rice or the lesser-known quinoa. My wife and I recently had friends over for dinner who are on a gluten-free diet, and while that called for some extra culinary creativity on our part, we were able to put together a meal that everyone enjoyed.
Preparing Tasty Foods
The key is to find recipes that you like. If you like white rice Mexican-style with beans, peppers and chili sauce, you’ll almost certainly enjoy it after substituting brown rice for white. If you like Italian dishes with white pasta, vegetables and marinara, try whole wheat pasta while keeping the other ingredients just as before. One word of warning on whole wheat pasta—some brands are richly flavorful but others taste like cardboard. As is true of many other foods, it’s worth finding the right brand. If you get it wrong the first time, don’t assume that all other brands will be that way. We don’t endorse particular brands at Health Insights Today, so my best advice is to look in the pasta section at a good health food store, where there’s frequent turnover of product on the shelf. Or, if you can find a local Italian food place that makes whole wheat pasta fresh daily, that would be ideal.
As far as whole grain breads are concerned, in most areas of the U.S. you can find 100% whole wheat breads in the supermarket as well as the health food store. In many areas, local bakers provide fresh whole grain breads daily.
A few more points about whole vs. processed (white) grains:
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Many processed grains (white flour, white rice) are labeled “enriched.” This means that after many naturally-occurring nutrients are removed in processing, a few synthetic vitamins are added back. While this may enable some people on poor diets to avoid outright nutritional deficiencies, it can be compared to someone who takes $100 from you and then “enriches” you by giving you $10.
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Despite claims by a few overenthusiastic health food advocates, it is not true that white flour and white bread are poisonous, toxic or entirely devoid of nutrients. They aren’t nearly as good for you as the whole grain versions, but they do deliver some nutritional benefits. White bread even retains some fiber, although only about one-third the amount that you’ll find in 100% whole grain bread.
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Labels can be confusing. “Wheat” bread does not mean “whole wheat” bread. Unless the label says “100% whole wheat,” the bread includes some processed white flour, possibly accounting for most or all of it. Remember, the law requires that ingredients be listed in order of quantity, so if the first ingredient is “whole wheat flour,” and “wheat flour” is listed second, third or fourth, that means you’re getting a bread that is mainly whole grain. Personally, except in very rare circumstances, I won’t buy a bread that isn’t 100% whole grain.
Daniel Redwood, DC, is Editor-in-Chief of Health Insights Today. |
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