By Kathleen Purvis KRT Campus
We're missing a grain of truth.
In our rush to embrace the health darling of the moment, the low carbohydrate mantra of the "ABZ" diets -- Atkins, South Beach and Zone - we may be throwing the baby out with the breadbasket.
"Carbohydrates are not evil," said Elisabetta Politi, director of nutrition at the Duke Diet & Fitness Center in Durham, N.C. "People should not fear carbohydrates as something unhealthy. (Consuming) a lot of carbohydrates leads to weight gain. But they're a good fuel."
Even as dietitians shake their heads at eating plans that severely restrict certain food groups, they're pleased with the basic message: Too much sugar and refined flour lead to weight gain.
But the other part of the equation, replacing refined flour with whole grains, might not be getting through.
"The public has somehow misunderstood the message," Politi said. "Americans need to be aware that carbs by themselves are not the culprit in weight gain and diabetes."
Jeff Ganoung, owner of Great Harvest Bread Co., has degrees in microbiology and chemistry and a master's degree in food science. His wife and bakery co-owner, Janet, is a biologist with a master's in nutrition. These days, they spend almost as much time explaining chemistry as they do grinding flour and baking bread.
"The carbohydrate message needs to be refined," Ganoung said. "What we hear is `low carb.' What they mean is sugar (and refined flour). It's like saying `motorcycles are dangerous, so don't drive motor vehicles.'"
Peter Reinhart of Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, a baking instructor and author, was the keynote speaker at the Bread Summit in Providence, R.I., in November. Bread bakers from across the country came together to consider the effects of the low-carb message. "I don't think most people know what a carb is, in general. That's complex. What most people need to understand is what a balanced diet really is. You don't have to understand carbs to understand that" he said.
Here's one message dietitians would like you to hear: Increase the whole grains in your diet. Even the diet books, such as Dr. Arthur Agatston's "South Beach Diet," recommend them.
So what are whole grains, and why are they so good for us?
"A whole grain is any grain that all the constituent parts are there," Ganoung said. "If there is any refining, you can't call it whole grain flour."
Any white flour, even unbleached, unbromated flour, isn't a whole grain flour. Whole-wheat flour still includes the bran and the germ.
"How the flour is made, that's the key," he says. "(Whole-wheat bread) doesn't need to be multigrain; it doesn't have to be rough-textured; it doesn't have to be chewy."
There are 400 trace components in wheat, Ganoung says, including barium and vanadium, essential to heart health, and appreciable amounts of selenium, vitamin E and the full range of B vitamins.
"If you refine wheat, you're going to lose that. How are you going to get it back?"
Politi likes to see us getting the fiber in whole grains.
"There's a lot of evidence that fiber has health benefits," Politi says, "Whole grains don't raise your blood sugar as quickly as a refined grain."
Brown rice, bran cereal, whole-wheat pasta and whole-wheat bread are all examples of whole-grain foods. But what Politi also likes people to hear is that there are other good "whole" foods. A baked sweet potato, for instance, isn't a grain, but it's whole in the way it comes to the table, versus a white potato that has been mashed up with butter or sliced and fried.
"Whole has a meaning of not being altered by the food industry," she says. "You find an amazing number of foods that have been altered, because it's easier to prepare and preserve. Unfortunately, we're losing a lot of nutrients by processing food. And we don't know the effect of additives being added to food."
Cutting out carbohydrates is not only drastic; it's almost impossible. They're laced throughout our diets, not just in our pasta and bread.
"Starches, fruits, vegetables and dairy products all provide carbohydrates," Politi says. "The only food groups that don't have them are protein and fat."
So it's really not difficult, even if you don't like brown rice, to get more of the good carbohydrates in your diet.
Aim for 24 to 30 grams of fiber a day, she says. "If you were to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables, and you eat them with the skin on, you'd get 10 to 12 grams of fiber right there."
So, while you're counting your calories, don't count out the carbs.
"It's important to know that not all carbohydrates are the same," Politi says.
"Eating SnackWell('s) fat-free cookies isn't the same as a slice of whole-wheat bread."
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