Choosing whole grain products

Buying whole-grain foods can get a little tricky, because there are so many misleading descriptions: Often, products that claim to be "multigrain", "made with whole wheat", "enriched" or "100% wheat" actually contain only insignificant amounts of whole grains, if at all.

The clearer way to determine a product's whole grain content is to check its ingredients list and look out for the type of grain ingredients used: Be sure the label describes the grain ingredients as “whole” – for example, “whole wheat” – and preferably should be listed as the first ingredient. If it's listed second, the entire product may only contain anywhere between 1 percent to 49 percent whole grain.

Whole grain foods

Eat less of the refined grains (bagels, low-fiber cereals, noodles, pasta, white bread, white rice) and opt for these whole grain foods:

• 100% whole-grain breads that include ingredients like whole-wheat flour, stone-ground whole-wheat, oats, oat bran, cracked wheat, whole rye, and flaxseeds. Look for at least 2 grams of fiber per 1-ounce serving.
• Whole-wheat cereals
• Whole-wheat pasta
• Chapati (a whole-wheat Indian flatbread)
• Whole-wheat tortillas
• Whole-wheat pita bread
• Air-popped or light microwave popcorn
• 100% whole-grain crackers