We all learned early on that it is important to get several servings of grains each day in order to live a nutritionally healthy life. Grains come from the seeds of grass. They consist of a chaff, bran, germ and an endosperm. Most of the grains that you will find in stores fall into two types: refined grains and whole grains. Technically these are basically the same food and the difference between them lies in their names: whole grains still have all of their parts. Refined grains are grains that have had their germ and bran removed. Companies remove these parts so that the grains will last longer before going bad.

The problem is that almost all of the nutritional value of a grain is contained in the bran and the germ—the parts that are removed during the refining process. This means that, in order to get the most nutritional value possible from your servings of grains each day, you will want to look for foods that contain whole grains. Luckily getting your daily servings of grains is incredibly easy. Anything that has been made with flour or wheat will fit into the grains category as will any foods that contain rice, barley, oatmeal or bulgur.

The easiest way to make sure that you are consuming whole grains instead of refined grains is to read the packaging of the foods you buy. You want to look for foods that list "whole grains" in their ingredients list instead of ingredients like "refined flour." You want to find foods that contain bran and high amounts of fiber. Buy organic foods or shop at grocers that buy natural foods only.

Another good way to make sure that you are getting your grains servings each day is to make your food from scratch! Whole grains can be purchased at natural food stores or stores that have an organics section. Instead of using refined flour or white flour when you bake bread, cakes, cookies, etc, use whole wheat flour. Choose brown rice instead of white rice when your meal involves rice. Eat lots of oatmeal. Believe it or not oatmeal, by definition is a whole grain. Find foods that have a high bran content and when you buy tortillas, purchase tortillas made from bulgur or whole wheat.

The truth is that food made from whole grains will probably look a little weird. Real Food often looks a lot worse than food made from refined or processed foods. This can be hard to adjust to if you are motivated by the way your food looks. Real food tends to be brown or lumpy and, quite frankly, can often smell kind of funny. This is because the food is undoctored. Believe it or not, that is how your breads, cereals and pastas are supposed to look (and smell)!

We at the Real Food Company want to make sure that your food intake involves as much real food as you can possibly get. This means staying away from refined ingredients and packaged foods.

Interesting links:

Food Micro Blog

Real Food Company

Wine Micro Blog

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