It seems I’ve been living in a fantasy world eating whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta, whole wheat cereal, and whole wheat crackers thinking I was being so healthy but not even getting my whole wheat’s worth most of the time. My cousin Carol suggested the wheat topic and I’m so glad I dove in; although it leaves me a little more disillusioned with our Food & Drug Administration, I can at least pick out the best wheat products now with a more discerning eye ! I randomly bought a bunch of stuff that looked like it would be whole wheat and healthy and here is what I discovered…

Wheat Illuminations

1. Whole Grain is Different from Whole Wheat
I think it’s easy to assume that whole grain is going to have wheat involved – but whole grain can also refer to other grains like oats, barley and rice. So Whole Grain is the big category and Whole Wheat is a subcategory. So if you are looking specifically for wheat (or hoping it isn’t there) – check to see what grains are involved when they say Whole Grain. Whole Grains are grains that have NOT been processed to remove the germ, embryo, endosperm or bran layer of the seed. See the diagram below for the parts of a seed (whether it’s a whole wheat seed or whole oat seed). Another great resource is: Whole Truth of Whole Grains from Montana University’s Wellness Program. And check out The Whole Grain Health Challenge.

2. Just because it says Whole Grain or Whole Wheat on the package doesn’t mean it’s ALL whole.
Products are allowed to claim WHOLE GRAIN or WHOLE WHEAT if they have 51% whole grain by weight or have whole wheat as their first / main ingredient (for unmixed food like bread and cereals). So your “Whole Grain” products could have 49% non-whole grains.

All these products we looked at had whole wheat flour as the 1st ingredient and just plain wheat flour (flour that has been processed to remove all the good parts) as the 2nd ingredient: Pepperidge Farm goldfish, Orowheat Nutty Grain Bread, Barilla Whole Grain Spaghetti, Kelloggs All Bran Multi Grain crackers, Wheat Thins Originals, Kraft Velveeta Rotini & cheese (they only had 50% whole grain but they were still allowed to use the “Whole Grain” label as long as they stated the percentage).

3. Products that say “Made with Whole Grains (or Whole Wheat)” have even less whole grains than the ones that state “Whole Grains”.
This group can’t even claim Whole Wheat because they don’t have more than 51% whole wheat or even list it as a first ingredient but they ARE allowed to state “Made with Whole Grains”. The Sara Lee Wheat Dinner Rolls (Made with Whole Wheat) have non-whole wheat (processed) flour as their main ingredient and whole wheat as their 2nd.

4. Multi-Grain Doesn’t Always Mean Whole Grain.
Multi-Grain SOUNDS like it would be a good thing to have but it does not indicate that those grains are whole just that there are a bunch of different kinds. Milton’s multigrain bread has lots of grains but none of them whole – so your body will still process them like white bread – nothing to slow down the carbohydrate’s conversion to sugar – something crucial if you are dieting or diabetic. They may ADD fiber and nuts to make up for the stuff that was removed but it’s just not the same nutritional value.

5. Durum Whole Wheat flour is a good thing.
Durum is a type of wheat that is harder and much higher in protein content than other types of wheat. Apparently it’s hard enough that it only works well as a pasta (as opposed to a bread) so you will often see it used in whole wheat pastas – all the pastas we bought used it – Ralph’s Whole Grain Whole Wheat Spaghetti, Barilla Whole Grain Spaghetti, GIA Russa Penne Rigate, and even the Kraft Velveeta Rotini & Cheese.

Suspicious Box Claims

6. American Heart Association endorsement doesn’t have anything to do with a product being Whole Grain or Whole Wheat or even healthy for that matter.
In fact, they should be ASHAMED. Cocoa Puffs were apparently one of the cereals endorsed by the American Heart Association as being “heart-healthy”. Have they lost their minds???? See Heart Scan Blog’s “Is Cocoa Puffs No Longer Heart Healthy?” article. Of the products we bought only Milton’s Multigrain bread and Kelloggs Honey Nut Cheerios had the endorsement and please note that these were 2 of the most underwhelming ones in terms of whole grains.

7. General Mills should be fined by the FDA.
Every single box of General Mills cereal including Honey Nut Cheerios and LUCKY CHARMS has a giant banner across the front that says “Big G Cereals are America’s #1 Source of Whole Grain at Breakfast. Really? Lucky Charms????

Lucky Charms DOES list Whole Grain Oats as their first ingredient. But they also have processed oats – not as their 2nd ingredient because that slot is reserved for the MARSHMALLOWS – but in the 3rd spot. So they either fall under Whole Wheat or Made with Whole Wheat (even less whole wheat content).

If you look at the top of the box where it says Whole Grain Guaranteed you can see a little “with” above it. Are they in the “Made with Whole Grain category” and they don’t have to use the word “made” or have it all the same size? And I’m betting the America’s #1 Source claim just means they have a monopoly on the cereal market and nothing else.

8. Some products claim “____ grams of whole grain per serving” but the numbers are usually low
Really – what do you have to compare it to? Pepperidge Farm Goldfish proclaims it has 12 grams of whole grain per serving. Wheat Thins Original proclaims it has 11 grams of whole grain per serving – and they apparently were called out on it because they now have an asterisk leading to a disclaimer (if you can find it). KUDOS to Orowheat 100% whole wheat english muffins for having 32 grams of whole grain per serving. At least 8g of whole grain per serving is the MINIMUM – the preferred amount is 16 grams whole grain per serving.

9. Special Seals and Graphics Don’t Really Mean a Whole Lot.
Ralphs Wheat crackers have placed their allowable “Made With Whole Grain” statement in a seal-looking thing to make it look more official. Everyone’s also using little grain or wheat symbols that also look important but have no meaning. Kelloggs All Bran Crackers MultiGrain also have a graphic of a whole grain on the package when they only have partial whole grain and part enriched flour.

10. The only seal that really counts is the one from wholegraincouncil.org
But be careful!! Even this seal can be tricky. 5 of the products we bought had the seal.
GIA Russa 100% whole wheat Penne Rigate pasta, Orowheat 100% Whole Wheat english muffins, and the Barilla Whole Grain spaghetti and the 2 General Mills cereals (not shown). Note that the labels are all a little different.

The Penne Rigate qualifies for a 100% Whole Wheat label, while the English muffins qualify for a 100% Whole Grain 32 grams or more per serving label and the spaghetti – while only 51% whole wheat still qualifies for a label for Whole Grain- 28 grams or more per serving. The General Mills cereals even qualified for a Whole Grain 8 grams or more per serving label (scary).

So you can’t even just glance at the label and know it’s great. Everything is confusing enough when it comes to wheat – it’s very disappointing that the Whole Grain Council didn’t separate out the ones that were 100% whole wheat in a really obvious way. I’m assuming it’s a money making business for them .

Other Trickery

11. Bleached Flour is still out there.
In a nutshell: Apparently wheat flour will naturally turn white after 8-12 days at which point it is easier to work with and looks prettier but we got impatient and started bleaching the flour which coincidentally killed off the parts of the seeds that would get rancid quickly (the parts that are healthy for us) and allowed the products to have a longer shelf life.

The chemicals used are benzoyl peroxide, Calcium peroxide, Nitrogen dioxide, Chlorine, Chlorine dioxide, or Azodicarbonamide. None of them are good for you and all of them leave residuals in the bread. And if you don’t believe that – tell me why bleached flour is BANNED in the European Union (27 countries) ?? In the products we purchased, Sara Lee wheat dinner rolls are made primarily with bleached white flour.

12. You can’t tell it’s whole wheat just by looking for BROWN.
Don’t laugh because I really used to do this and I’m just going to assume that I’m not the only one! First of all we have this whole new trend of using unbleached flour (which as we can see is a really good thing) BUT it makes it more challenging to differentiate the whole wheat from the white bread in disguise. Not only that but many products have MOLASSES added in specifically to make them look darker and appear to be more “wheat”. Our two not very wheaty breads did this.

13. Something really high in fiber doesn’t necessarily mean the fiber is coming from whole wheat.
Another way to mislead people into thinking that something is more “whole wheat” than it is, is to increase the fiber content. This is especially needed for products that are not using 100% whole wheat (which would obviously have more fiber) so it needs to be added back in after stripping it in the processing.

14. Just because it says whole wheat, doesn’t mean the entire product is good for you.
Ralphs Thin & Crispy Saltines Wheat Crackers have SOME whole wheat flour but they also have the usual partially hydrogenated soybean oil, high fructose corn syrup and all kinds of horrible chemical preservatives.