Using Whole Grains

From the Kinesiology Center of Greater St. Louis comes some useful information and tips on including these basic building blocks in our diet.

The whole grains are a nutritious group of foods rich in fiber, complex carbohydrates (starch), and vitamins. Many traditional diets center around one or several of the grains, such as rice or millet in the Far East, corn in Latin America, and wheat, oats, barley or rye in North America and Europe. However, with the increase in processed and fast foods in our society, they are often forgotten now.

The phrase "whole grain" means a food made from one or more of the grains (wheat, oats, rice, etc.) without refining (removing the nutritious germ and the bran) or bleaching of the flour. We also use the phrase to mean non-ground, whole, grains.

As with all foods, the fresher the grain product, the more of its original nutrients are retained. Unground grains will last for years, if stored properly. However, once a grain is cooked or ground to make flour, it begins to lose some of its nutritional value. All commercial cereals and breads are made of flours ground weeks or months before use, and are less healthful than fresh ground foods. Truly fresh grain products also taste much better.

The 5 basic grains are:        WHEAT, OATS, RYE, BROWN RICE, MILLET

Other grains are:       BARLEY CORN, BUCKWHEAT, FLAXSEED, SESAME SEEDS, AMARANTH, WILD RICE

These can all be bought unground at health food stores inexpensively. Barley and wild rice can be found at most groceries. Look for the whole grain, rather than rolled, ground, cracked, puffed, or otherwise processed versions. Instant white rice and rolled oats are examples of processed grains.

Any of the whole grains can be eaten as a starch dish at a meal, or in soups and casseroles. Cook the grains whole, like rice, using about 2 ½ cups of water to each cup of dry grains. Cook for about 20-30 minutes (slightly more for rice), until tender and fluffy. Millet should be presoaked before cooking.

Prepared this way, they may also be eaten hot or cold as a breakfast cereal. This cereal makes an excellent breakfast, and is more nutritious than what we find with "granolas" and other prepared, pre-ground hot or cold cereals, including rolled oats.

A mixture of whole grains can be ground coarsely in an electric coffee grinder and cooked as a hot cereal or used as a side dish.

For baking, the very best solution is to have your own small mill and grind flour fresh for each batch. It's easy and worth it if you bake at all. If you do not have a mill, you can improve the quality of food baked with purchased flour by grinding a quarter to a half cup of mixed whole grains in a coffee grinder and adding it to your whole wheat, whole rye,