What is a Whole Grain - Part I

You hear it all the time, “5g of whole grains!,” “half of your grains should come from whole grain sources,” and on and on. Well, what is a whole grain? What makes one whole and another, well, not?

A whole grain is exactly what it sounds like: a grain completely intact. Grains that can be either whole or otherwise are wheat, rice, barley and oat. They are the most common. Well then, what is the “otherwise” state of a grain? White: polished or refined.

In order to have a full understanding of the differences between whole grains and white grains, we need to back up a little bit. Back to the title of the post: what is a whole grain?

Whole grains have four parts to their kernel: the germ, the endosperm, the bran and the husk. The germ has oils containing vitamins, minerals and protein. The endosperm is soft, white and contains a bit of protein and starches. The bran is the fiber laden portion of the kernel, also providing nutrients. The husk is also known as the chaff and in traditional wheat preparation, as the grains are tossed, the chaff blows away.

What happens to make a grain refined or polished? For wheat, the bran, husk, and germ are removed and the part left is the endosperm. Remember how we described it earlier? White, soft . . . does that make you think of anything? YES! White sandwich bread! So, after reading the above descriptions, you can ascertain the nutritional value of bread made with white flour as opposed to whole wheat flour is rather dismal. Right? Let’s move on . . .

Rice. What happened to rice? It grows white and fluffy, doesn’t it? No, in fact, it doesn’t. Rice is brown, black, red, dark brown . . . a veritable rainbow of colors. So, how does it become white? Polishing. Rice was never intended to be white, that is the endosperm again. The bran and germ are rubbed off, leaving a beautiful, fluffy, nutritionless grain (barely) of rice. The same thing is done to barley (called pearling, although it leaves much more of the bran intact) and oats are steamed, rolled and chopped.

What you are left with, as a consumer, is a shelf stable, easily transportable, easily baked product. No oil to go rancid, the “food” is easily digested, the taste is light and fluffy and the resulting “food” is useless to our bodies. Why? Check back . . . What is a Whole Grain: Part II, coming soon!