Whole Grain

WHOLE GRAIN AND HEALTH

The website https://wholegrainscouncil.org/ of Healthgrain Forum member the Oldways Whole Grains Council shows a wealth of information about whole grains and health.

At https://wholegrainscouncil.org/whole-grains-101/health-studies-health-benefits/what-are-health-benefits a report can be downloaded summarizing the results of 112 studies published between 2012 and 2017

https://wholegrainscouncil.org/whole-grains-101/health-studies includes a search system for finding studies related to specific grains and/or to diseases.

From time to time, rumors, myths and fake news involving whole grains circulate in the popular press or go viral in social media. At https://wholegrainscouncil.org/newsroom/myths-busted the myths busted information can help you get a more balanced view of such issues.

UPDATES RELATED TO WHOLE GRAIN INTAKE

Whole Grains are becoming popular in the ‘world of policy makers and their scientific advisers.

  • The International Carbohydrate Quality Consortium (ICQC), including highly respected scientists and several HGForum members ,convened last September in Rome, Italy. They issued the  ICQC Scientific Consensus on Whole Grains. The document can be found here.
  • In December 2017 the EU Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Knowledge Gateway issued the document ‘Whole Grain’, concluding that WG intake is well below recommended levels and that efforts should be made to increase WG intake. The document can be found here

WHOLE GRAIN DEFINITIONS

The HEALTHGRAIN Forum has published two definitions related to whole grains:

1) The HEALTHGRAIN definition of whole grain

This definition for defining whole grain as a raw material and food ingredient, developed by the HEALTHGRAIN Consortium, was first presented in the Final HEALTHGRAIN Conference in 2010 and was published in Food & Nutrition Research in 2014 (attached). The definition is similar to the definition of AACC International (1999) but is more closely following current industrial production practices regarding:

  • The ways in which endosperm, bran and germ – after separation in the milling process – can be recombined
  • Inclusion of the option of removal, for quality and safety purposes, of max. 2% of the grain / 10% of the bran

The HEALTHGRAIN definition of whole grain has got wide recognition in the past years.

2) The HEALTHGRAIN Forum definition of a whole-grain food

This definition, published in the July 2017 issue of Advances in Nutrition, will pave the way towards clearer labelling on food packaging. The definition recommends that a food may be labelled as ‘whole grain’ if it contains at least 30 % whole-grain ingredients in the overall product and more whole grain than refined grain, both on a dry weight basis.

The published paper is available for free download here.

Questions and answers about the Whole Grain Food Definition and examples of how to apply the definition in practice are provided in the Supplementary Data available for download here (link is external).

Definitions – the way forward

At the 6th international Whole Grain Summit, Vienna 13-15 November 2017 the following was agreed:

  • Convene a global working group including key grain science groups and experts from diverse regions, to finalize a definition of whole grain (raw materials) using the Healthgrain definition as a starting point.
  • Follow a similar process for defining a whole grain food, once a global intake recommendation has been agreed

For further information of the whole grain definition or general inquiries on the definitions please contact the  Communication Officer.

communication@healthgrain.com

For more information

[pdf-embedder url=”http://healthgrain.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/HGF_Board_statement._January_2017._Definition_of_wholegrain.pdf”]

[pdf-embedder url=”http://healthgrain.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Food_and_Nutrition_Research_2014_-_The_HEALTHGRAIN_definition_of_whole_grain.pdf”]

[pdf-embedder url=”http://healthgrain.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Healthgrain_Consortium_Whole_Grain_definition_2013-12.pdf”]

[pdf-embedder url=”http://healthgrain.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/HEALTHGRAIN_Wholegrain_def._in_Europe._Progress_9-3-2017.pdf”]

[pdf-embedder url=”http://healthgrain.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Whole_grain_definitions_-_harmonisation._Presented_22_May_2017_Xiamen_C.pdf”]

EU-JRC Scientific brief on Whole Grains

The ICQC Scientific Consensus on Whole Grains 2017

AACCI definition of a wholegrain food (Released 21 May 2013)

Developing a Standard Definition of Whole-Grain Foods for Dietary Recommendations: [pdf-embedder url=”http://healthgrain.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Ferruzi_et_al_WG_Food_Definition_Adv_Nutr_20141.pdf”]

Mario G. Ferruzzi,3,4 Satya S. Jonnalagadda,5* Simin Liu,6,7 Len Marquart,8 Nicola McKeown,9 Marla Reicks,10 Gabriele Riccardi,11 Chris Seal,12 Joanne Slavin,10 Frank Thielecke,13 Jan-Willem van der Kamp,14 and Densie Webb15

This paper concludes that the AACCI definition is appropriate but acknowledges also the importance of food with less than 8g wholegrain / 30g for contributing to total wholegrain intake