Invite Whole Grains Into Your Holiday Meals
With Thanksgiving this week and Christmas just around the corner, The Little Clinic recommends incorporating more whole grains into your holiday meals and reaping the health benefits. According to the Whole Grains Council, studies show that eating whole grains instead of refined grains lowers the risk of many chronic diseases. This includes:
- Stroke risk reduced 30-36 percent
- Type 2 diabetes risk reduced 21-30 percent
- Heart disease risk reduced 25-28 percent
- Better weight maintenance
Other benefits indicated by recent studies include:
- Reduced risk of asthma
- Healthier carotid arteries
- Reduction of inflammatory disease risk
- Lower risk of colorectal cancer
- Healthier blood pressure level
- Less gum disease and tooth loss
So how can you add whole grains to your meals? The Whole Grains Council has tips for that, too. Try some of the following:
Make easy substitutions.
Substitute half the white flour with whole-wheat flour in your regular recipes for cookies, muffins, quick breads and pancakes. Or be bold and add up to 20 percent of another whole grain flour such as sorghum.
Replace one third of the flour in a recipe with quick oats or old-fashioned oats.
Add half a cup of cooked wheat or rye berries, wild rice, brown rice, sorghum or barley to your favorite canned or homemade soup.
Use whole corn meal for corn cakes, corn breads and corn muffins.
Add three-quarters of a cup of uncooked oats for each pound of ground beef or turkey when you make meatballs, burgers or meatloaf.
Stir a handful of rolled oats in your yogurt, for quick crunch with no cooking necessary.
Try new foods.
Make risottos, pilafs and other rice-like dishes with whole grains such as barley, brown rice, bulgur, millet, quinoa or sorghum.
Enjoy whole grain salads like tabbouleh.
Buy whole grain pasta, or one of the blends that�s part whole-grain, part white.
Try whole grain breads. Kids especially like whole grain pita bread.
Look for cereals made with grains like kamut, kasha (buckwheat) or spelt.