what’s in your food? (part five)
This month we’re taking a look at the ingredient list and defining what some of those “mystery” ingredients are. If you are going to eat it, you should know what it is, right?
Enriched Wheat Flour
We know that a diet rich in fiber from grains can keep LDL cholesterol in check and may lower your risk of heart disease, cancer and diabetes, but all grains are NOT created equal. A grain – let’s take wheat for example – contains three parts: the bran, the germ, and the endosperm. The bran is the outer hard shell of the grain. It is the part of the grain that provides the most fiber and most of the B vitamins and minerals. The germ is the next layer and is packed with nutrients including essential fatty acids and vitamin E. The endosperm is the soft part in the center of the grain. It contains the starch. Whole grain means that the entire grain kernel is in the food.
Since a whole grain food contains the bran, germ, and endosperm, you get all of the nutrients that whole grains have to offer. But when you eat a refined grain food, it contains only the endosperm or the starchy part, so you are missing out on a lot of vitamins and minerals. Because whole grains contain the entire grain, they are MUCH more nutritious than refined grains.
Picking out foods in the store that are whole grain can be confusing. You cannot tell by the color of the food. Some manufacturers add coloring to make pasta look brown, for example. Reading the ingredient list is the easiest way to tell if a food is made from whole grains. Look for the first ingredient to be whole wheat flour, brown rice, rye flour, barley, or oats.
When you start reading ingredient lists, you will notice another term on most bread products made in the United States. It is enriched wheat flour, which is not the same thing as whole wheat flour. It is a refined grain and loses about 11 vitamins and minerals in the processing, so a five are added back: niacin, riboflavin, thiamin, and folic acid.
Enriched wheat flour is in so many American foods! It is often listed as all-purpose flour, cake flour, bleached flour, and bread flour, and is found in breads, white rice and white pasta, as well as baked products like cake, cookies, muffins, and snack bars.
So read the labels and do not rely on the adjectives on the packaging to tell you if your food is nutritious or not! And if you find that your local grocery store does not carry whole grain foods, speak with the manager and demand that they carry better choices – your health is worth the little extra effort, right?