America is a nation of snackers whose citizens consistently fall short of consuming their recommended allowance of whole grains. We do so to our detriment, though, as nutrition and public-health experts have been telling us for years that diets rich in whole grains are linked to reduced risk for stroke, type 2 diabetes and heart disease; improved weight management; reduced risk for asthma, inflammatory disease and colorectal cancer; healthier blood pressure levels; and stronger carotid arteries. And that’s just for starters.
So, how do we head our whole-grain consumption in the right direction? By turning our snacking habit into the bridge that closes our growing grain gap. Whole-grain snacks offer manufacturers opportunities for revamping longstanding formulas—and introducing new ones—to capitalize on grains’ high-profile health benefits. Making those revamps more practicable is a slew of wholegrain ingredients that are models of technological innovation.
The grain gap
You won’t hear Cynthia Harriman making excuses about not getting enough whole grains. As director of food and nutrition strategies at the Whole Grains Council, Boston, she appreciates firsthand their widely documented health benefits. Yet she is clear-eyed about how far we still have to go to meet even minimum recommended intake levels. In its 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, USDA called on adults to derive at least half their grains from whole sources. Beyond that, USDA set an intake floor for those ages 9 and above at three or more servings of whole grains per day. One serving equals about 16 grams of whole-grain ingredients, or—translated to foods—a slice of whole-wheat bread, a half-cup of brown rice, or a cup of whole-grain breakfast cereal.
How are we measuring up? “There’s good news and bad news,” according to Harriman. Working with the NPD Group, Port Washington, NY, the Whole Grains Council found that, although intake stayed flat from 1998 to 2005, since 2005—and the release of the most-recent Dietary Guidelines—consumption has risen 20%. “The bad news is that we’re still averaging under a serving a day.”
This, Harriman thinks, “is where snacks can play an important role.” After all, if you want people to consume more of something, you should deliver it in a food they already eat a lot of—like snacks.
“People today are in such a hurry-up mode that they don’t take time to sit down and eat a healthful meal,” says Randal Robinson, director of sales, southwest, 21st Century Grain Processing, Kansas City, MO. “If they can grab a snack with more whole grains, in their minds they are doing the next-best thing.”
From naughty to nice?
Providing whole grains via snacks has its detractors. “There are some in the nutrition community who cry foul if we start looking at making cookies and sweet baked goods better for you,” says Rhonda Witwer, senior business development manager, nutrition, National Starch Food Innovation, Bridgewater, NJ. “But people like to eat those foods. So we need to have increased nutrient density and increased whole-grain fortification wherever we can get it.”
Putting this belief into practice could pay profound public-health dividends. “The addition of whole grains to the diet needs to be as broad as possible,” says Bill Bonner, senior vice president, R&D/technical sales, 21st Century Grain Processing. “Snacks are only a logical inclusion as long as all health-related criteria—fats or oils, sugars, sodium, etc.—are in balance.”
A tricky transformation
A balance is not always easy to achieve. Whole grains have been bit players in commercial food processing, in part, because they present a constellation of production and marketing challenges. Whole grains, quite simply, are different from their refined counterparts, and those differences can translate into unfamiliar manufacturing behaviors and unenthusiastic consumer acceptance.