Posted by Sandra MacMartin, Public Affairs Professional, Midwest Regional Office environment with guest creator Olivia Rodriguez, Outreach and Communications Manager, Major Box Foods in
Foods and Nutrition
Dec 07, 2022
Prime Box Meals is not a grocery store, farmers market, or food stuff bank. Top rated Box Foodstuff is a group-pushed non-financial gain, established in Chicago in 2012, that makes access to wholesome and cost-effective foods for the communities they provide. Clients place orders on the internet or by means of cell phone for nutritious meals which is presented at rates up to 40{d2b09b03d44633acb673e8080360919f91e60962656af8ade0305d5d8b7e4889} reduced than grocery stores. Prior to March 2020, Major Box Foods consumers would decide up their orders at community distribution websites this sort of as church buildings. Nonetheless, when the pandemic hit, Major Box Meals replaced the choose-up product with their free residence delivery software. Leading Box Foodstuff accepts SNAP rewards as payment for orders, building it an necessary useful resource for households on the lookout to make the most of their SNAP bucks to acquire new fruits and veggies, lean proteins and a lot more.
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Coworkers may possibly be capable to influence your nutritious foods possibilities.
Even if you get the job done from property, your employer and coworkers could nonetheless sway your ingesting patterns and behaviors.
Peer pressure, encouragement, and social norms might clarify this marriage.
Your coworkers might assistance you adopt a more healthy diet program, in accordance to a new study published in BMC Community Well being.
For example, likely to the business cafeteria with your coworkers who are a lot more likely to consume fruit and greens might lead you to order a salad alternatively of a burger. Anne van der Place, MS, a co-writer of the study and a PhD prospect at the department of sociology at Utrecht University, reported that peer stress is partially responsible for this preference, but other elements are at engage in.
“We are close to them so much and we see what they eat and what they do,” van der Set informed Verywell. “I see my colleagues much more frequently than my good friends. I even see some colleagues more frequently in a working day than my associate.”
Previous studies have revealed the affect of social groups on overall health. The landmark Christakis and Fowler study posted in the New England Journal of Medication in 2007 was one particular of the very first to join the danger of building obesity with social ties and stated the risk greater by 57{d2b09b03d44633acb673e8080360919f91e60962656af8ade0305d5d8b7e4889} if an individual’s buddy developed weight problems.
Though research has proven that close friends can affect health and fitness behaviors, experts are still learning how everyday associations, like coworkers, can effects our eating routines.
“We’re social creatures and we are vulnerable to social affect from our friends. It would not be stunning to see that in the place of work, far too,” explained Douglas E. Levy, PhD, MPH, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Health-related University who also studied the connection concerning food items preference and the role of colleagues just before.
Levy’s crew reviewed food decisions from 7 medical center cafeterias that used a “traffic light” labeling program to recognize nutritious (eco-friendly) and harmful (pink) food items. They uncovered that coworkers who ate alongside one another ended up probably to influence each other’s ingesting styles, specifically when it arrived to healthful foodstuff.
“It could be peer tension, or it could be just exposure to a particular norm,” Levy reported.
When Levy located that coworkers had been additional probably to motivate healthy eating behaviors, it is also feasible for coworkers to have a poor influence.
“You go to lunch with your coworkers and any individual gets a cheeseburger and fries, that form of provides every person else permission to get cheeseburger and fries. It claims, ‘we’re not heading to decide you adversely for performing so,’” Levy claimed.
What If You Do the job from House?
Both van der Put’s and Levy’s exploration examined how coworkers influence nutritional practices when they share a workspace or take in in the very same cafeteria. But these experts believe that the affect could extend to digital office interactions as perfectly.
van der Put stated she’s doing work on a analyze that observed that even if personnel get the job done from home, their ingesting patterns and behaviors could nevertheless be impacted by employers and colleagues.
“We considered it was intriguing mainly because if you perform from residence, you have less call with your colleagues but they are nonetheless an essential reference team,” van der Place claimed.
Levy included that some contributors in the 2007 Christakis and Fowler study did not are living close to every other, nonetheless they even now influenced their peers to consume more healthy. Remote personnel who hook up on the internet often, then, may continue to be prone to peer impact.
“The effects of the pandemic on the workplace and coming back again to the place of work are continue to very much performs in progress,” Levy said.
How Substantially Influence Do Your Workers Definitely Have?
Tricia Leahey, PhD, a professor specializing in behavioral medicine and way of life interventions for weight problems treatment at the College of Connecticut, informed Verywell that the thought of homophily, or the tendency to link with folks who are related to us, may well also impact the study findings.
“We’re attracted to persons who have equivalent perspectives or interact in comparable behaviors,” Leahey claimed. “It may perhaps be that we select to dangle out with coworkers who are like us.”
On the other hand, she mentioned the workplace can provide people alongside one another who would not otherwise interact. The character of these interactions could lead to social impact as a result of modeling.
“You’re going to the cafeteria with a new colleague and possibly they opt for a balanced salad then maybe you’re much more likely to decide on a wholesome salad. You could see wherever that could participate in out,” she reported.
Whether or not it’s peer tension, encouragement, or a bond strengthened by sharing balanced practices, evidence indicates that coworkers can impact your taking in behaviors. Now, scientists want to determine how to translate this analysis into successful workplace wellness packages.
“Creating a much healthier workplace society is a collective effort,” van der Place mentioned. “It definitely only will help if you have this assistance all through the organization.”
What This Suggests For You
Accessibility to healthy foods will also assist staff members make nutritious decisions. The food items possibilities available in a split area or cafeteria will also impact what coworkers consume when they are with each other.
December 5, 2022—In this Big 3 Q&A, Cindy Leung, assistant professor of public health nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, discusses a recent paper she co-authored linking food insecurity and food addiction, as well as her other research efforts.
Q: Tell us about your recent study and the interesting findings around food insecurity.
A: Food insecurity is a socioeconomic condition of limited access to affordable and healthy food. In my prior research, I found that people experiencing food insecurity are more likely to have poorer quality diets and are at higher risk for chronic conditions. Food addiction is a newer paradigm where we’re seeing experiences of withdrawal and other symptoms similar to those, for example, of alcohol abuse, as a result of eating highly processed foods. Knowing that highly processed foods are abundant in low-income neighborhoods, we wondered if people who are food insecure might be more vulnerable to food addiction.
In two different samples—one of low-income pregnant women in the San Francisco Bay area, and another of mothers of preadolescent children in southeast Michigan—we found a consistent and significant positive association between food insecurity and food addiction, even after adjusting for sociodemographic factors like education, race/ethnicity, and income level.
In our study, we couldn’t tease apart the mechanisms behind this link, but I believe that stress and ubiquitous access to highly processed foods are big components. Food insecurity is a source of chronic stress—a constant cognitive process to manage one’s food resources in relation to the family’s food needs. This chronic stress may alter the reward system to overconsume highly processed foods, increasing the risk of food addiction over time. The combination of high stress and easy access to highly palatable foods may also explain the higher risks of other chronic diseases that we’ve seen in relation to food insecurity.
Q: What other research questions are you looking at?
A: When we talk about interventions for food insecurity, we automatically go to our federal food programs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen swift expansions of our biggest nutrition programs, showing that they are important levers to reduce food insecurity during national emergencies. My colleagues and I are evaluating some of these recent policies. I am also really interested in seeing how poverty alleviation programs might reduce food insecurity. Programs and policies that address the minimum wage or reduce unemployment could have secondary impacts on preventing food insecurity, which is so intimately tied to poverty.
Separate from this, I am interested in testing and evaluating environmental interventions to improve dietary intake. I have been involved in some large-scale interventions to reduce sugar-sweetened beverage consumption. Currently, I am working with a team at the University of Michigan to test various dining hall changes to reduce red meat consumption, which is an important goal for both health and sustainability reasons.
Q: What does it mean to you as an alumna to be back at the School as a faculty member?
I am excited and humbled to be back at Harvard Chan School, where I got my foundational training and launched my career. Now, ten years later, I think I have a more holistic perspective of how I can take my work to the next stage. I also feel very privileged to work alongside my former mentors and colleagues, and the increasingly talented pool of students that we have.
Overall, I am really optimistic about growing my research program at the School, focusing on the intersection of nutrition and health equity. I am deeply committed to serving the public health community in that space.
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As tempting as it may well be to get in or are living off the place of work cookie plate during the stress filled holiday break time, setting up your individual meals can have large payoffs — for both equally your overall health and your wallet.
Take lunch for example. In one survey, individuals claimed they expend about $20 for every week on lunch, amounting to a lot more than a single grand for each 12 months. Element in the pricier chains, dining out far more than a pair of occasions per 7 days, or dwelling in a huge metropolis, and you could be investing a lot more. Setting your spending budget aside, it would seem really noticeable that usually selecting up lunch is considerably less balanced and far more pricey than planning meals at home, and science backs this up.
A minor bit of food prep and you could be on your way to a much healthier, leaner entire body. In a single study among more than 100,000 members, meal scheduling tactics were being tied to improvements in diet program good quality, increased diet wide range and had been joined to lower entire body bodyweight. Here’s why: When you strategy your foods, you’re a lot less very likely to invest in geared up foods or dine on takeout dishes, which are likely to be better in calories, sodium, included sugar and saturated fat.
How to food strategy like a professional
Food preparing isn’t as daunting as it seems. Commit just 10 or 15 minutes mapping out your meals, jot down what you need to have and head to the retailer. Which is it. And due to the fact the holidays are chaotic sufficient, we have also acquired ideas for streamlining food prep. Below are 6 easy techniques that’ll assist you get arranged and get the overwhelm out of food arranging and prepping.
1. Make a decision on your food prep method. A single way to go is to select up to a few breakfasts, lunches and dinners you’ll make this 7 days.You are going to decrease meal prep if you strategy to have some foods on repeat. Also, for this action, think about whether or not your weekends look various than your 7 days, and make certain you account for that in your prepare. For occasion, perhaps you have time to cook dinner breakfast or make a much more elaborate evening meal in excess of the weekend.
If you’d relatively not commit to recipes, make a listing of uncomplicated, unseasoned, or frivolously seasoned ingredients (such as simple chickpea pasta, brown rice, rotisserie chicken, tofu, and roasted veggies like broccoli) that you can season and blend during the 7 days. (See food thoughts for more on this underneath.)
2. Fill your pantry with healthful ease foods. Objects these types of as canned tuna and salmon, canned beans (no- or small-sodium most popular), canned or boxed soups (once again, small-sodium), microwavable complete grains (including brown rice and quinoa), bean-primarily based and total grain pastas, and nut butters (or nut-totally free butters) are easy components that shave time off of meal prep.
3. Inventory your fridge and freezer strategically. Stocking the basic principles at dwelling helps make scheduling, prepping, and past-minute food modifications even easier. Some nutritious alternatives incorporate eggs, Greek yogurt, cottage and/or ricotta cheese, shredded cheese, frozen fruits and veggies, frozen edamame and peas, frozen whole grain waffles, and veggie burgers.
4. Make a listing. Use regardless of what method functions for you. Some people swear by a digital reverse browsing listing, which is a grasp document of all the factors you often consume or prepare dinner with. Fundamentally, you’re having inventory of your kitchen area relatively than just a listing of food items you need to have. Then, highlight or use an identifier (this kind of as an emoji) future to the items you require to acquire. This gives you a significant photograph of all the things you have in your fridge and pantry, generating it less most likely you overlook an significant ingredient (or overbuy one thing you by now have).
5. Lean on straightforward seasonings. Almost everything but the bagel seasoning, Italian and Greek seasoning, dried herbs and spices, lemons, pesto, very low-sugar marinara sauce, tahini, and coconut aminos or lessen-sodium soy sauce appear in useful when you want to improve a bland food or speedily remodel unseasoned substances into a tasty entree.
6. Prep further veggies. Say you’ve acquired your reducing board out to chop broccoli — nicely, do not quit there! For case in point, slice up some cucumbers to have as a snack or along with a sandwich, and make a different veggie to use in salads and grain bowls through the week. You are going to have the identical sum of cleanup on evening one particular and limit cleanup (aka preserve time) later in the week.
Breakfast
Make breakfast a no brainer.Have a basic record of go-to solutions or make-ahead foods that make mornings much easier. Consider: Greek yogurt with berries and nuts, uncomplicated egg chunk muffins, baked oats, smoothies, and higher-protein avocado toast (mash white beans or chickpeas into the avocado and provide with a sliced boiled egg on prime or on the facet).
Lunch
Retain factors straightforward by building some unseasoned foundational components (such as baked or grilled chicken breasts, sauteed shrimp, quinoa, or brown rice) that you can dress up and mix and match as you please. For occasion, make a shrimp Caesar salad with pine nuts, parmesan, and bottled dressing a person working day and then a shrimp-veggie brown rice bowl a further day. Or, have a tuna sandwich for one particular lunch and then toss tuna into a veggie-loaded pasta for evening meal afterwards in the week. Require extra inspiration? Joy Bauer’s Harvest Bowl and Burrito Bowl ought to give you some refreshing ideas. Standard substances like rotisserie or baked chicken, quinoa, and canned beans work effectively in these recipes.
Snacks
Your very best probability of receiving via the working day without having distracting starvation is to pick out a protein- and fiber-prosperous snack. Snacks that incorporate whole food items sources of protein and fiber (say, from some combo of nuts, veggies, fruits, beans, eggs, or yogurt) offer you a successful formula that keeps you complete for hours. Plus, if your snack is dominant in protein- and fiber-wealthy food resources, these healthful ingredients are probable crowding out significantly less healthful types, specifically additional sugar and refined grains. Right here are some tips for buying a healthier, substantial protein, significant fiber snack, alongside with some tasty choices that in good shape the parameters.
What to look for in a nutritious snack
At the very least 3 grams of fiber (you have to have all over 25-38 grams for every working day).
5 or much more grams of protein (for reference, a boiled egg has about 6 grams).
No a lot more than 6 grams of additional sugar (about 1 ½ teaspoons, but lower is far better).
Healthful elements, like beans, nuts, seeds, fruits, veggies, eggs, yogurt, and cheese.
No synthetic sweeteners, like sucralose or aspartame (the things in the yellow and blue packets.
No synthetic hues or preservatives (frequently clues that one thing is extremely processed).
Of course, you can also make a healthful snack working with speedy ingredients you have at property. An great combo is a fruit or veggie paired with a protein supply, this kind of as nuts, seeds, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese, boiled eggs, canned tuna, or leftover chicken.
Here are a few thoughts to get you begun:
Sliced cucumbers with olive tapenade.
Little one carrots with hummus or guacamole.
Sliced apple with a slice of cheese.
Sliced pears with nut or seed butter.
Simple or reduce-sugar Greek yogurt with berries or grapes.
Meal
Beneath, we’ve pulled together a list of some of our most well-liked healthier recipes on Nowadays.com to make meal arranging a lot easier — come to feel totally free to swap out recipes for different days of the week or make sufficient of a single dish to provide as leftovers to help you save time on another night time. To make dinners very well-well balanced, we have available serving recommendations, most of which entail the comfort objects we’ve proposed throughout.
What a healthy food prepare appears to be like like
Here’s a sample prepare that serves as a blueprint for simple meal prep. You’ll see that breakfasts entail some make-ahead foods and some early morning-of alternatives. Lunches make the most of the blend-and-match strategy outlined above. Whilst we’ve available five distinct evening meal selections, you can streamline the menu by making plenty of for leftovers.
Share on PinterestA modified Mediterranean food plan, so-named the green Mediterranean diet plan may possibly convey the most rewards to all those on the lookout to shed visceral body fat. Picture credit rating: kolderal/Getty Photos.
A recent examine appeared at the wellbeing outcomes of a new variation of the Mediterranean eating plan known as the eco-friendly Mediterranean eating plan.
The inexperienced Mediterranean eating plan is far more productive than the original at lessening the amount of money of visceral excess fat all-around inner organs.
Visceral unwanted fat has been joined to early mortality and a host of other severe professional medical fears.
A essential aspect of the new diet plan is the inclusion of walnuts, which are rich in polyphenols.
A new massive-scale medical intervention demo discovered that a modified Mediterranean diet program — identified as the green Mediterranean eating plan — is far more productive at reducing visceral fat that can encompass and problems organs than the standard Mediterranean eating plan or a generally nutritious eating plan.
All a few diet plans resulted in a reduction of visceral fats, but the green Mediterranean diet plan doubled the benefit of the “traditional” Mediterranean diet plan.
The examine was performed by the Direct-Additionally demo research group. It was led by Prof. Iris Shai of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, and Dr. Hila Zelicha, now at the College of California, Los Angeles, aided by colleagues from Italy, Germany, and the United States.
The green Mediterranean diet differs from the first Mediterranean diet plan in its emphasis on polyphenols.
Polyphenols are plant compounds that have been connected to protection from form 2 diabetes, some cancers, and coronary heart ailment. They also surface to guidance mind health and digestion.
Polyphenols are found in darkish chocolate, berries, crimson wine, and tea, as very well as some nuts, this kind of as walnuts.
On the green Mediterranean eating plan, as envisaged in this review, a human being consumes 28 grams of walnuts — about 7 nuts — 3 to 4 cups of inexperienced tea, and 100 milligrams of the aquatic plant Wolffia globosa (Mankai) — also known as “duckweed” — in a smoothie or shake every single working day. All are rich in polyphenols.
If not, the diet regime is the same as the original Mediterranean food plan, but devoid of the usage of crimson and processed meats.
For the 18-thirty day period randomized controlled trial, researchers divided the 294 members into 3 teams:
a person group followed a regular Mediterranean (MED) food plan
1 followed a eco-friendly Mediterranean (eco-friendly-MED) diet plan
a closing team a person strictly followed nutritious dietary suggestions (HDG).
All teams were supplied life style academic periods and actual physical exercise tips, alongside with a free of charge gym membership.
Scientists provided the walnuts, tea, and Mankai, along with recipes for environmentally friendly smoothies.
Dr. Aaron Cypess, of the Nationwide Institutes of Health’s Nationwide Institute of Diabetic issues and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, was not associated in the review. He praised the research to Health-related News These days:
“The medical demo was executed very well, and these sorts of extended-time period eating plan interventions are incredibly tricky to execute. The study has created quite a few hypotheses that can now be examined relating to the system by which polyphenols have an impact on VAT mass.”
“VAT” stands for “visceral adipose tissue,” which is an additional term for visceral extra fat. “Adipose” describes a entire body tissue that outlets body fat.
At the conclusion of the trial, reductions in visceral fat ended up assessed by way of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). All a few teams shed a similar volume of overall entire body bodyweight.
Individuals on the eco-friendly Mediterranean diet regime decreased their visceral fats by around 14{d2b09b03d44633acb673e8080360919f91e60962656af8ade0305d5d8b7e4889}. All those on the Mediterranean diet plan misplaced 6{d2b09b03d44633acb673e8080360919f91e60962656af8ade0305d5d8b7e4889}, and the healthier diet group lost 4.2{d2b09b03d44633acb673e8080360919f91e60962656af8ade0305d5d8b7e4889}.
Although one’s over-all weight and visual appearance are generally the metrics by which persons choose eating plans, visceral fat is a much a lot more critical concern.
Dr. Zelicha informed MNT that “in terms of the wellbeing risks related with extra body fat, visceral adipose tissue is significantly much more unsafe than the extra ‘tire’ all around your waist.”
“VAT,” explained Dr. Zelicha, “has been linked to various health and fitness problems, this kind of as high blood stress, being overweight, dyslipidemia, and diabetic issues. It also improves mortality hazard, earning it additional vital to maintain an eye on.”
Visceral fats is deep in the physique and uncovered around internal organs, not like the surface layer of extra fat that we can see.
“Most interventions now available do not goal deep adipose tissue specially,” pointed out Dr. Cypess, “yet rewards of body fat mass decline, in standard, are nonetheless valuable.”
Because it can’t be found, deciding if one has VAT is not a basic endeavor. Even though Dr. Zelicha observed that midsection circumference is a reasonably very good indicator of the presence of VAT, MRI and laptop or computer tomography (CT) scans are the gold specifications for detection.
“However, CT entails ionizing radiation, and MRI has emerged as a highly effective non-invasive prediction tool, but it is very expensive and time-consuming,” she cautioned.
There is even now a want, Dr. Zelicha mentioned, for a improved, simply available, and validated resource for evaluating VAT.
As of the time of writing, the eco-friendly Mediterranean diet plan is the routine that most appreciably lowers visceral extra fat, according to the modern investigation.
As Dr. Cypess famous: “Most diet programs guide to a reduction in the adipose tissue all-around organs. Even in this analyze, the HDG handle arm led to visceral extra fat decline, just not as significantly as the [green Mediterranean] diet plan.”
Since successful meal plans will typically supply at least some reduction in VAT, Dr. Cypess asserted, “the ideal diet plan and physical exercise program is the a person that the person can adhere to for months and a long time into the long term.”
Dr. Zelicha explained that aerobic workouts such as working or cycling have “been shown to be a powerful method for visceral adipose tissue reduction.“
In Prof. Shai’s before analysis, such physical exercise together with walnut consumption amplified the effect of the conventional Mediterranean diet program in cutting down VAT, reported Dr. Zelicha.
“Eating far more plant-centered fat,” advised Dr. Zelicha, “such as olive oil, avocados, nuts, and seeds, and avoiding very simple carbs and trans-fatty acids can enable reduce VAT.”
Share on PinterestExperts say whole grain breads are a simple way to improve your diet. Ellie Baygulov/Stocksy
Researchers say Americans are eating more whole grain foods but still not enough to meet daily dietary guidelines.
Experts say whole grain foods can improve overall health as well as help with weight loss.
They say you can increase the whole grain foods in your diet by grocery shopping more carefully and adding foods such as whole grain breads and pastas to family meals.
A new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests people in the United States are eating more whole grains than ever.
However, researchers say it’s still not enough to meet minimum daily requirements.
The study reports the increase over the past two decades in whole-grain intake could be anywhere from 39{d2b09b03d44633acb673e8080360919f91e60962656af8ade0305d5d8b7e4889} to 61{d2b09b03d44633acb673e8080360919f91e60962656af8ade0305d5d8b7e4889}, depending on the exact definition of whole grain being used.
The wide-range estimate is due to the definition of whole grain being more strict across some studies than others. For example, some definitions include burritos, nachos, and tacos. Others do not.
The researchers applied varying definitions of whole grains to the dietary patterns of nearly 40,000 adults participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 2003 and 2018.
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.
The study looked at definitions of whole grains from across major organizations, including:
Dietary Guidelines for Americans
Food and Drug Administration
American Heart Association
American Association of Cereal Chemists International
Whole Grains Council
The researchers reported that consumption of whole grain foods remained far below the recommended consumption of at least three ounces each day and varied considerably by each definition.
“We can’t say which is the best definition yet as we need to assess the nutrient profiles of each and how these different definitions are associated with health outcomes,” said Fang Fang Zhang, PhD, the senior study author and interim chair of the Division of Nutrition Epidemiology and Data Science at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston.
Amy Bragagnini, MS, RD, CSO, an oncology nutrition specialist at Trinity Health Lacks Cancer Center in Michigan and a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, told Healthline that many clients ask her what exactly a “whole grain” is and why they are important for them to eat.
Simply put, whole grains contain all the important parts of the entire grain seed, says Bragagnini.
Amy Gorin, MS, RDN, an inclusive plant-based dietitian in Stamford, Connecticut, and owner of “Plant Based with Amy,” added that whole grains contain all essential and naturally occurring parts — the bran, germ, and endosperm— in their original proportions.
“This definition may include processed grains, but the processed product must deliver the same balance of nutrients present in the original grain seed,” she told Healthline.
“Once any of these components is stripped, it is no longer a ‘whole’ grain,” said Kristin Kirkpatrick, MS, RDN, the lead dietitian and manager of Wellness Nutrition Services at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness & Preventive Medicine in Ohio.
This depends, says Gorin.
As a general rule, she explained, “If a burrito has a flour tortilla made with whole grains as the first ingredient, then that would count.”
“If the nacho chips are made with whole cornmeal, then that would count as a whole grain,” she added.
There is one exception, though.
“While corn is considered a whole grain, it may be milled to the impact of taking out components of it which could render it more stripped based on how it is used,” Kirkpatrick told Healthline.
This is typically what you’d find in eateries, she said.
“A burrito made from a whole grain tortilla definitely counts as a whole grain in my view,” she told Healthline. “But even though some tortilla chips may be technically made with whole grains, that doesn’t necessarily make them a healthy choice.”
For example, she says, a food can be made from whole grains, but if it’s deep fried and loaded with calories (as chips are), then it’s not going to be healthy to consume that on a regular basis.
“The benefits of whole grains don’t outweigh the negatives of super high calorie, salty, addictive chips,” she added.
“Eating 2 to 3 servings of whole grains each day may lower the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer,” says Cunningham, who points to research on the health benefits of whole grains.
Bragagnini agrees, adding that consistent intake of whole grain foods can help us:
Feel fuller longer
Feel more satisfied at each meal, which may help you to avoid overeating (which may lead to unwanted weight gain)
Lower risk of heart disease and high blood pressure
Lower blood sugar
Decrease the risk of developing type 2 diabetes
Decrease the risk of colorectal cancer
At the grocery store
First, look for the “100{d2b09b03d44633acb673e8080360919f91e60962656af8ade0305d5d8b7e4889} Whole Grain” stamp from the Whole Grains Council, which certifies that all the grain is whole and that a product contains at least 16 grams of whole grains per serving, says Bragagnini.
And if you don’t see this stamp, take a look at the ingredients.
“When you’re shopping for a whole grain product, such as bread, pasta, or crackers, look for the first ingredient to be a whole grain ingredient such as whole-grain flour or whole-wheat flour,” suggests Gorin.
“Many whole-grain products are made with whole grains but don’t contain them as a primary ingredient—and this makes things confusing,” she adds. “Also, aim for a variety of whole grains and experiment by trying different grains.”
Bragagnini says to look for whole grain keywords such as:
whole wheat
whole rye
wheat berries
brown rice
oats
quinoa
bulgur
Barley
buckwheat
wild rice
amaranth
At home
Next, slowly start to substitute whole grain products for the products you would typically serve at home, says Bragagnini.
“For example, if your family loves burritos, choose a tortilla wrap that is considered whole grain,” she suggests. “Then fill it with lean meat, beans, onions, tomatoes, garlic, peppers, etc., and you have a delicious whole grain/high fiber meal.”
Amy Reed, MS, RD, CSP, LD, is a pediatric dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She says to start with simple swaps such as changing white bread with whole wheat bread.
For example, “families are taught to slowly increase their intake of whole grains to work toward the goal of having at least 1/2 of their grains be from whole grains,” Reed told Healthline.
Bragagnini also suggests the following:
Skip the white rice and use brown rice for stir fry meals.
Use whole grain spaghetti noodles along with your favorite pasta sauce.
Top your favorite salad greens with quinoa to add a great texture to the side dish.
Combine quinoa with your favorite cut veggies, feta cheese, lemon, herbs and olive oil for a delicious main meal.
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