Whole grains

What are whole grains?

The Whole Grains Council says a whole grain must contain the essential bran, germ and endosperm as well as naturally occurring nutrients of the entire seed.

Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) definition of whole grains is less conclusive. In February, FDA released its definition, and said whole grains are cereal grains, such as corn, rice, oats and wheat, and these grains must be intact, ground, cracked or flaked.

Did FDA make any other recommendations about whole grain consumption? Yes. In 2005, the government released MyPyramid, which recommends that Americans receive half of their total grain intake from whole grains, which should be about three ounce-equivalents per day.

However, this recommendation caused some confusion. How did consumers know how many ounce equivalents were in their bread or other bakery foods?

The Whole Grains Council created a stamp that bakers could display on their packaging promoting their breads as "good" or "excellent" sources of whole grains-if these bakery foods contained at least 8 grams or at least 16 grams, respectively.

When FDA released its definition of whole grains in February, it turned down requests from bakers to make these statements, and instead said bakers should display factual statements, such as "8 grams of whole grain" on their packaging.

Do whole grain bakery foods warrant any health claims? Yes. FDA approved a whole grain health claim especially for whole grain bakery foods.

In addition, on May 19, FDA finalized a rule that allows foods containing barley to claim they reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. This health claim stipulates that bakery foods containing whole grain barley or dry milled barley products provide at least 0.75 grams of soluble fiber per serving.

Many whole grain breads also are eligible for FDA-approved fiber health claims. FDA allows three different health claims related to fiber.

* 21 CFR 101.76 addresses fibercontaining grains and their relation to reducing the risk of cancer
* 21 CFR 101.77 addresses grains that contain fiber, particularly soluble fiber, and their relation to reducing the risk of coronary heart disease
* 21 CFR 101.81 addresses soluble fiber from certain foods and their relation to reducing the risk of heart disease.Whole grain oat flour or oat bran, which provides betaglucans, is one such whole grain eligible for this health claim.