If a person started eating whole wheat products at a young age and ate them throughout their life, they wouldn't know the difference. They wouldn't think that they don't like it. If you are starting to make your life healthier, whole grains are a great start. Once you get used to the heartiness of the grains, you will grow to love it and you won't want to go back to enriched grains. As a parent, start having your children eat whole wheat products and this is what they will be used to eating, and their cardiovascular and digestive systems will thank you later on down the road.
Why is eating whole grains good for you? According to MyPyramid.gov, whole grains will lower your risk of heart disease, reduces the occurrence of constipation which will lower your risk of colon cancer and diverticulosis, and whole grains are a good source of vitamins and minerals such as iron, magnesium, folate, riboflavin, niacin, and thiamine. WOW! I think those are a lot of good reasons to start eating whole grain products.
Many think that eating whole grain products are too expensive, well I went to the store to price all of the different brands. I live in a small town in Kansas, so these are not Walmart or HyVee prices, these are small town prices.
When looking for whole wheat products look for the word...whole! It doesn't matter if it's whole wheat or whole grain, as long as it says whole....not just wheat (that means nothing, it could just be enriched wheat, which is not what we are looking for!)
Bread: Whole wheat from the cheapest (not the store brand) to the most expensive: $1.99 to $3.39; the store brand whole wheat is $1.69. Regular white bread from cheapest (not the store brand) to the most expensive: $2.69 to $3.19; the store brand white bread is $1.09. Sorry to say, but the whole wheat wins in my book!
Pasta: Whole wheat spaghetti $1.13 to $1.57 (13.5oz), regular spaghetti $1.30 to $2.22 (16oz). Whole wheat macaroni noodles $1.13 to $2.24 (16oz), regular macaroni noodles $1.30 to $1.58 (16oz). Other whole wheat pasta $1.13 to $1.56 (13.5oz), other regular pasta $1.30 to $1.21 (16oz-8oz in that order). Well it looks like whole wheat wins again!
Pancake Mix: If you haven't tried it--do it--YUM! Store brand regular mix $1.92 32oz, Hungry Jack whole wheat $2.57 28oz, Buckwheat $4.40 32oz. Ok, this time the regular mix beats the whole wheat in price, but this is the cheapest in the store compared to a name brand (the only whole wheat at my store). But remember, this is for your health.
Tortilla Shells: 10 count whole wheat: $2.89, 10 count regular: $2.29. 8 count whole wheat: $1.81, 8 count regular: $1.84. In my book, the whole wheat wins again!
Rice: Brown rice: $1.98 14oz, white rice: $1.68 14oz. Now, what is 30 cents when we are talking about your health!
Flour: 5lbs whole wheat flour: $2.50, 5lbs regular white flour: cheapest $2.07 to pillsbury $2.44. The whole wheat price is not too shaby!
No more excuses about why you don't want to eat whole wheat products, like I said once you get used to it, you won't go back! See you next week :)
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