Whole Grains
I’m on a kick.. and for once it’s a cooking kick, not a sewing kick. So bear with me.
The most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released in January 2011, recommend that all adults eat at least half their grains as whole grains - that’s at least 3 to 5 servings of whole grains. Even children need 2 to 3 servings or more.
Where a serving of whole grain is defined as any of the following:
- 1/2 cup cooked brown rice or other cooked grain
- 1/2 cup cooked 100% whole-grain pasta
- 1/2 cup cooked hot cereal, such as oatmeal
- 1 ounce uncooked whole grain pasta, brown rice or other grain
- 1 slice 100% whole grain bread
- 1 very small (1 oz.) 100% whole grain muffin
- 1 cup 100% whole grain ready-to-eat cereal
- 16 grams of whole grain ingredients (ie, in crackers)
Whole grains or foods made from them contain all the essential parts and naturally-occurring nutrients of the entire grain seed in their original proportions. If the grain has been processed (e.g., cracked, crushed, rolled, extruded, and/or cooked), the food product should deliver the same rich balance of nutrients that are found in the original grain seed.
This definition means that 100% of the original kernel - all of the bran, germ, and endosperm - must be present to qualify as a whole grain.
Oilseeds and legumes (such as flax, chia, sunflower seeds, soy, chickpeas, etc.) are not considered whole grains by the WGC, the AACC International, or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
I need to get more whole grains. I’ve known this for a while.. I keep hearing “you should eat more whole grain” so we switched to a whole grain bread and use brown rice instead of white rice. But I suspected that wasn’t enough to actually get the 3-5 servings they recommend. Then, a few months ago I bought lunch at a nearby cafe and they had a whole grain salad (Farro with goat cheese and almonds). It was super lovely fantastic. So for the last few months I’ve been experimenting with different grains and different salad recipes (recipes blogged on one of my other blogs under Whole Grain Salads). These salads make a light and filling dinner and even better, work well as lunch for a few days after.
In experimenting with the salads it occurred to me that I don’t really know what I’m doing. I don’t now a whole grain from a stealthed pasta (couscous is NOT a whole grain). I didn’t know that Farro, rather than being a unique species of whole grain, is yet another species of wheat… or that Bulgur, is a form of any wheat, not a special whole grain. So I started to dig.. and lucky you, I like to document what I find so I don’t forget it. So I’m blogging my findings.
This is tangentially related to SCA things since I’m looking at these grains and salads to come up with reasonable period choices for foods. One of my goals is to come up with a plausible salad which could be made a home, and would store in a cooler for a few days (ie, not meat, no diary, nothing that would easily spoil). I’m close.
Read the rest of this entry »
Mirrored from Research Dumping Grounds.
Add a comment.