Grains: Bulgur Can Trim Your Bulges and Spelt Can Make You Svelte

December 11, 2007

Washington Post

By Sally Squires

Tuesday, December 11, 2007; Page HE07

There are familiar, but often overlooked, foods lurking in your pantry that can assist with weight control and help combat abdominal fat: whole-grain products, from oatmeal to whole wheat bread.

Whether you start the day with piping-hot oatmeal or end it by dining on whole wheat pasta, the whole-grain fiber can help cut your risk of Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Take the results published last month by a group of British researchers. They analyzed 15 studies of whole grains involving nearly 120,000 people 13 and older. These studies consistently showed that those who ate about three servings of whole grains daily -- the amount recommended by the 2005 Dietary Guidelines -- had significantly smaller waistlines than people who skimped on whole grains. Plus, whole-grain eaters also consumed significantly less unhealthy saturated fat and weighed less than those who ate mostly processed products with white flour, added sugar and little fiber.

No matter what your weight, there appear to be benefits from swapping processed cereal, bread, crackers, rice and pasta for heartier, whole-grain fare. Reporting in October at the Obesity Society's annual meeting, Tufts University researchers showed that even among older, overweight people, eating whole grains especially in cereal, was associated with lower overall body fat and abdominal fat.

December 12, 2007

Hi folks:

We have of course discussed this before, and I wonder about its

significance for the following reasons. It seems to me that the

minority who go to the trouble to eat whole grain products will not

confine their healthy dietary and other behaviours to this one alone.

So I would question whether it is the whole grain that makes the

difference noted, or whether instead it might be the combination of

many healthy behaviours of health-conscious people of which eating

whole grains is merely one which may or may not be significant. (Of

course the conventional wisdom for at least fifty years has been that

whole grains are healthy).

I would be interested to see data from a study designed to determine

whether there is any benefit for those whose ONLY healthy behaviour

is to eat whole grains, while otherwise pursuing the typical SAD diet.

And, as also previously discussed here, whole grain products are ~85%

white flour. So the benefit, if there is one, seems likely to be

from the bran and germ, rather than from the whole grain. So has any

study ever been done to determine whether eating whole grain is

superior to eating the bran and germ alone? I suspect that if there

is validity to this line of research then the best route may be to

replace white grains *and whole grains* with the equivalent amount of

bran and germ.

If anyone knows of studies done in a way that was capable of

differentiating these nuances it would be great to see them - and

then I would be able to stop wasting space here questioning the

validity of studies about whole grain ; ^ )))

Rodney.

>

> Washington Post

> By Sally Squires

> Tuesday, December 11, 2007; Page HE07

>

> There are familiar, but often overlooked, foods lurking in your

pantry that

> can assist with weight control and help combat abdominal fat: whole-

grain

> products, from oatmeal to whole wheat bread.

>

> Whether you start the day with piping-hot oatmeal or end it by

dining on

> whole wheat pasta, the whole-grain fiber can help cut your risk of

Type 2

> diabetes and heart disease.

>

> Take the results published last month by a group of British

researchers.

> They analyzed 15 studies of whole grains involving nearly 120,000

people 13

> and older. These studies consistently showed that those who ate

about three

> servings of whole grains daily -- the amount recommended by the

2005 Dietary

> Guidelines -- had significantly smaller waistlines than people who

skimped

> on whole grains. Plus, whole-grain eaters also consumed

significantly less

> unhealthy saturated fat and weighed less than those who ate mostly

processed

> products with white flour, added sugar and little fiber.

>

> No matter what your weight, there appear to be benefits from

swapping

> processed cereal, bread, crackers, rice and pasta for heartier,

whole-grain

> fare. Reporting in October at the Obesity Society's annual meeting,

Tufts

> University researchers showed that even among older, overweight

people,

> eating whole grains especially in cereal, was associated with lower

overall

> body fat and abdominal fat.

>

December 12, 2007

Rod: you may well be right. However we have here at times thought that we need eat only the “part” of the food that we think will be beneficial; in some cases nature has outsmarted us as we later found that the “whole food is more than the sum of its’ parts”; that the health benefit lies in some nutrient later discovered or in a synergistic absorption of several natural ingredients in the entire food that we previously thought to be empty calories.

Perhaps in this case you may be correct. Until that is proven, moderation, moderation, moderation (hey, I haven’t said that in a long time :-))) Besides for those who enjoy the whole grains (steel cut oats for breakfast are yummy) and have accounted for those calories, why not enjoy them?

From: Rodney <perspect1111@...>

Reply-< >

Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:43:25 -0000

< >

Subject: [ ] Re: Grains: Bulgur Can Trim Your Bulges and Spelt Can Make You Svelte