More than ever before, the dawning of a New Year is bringing with it new hopes and possibilities. Hopefully, we’ll have the chance to experience the exciting things we couldn’t during the pandemic and focus more on personal growth and improvement, like lifestyle changes that boost wellness. One way to start is eating right, including why it’s important to incorporate more wholegrains, grains of any cereal and pseudocereal that contains the three key parts of a seed (endosperm, germ, and bran), into our diets. Joumana Dabbagh, a Nestlé nutritionist for the Middle East and North Africa region, breaks it all down for us.
Joumana Dabbagh
The World Health Organization (WHO) advises to eat more foods rich in fibre, such as wholegrain cereals, pasta and bread, as well as fruits and vegetables, nuts and pulses. In fact, a recent WHO review of 185 observational studies and 58 clinical trials has concluded that we should eat at least 25 to 29 grams of fibre a day to boost our longevity and lower risks of myriad diseases. What’s more, there are indications that consuming over 30 grams a day offers even more health benefits.
Research has also shown that consuming wholegrain on a regular basis helps maintain healthy body weight and promotes digestive health.
The analysis “provides compelling evidence that dietary fibre and wholegrains are major determinants of numerous health outcomes and should form part of public health policy,” according to an article by Imperial College London’s Professor Gary Frost in the medical journal “The Lancet.” Yet global estimates show that we are eating less than a quarter of recommended daily wholegrain quantities.
A Focus on the Middle East and North Africa
There is also significant confusion among people in the Middle East and North Africa about what wholegrains are and how much of them should be consumed. While almost eight in 10 people surveyed (80 percent) believe it is important to eat wholegrains, more people (86 percent) admit they don’t know how much they should consume, while half think they eat enough.
A study of over 2,000 people in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia conducted by Cereal Partners Worldwide, the producer of Nestlé breakfast cereals, found that almost one in four (38 percent) people don’t know what foods contain wholegrains, with over one in four (25-32 percent) mistakenly believing seeds and nuts are a good source, or falsely assuming they are ingredients in white bread.
The study did find that many people are aware of some key facts, however, with 64 percent of respondents in the UAE and 53 percent in Saudi Arabia recognising that wholegrain products are high in fibre and help digestion. Yet wholegrains’ broader benefits were not found to be widely understood, with only half knowing that they’re good for heart health, and less than a quarter aware that they can help reduce the risk of type-2 diabetes. Half also said they believe people don’t eat enough wholegrains because they don’t understand its health benefits.
Here’s how to easily switch to wholegrain equivalents
Image belongs to Lively Table
White bread to wholegrain bread, often known as ‘wholewheat’ or ‘wholemeal’ bread
-
White rice to wholegrain rice such as brown rice, brown basmati rice and wild rice
-
Pasta to wholegrain pasta
-
Pancakes to wholegrain pancakes, made with oats or wholegrain flour
-
Wheat breakfast cereal to wholegrain breakfast cereal
Helping children go brown
Image belongs to Tasty
While wholegrain foods taste great, they can take a bit of getting used to. Most children can act suspicious when their pasta, bread or rice is presented in a different colour to the one they’re familiar with. Here are some tips that can help them transition easily:
- Mix white and brown pasta together, but as brown pasta takes longer to cook, start with it first and then add the white pasta later. Gradually reduce the amount of white pasta and they’ll be soon be eating a full plate of the brown stuff.
- Sprinkle white breadcrumbs over cooked brown rice, which make it appear whiter and taste crunchy and delicious.
- Make sandwiches with one slice of wholemeal bread and the other with white, a fun, and yes, slightly sneaky way to start getting wholegrain into their lunchboxes. Various ways to incorporate more wholegrains in your daily diet
- In the morning, choose a fibre-rich wholegrain breakfast cereal, oatmeal or whole-wheat toast. Read the label carefully and check dietary fibre grams per serving, knowing that the higher the fibre content, the longer satiety lasts.
- Experiment with different grains such as buckwheat, bulgur, millet, quinoa or barley.
- Enjoy wholegrains as snacks. Popcorn lovers will rejoice in knowing three cups of air-popped popcorn contains 3.5 grams of dietary fibre and only 95 calories! Nibbling on 100 percent whole-wheat crackers is another way to up your wholegrain intake.
Which brown foods are wholegrain?
Image belongs to Cafe Delites
Before you rush off to buy wholegrain foods, be aware that some ‘brown’ foods are not wholegrain at all. They may just be brown because of added ingredients like caramel. So, when you see descriptions like ‘multi-grain,’ ‘high-fibre,’ ‘stone-ground,’ ‘100 percent wheat’ or ‘seven-grain’, keep in mind that they do not mean the foods are necessarily made with wholegrain. Read the label for confirmation when you find the word ‘whole’ and choose products high in fibre with fewer added sugars. Barley, quinoa, oats, brown rice or wholegrain pastas, breads and cereals are some of the wholegrain food options. If the product is made with ‘wholegrain,’ you know you’re getting the real deal, especially if wholegrain is at the top of the ingredients list. If the fresh bread you’re buying from a bakery comes without a label, it’s best to ask for a wholegrain loaf.
