Whole Grains

Whole grains are a great source of fiber and one that’s easy to include in your diet. You should eat two or three servings of whole grains a day. Whole grains contribute to that full feeling that keeps you from overeating and have been shown to slow the absorption of sugar into the blood. They also contain many other minerals and nutrients that are removed from processed grains.

Here are some ways to increase the amount of whole grains in your diet:

• Use whole grain bread instead of white bread. This is a simple choice to make and an easy one. Today’s grocery stores offer an incredible variety of whole grain breads to choose from.

• Choose whole grain pastas and rice. This is a change that we’ve made in our diet fairly recently. I never really paid much attention to whole grain pasta, but now I find that I much prefer the flavor to the bland regular pasta. And I generally avoided brown rice because it took longer to cook, even though I preferred the flavor of it also. But now there are quick-cooking and microwaveable varieties of brown rice that make it as easy as white rice.

• Choose high-fiber cereals. A number of studies show that starting the day with a bowl of high-fiber cereal is one of the things that is most positively linked with weight loss.

• Consider alternative grains. Rather than just pasta or rice or potatoes, think about main dishes and side dishes that contain barley, bulgur, kasha, and other grains. You’ll find a number of recipes in this book that contain them.

Here is the amount of fiber in a cup of several kinds of whole grains:
• Whole wheat flour—18 grams
• Barley—13 grams
• Whole grain pasta—4 grams or more, depending on the brand
• Oats—4 grams
• Brown rice—3 grams

This Tip was published in '500 HIGH-FIBER RECIPES by "DICK LOGUE" - p26 To p27'