Whole grain advantage

Make sure that you eat a good amount of grain (barley, bulgur, corn, wheat, buckwheat, oats, rice, rye) in your diet. It is a good source of energy but also of many of the vitamins and minerals that are essential for your body processes. However, make sure that you eat whole grains instead of refined ones.

The endosperm (80% of the kernel) of whole grains is a great source of energy, the bran (outer layer) is a source of fiber, minerals and vitamins, and the germ (internal embryo) is where most vitamins and minerals are found.

When refined, grains lose healthful nutrients and other disease fighting chemicals. Take into account that refined starches act like sugars, a major culprit in making people overweight.

Research shows that people who eat whole grains daily lower their risk of suffering chronic ailments such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes.

Although many people avoid bread considering it a fattening food, the guilty party is actually the butter added to it. Whole wheat bread is an excellent source of low-fat, complex carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins and minerals.

Prisons used to feed their inmates with a rich, heavy, hard whole grain bread and water. When they started to produce bread with refined flour, prisons started to see epidemics of beriberi, an illness caused by the deficiency of vitamin B1. By law, in most countries, refined grains must be enriched with some of the vitamins of Complex B plus iron. But refined grains provide no fiber and loose other essential vitamins and minerals.