If your New Year’s resolution is to eat healthier or lose weight, chances are you are buying foods labelled “whole grain.” You may think this is the healthiest option, but researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health found that many foods labelled whole grain are misleading.
The study, which was published in the journal Public Health Nutrition, found that many of these seemingly healthy whole grain foods are actually loaded with extra carbohydrates and sugar, and likely, you wouldn’t know it unless scrutinising the back label.
Lead researcher Rebecca Mozaffarian and her colleagues found the discrepancy in whole grain foods while working on a separate project to make recommendations for healthier after-school snacks for children.
“We realised we didn’t have any certified base recommendations for whole grains that were grounded in science, and that’s what prompted the study,” Mozaffarian said.
What Mozaffarian and her team noticed was that there were actually five different whole grain recommendations, not a universal one with which to gauge the healthfulness of a food.
The researchers sampled 545 different grain products in eight categories including breads, bagels, English muffins, cereals, crackers, cereal bars, granola bars, and chips. The samples came from two of the biggest US grocers, Wal-Mart and Stop & Shop stores, and followed five different recommended criteria including:
- The Whole Grain Stamp, which is a product containing at least 8 grams of whole grains per serving (Whole Grains Council)
- Whole grain listed as the first ingredient on the ingredient list (USDA and US FDA)
- Whole grain listed as the first ingredient and no added sugars (USDA)
- The word “whole” before any grain listed anywhere on the ingredient list (USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americas, 2010)
- ≤10:1 ratio of total carbohydrate to fibre (AHA Strategic Impact Goal Through 2020 and Beyond)
Whole grain products with no added sugars did have more fibre and less sugar, however it did not show lower levels of sodium.
Mozaffarian and her team concluded that the best method to determine the healthfulness of a whole grain food was the 10:1 ratio because it contained more fibre, less sugar and sodium, and were less likely to contain trans-fats.
“The only downside to the 10:1 ratio is that it does require some math,” Mozaffarian said.
But considering that most of us don’t leave home without our mobile phones, this shouldn’t be too difficult. To get the ratio, simply divide the grams of carbohydrates by the grams of fibre.
For example, the Nestle cereal “Shreddies” contains 35.6 grams of carbohydrates and 3.9 grams of fibre. If you round the numbers and divide 35 by four, it equals 8.75, which is less than 10 and therefore a healthy whole grain.
“We found the ratio method to be the best, but there needs to be a single standard. It’s a problem if companies can manipulate products into becoming ‘whole grain’ based on any sort of standard, or lack of standard,” Mozaffarian said.
However, the Whole Grains Council criticised the findings on its website saying the researchers used outdated criteria and products high in sugar, which skewed the results.
In response, Mozaffarian said, “Even if that were the case, the Whole Grain Stamp still performed poorly compared to the other recommendations. We didn’t favour sugary foods, but we did look at cereals, which tend to have more sugar, and those are the ones that often have the Whole Grain Stamp.”
Whole grains not only provide essential vitamins and minerals, it has also been proven to reduce the risk of certain diseases.
Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine analysed the health benefits of whole grains and found that consuming 2.5 servings of the food daily is associated with a 21 per cent lower risk of heart disease. These findings were based on seven studies with more than 285,000 people involved.
To determine the healthiest whole grain option for you and your family, Mozaffarian suggests intact grains or ground whole grains.
“As long as the fibre is naturally occurring, it can help as a guideline for healthier choices with whole grain foods, even when it’s from a package,” Mozaffarian said.
