Registered Dietitians Increasing Whole Grains Promotion

Time after time in the last few months, I have read more blogs and articles from registered dietitians that are promoting whole grains as part of our food plans. Many of them are realizing that many people with type 2 diabetes are pushing back and are therefore taking different approaches to disguise their message of high carbohydrate, low fat food plans. We need to recognize this and realize that they have a true conflict of interest because their organization, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) is a puppet of Big Food that manages their strings.

The author of this blog states that as a dietitian, she believes that whole grains can be part of anyone's eating plan. She continues that despite the anti-grain sentiment, grains – whole grains – have many benefits to offer. She lists the following:

1. Whole grains can reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes.
2. People that eat whole grains tend to have lower BMIs, lower waist-to-hip ratios, and lower risk of obesity.
3. Whole grains can improve the health of your digestive tract by promoting regularity and enhancing the growth of healthful bacteria.

The above three points are not as true as many would like to believe. There is little scientific evidence that whole grains contribute to less risk of heart disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes. Whole grains actually increase the risk of type 2 diabetes and as a result heart disease. This is because when the whole grains are converted to glucose, our blood glucose levels increase to higher than normal levels. If there are problems within our pancreas, then risk for type 2 diabetes elevates.

Maintaining number 2 above becomes more difficult with whole grains and especially the modern day grains that have been genetically over modified. For those individuals that have the ability to consume whole grains because of their metabolism capable of processing the whole grains, then number 2 can be true. Many people do not have the ability. For number 3, fiber is the name that can be important and other foods can replace the fiber needed by our bodies.

It is true that whole grains have not been stripped of the bran and germ like refined white flour and white pasta. If we have problems with the whole grains, then the problems with the refined grains generate even more problems and really spike our blood glucose levels.

This is the reason many people and especially people with type 2 diabetes need to read about low carbohydrate food plans. Also, read about the paleo food plan, which eliminates all grains. Yes, eliminating whole grains can cause a shortage of some vitamins and minerals, but there are other foods that can be consumed that will replace what might be lost to the elimination of whole grains.