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Know Your Whole Grains 

Question:  Which breads are usually all or mostly whole grain?

(a) whole wheat, (b) multi-grain, (c) rye, (d) pumpernickel

Answer:  Multi-grain, rye, and pumpernickel breads can be all or mostly whole grain.

Choose these, and better yet, choose sprouted grain bread.

Experts tell us to eat whole grains and eat them more often, but most people, especially in the US and Canada, don’t know why.

Whole grains are better for you than refined grains because of fiber, vitamins, and minerals. What’s more are the phytochemicals, phytoestrogens, lignans, phenolic acids and antioxidants that make up the whole package.

You get more fiber and more micronutrients like folic acid, magnesium, and vitamin E when you eat whole grains, and this helps to reduce your risk of heart disease and diabetes.

After wheat is harvested, the whole grain is taken to the refinery where it is blasted with heat to make the germ and the bran fall away. What is left is the starch, the white part, the part that is not good for you.

This practice started back in history in order to give flour its shelf life; once the germ and bran are taken away, the starchy flour cannot go rancid and it’s bug resistant. Bugs cannot sustain life on it. And, if bugs end up dying on refined grain, how could you expect to do much better?

Manufacturers know that Americans like their white bread looking uniform and sanitary in packaging on store shelves, but once you know that white bread contains nothing on a nutritional level, what could be your reason to eat it?

Fortunes have been made on flour, water and yeast - and at your expense.

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