Looking for whole foods

Looking for whole foods

I commented it the other day in the post of the nutritional pyramids, speaking of the integral foods - whole grain for the Anglo-Saxons-: In addition to the legumes, the vegetables and the fruits, the carbohydrates should be obtained from this type of food. Being made with the complete grain of the cereal, they provide fiber, vitamins, minerals and other very interesting nutrients, which are found in the husk - in the part of the grain that the refining process discards. They also have a low glycemic index, that is, they do not quickly raise the blood glucose level and are absorbed more slowly than refined foods. White flour is very attractive and practical for cooking, but it is little more than starch and only provides energy.

Looking for whole foods

In supermarkets there are no problems to find many and varied vegetables, fruits and vegetables (the quality is something else, it is a topic for another day), but you have to be almost researcher to be able to include food in our shopping cart integral For example, let's start with the bread: Bakeries do not have to declare the ingredients of the bread they make, and nobody prevents them from putting names of the most imaginative ... and deceptive. When they say whole grain bread, they almost always mean "bread made with refined flour and a small part of wholemeal flour that gives it a color and look similar to the integral". If you ask "is it integral", they will say yes, if you ask again about the percentage of flour that is of that type they will look you weird, and probably do not get more educated answers, maybe because they do not even know it. day are more skillful adding things to look more integral ... without being completely (seeds, pieces of shell, dyes ...).

The world of wholemeal bread or toasted bread gives us enough clues that ratify the comments for bar bread. If you check the list of ingredients of the self-described integrals, almost all include flour of two types: wheat (to dry) and whole wheat. And I'm sure that the percentage of the second is generally very low, that's why they do not detail it. Look for those packages whose ingredients only have the second, but I advance you have it difficult.

In the field of cookies, the battle is definitely lost. Please, buy the cookies that you like, but not because they say they are integral. The amount of wholemeal flour is usually simply anecdotal.

With cereals it is difficult to have something clear. Those of well-known brands that are sold in any supermarket are made with super-refined cereals and huge amounts of sugar are added, especially to children. Even those that have names that sound healthier, fiberier or holistic. If you go to an herbalist you can find real whole grains (for example, in the form of muesli), but they are much less attractive and hard to eat without sweetening, so many of them also add sugar.

To get whole grain pasta you will have to search and search. In the usual supermarkets you will only find normal pasta with vegetables, with fiber, with colors ... that only serves to make it more attractive. The pasta is made from hard wheat semolina (coarse flour), obtained from the refined cereal. Let's see who is the handsome one who finds real pasta, made of unrefined cereal. On the other hand, ask for brown rice in your neighborhood store may be the final shot so that all your neighbors definitely consider you a geek.

To illustrate: The other day I went to buy crispy whole-grain toast to take with butter and jam for breakfast, to a small organic food store-herbalist (and other paraphernalia). When I asked him what he wanted, he took out some Santiveri Bran Tostadas, which besides knowing cork, include wheat flour, corn flour and 30% bran among its ingredients. I asked for something more integral, but the clerk insisted that those toasts were. When I showed him the ingredients, he replied "but they are not refined flours". I have no idea where I get that data. These toasts have 30% added wheat bran (unrefined wheat grain), but the rest, ie 70%, is wheat and corn flour, written as such. What kind are these two flours going to be if they are not refined? Obviously I went without buying anything and in another store something more serious (although not too much) I found what I was looking for, toast with 95% whole wheat flour.

If it is recommended to eat whole foods, why is it so difficult to find them? Why is there no regulation that protects the consumer and clarifies how to label this type of food? The closest thing I have found is Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 on nutrition and salt claims.

udables in food, which does not apply too much in this case.

Investigaremosssss ....