Whether it is oats, quinoa, wild rice, brown bread, or brown pasta, I always make sure to include whole grains as a part of my balanced meals.
Whole grains are complex carbohydrates that get digested slowly in the body, increase our satiety time, decrease the surge in blood sugar, and decrease cholesterol.
And did you know…a bonus is that whole grains have all three parts of the grain present: the bran, the germ, and the endosperm. These grains are what give us fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
Be careful though! Just because a bread is brown it doesn’t mean that it is whole grain. Sometimes these darker breads get their color from food processing. Be sure to read the ingredients list on the back of the product and look for the following words:
- Whole grain
- Whole grain whole wheat
- Whole wheat flour with added germ
- Whole oat or oatmeal
- Whole corn
- Whole barley
And what about white bread, white rice, or white pasta? These food items are examples of refined grains, which have been processed to have some or all the germ and bran removed, leaving mostly the endosperm.
While refined grains are not a great source of fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants; they do bring us joy and are an important part of an athlete’s diet.
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