Dirty Thirty #4: Multi-Grain Goodness

I am certainly not against eating grains. I just had some whole-grain millet with herb-roasted chicken and sautéed summer vegetables for dinner. It was quite delicious, but I digress. "Multi-grain" is a label the food industry uses to make us think something is healthy. All it means is that the product contains a variety of grains.


What it doesn't mean is that all of the grains are whole grains. For example, the ingredients list on this box of Barilla Plus Multi-Grain Pasta reads: semolina, grain and legume flour blend (lentils, chick peas, oats, spelt, barley, egg whites, ground flaxseeds and wheat fiber), niacin, ferrous lactate (iron), thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid. Not one mention of a whole grain! This is why it's important to read food labels before buying.

So, the next time you're at the store and go to pick up that box of multi-grain pasta for tonight's dinner or that box of mutli-grain cereal for tomorrow's breakfast, be sure to flip the package over and read the ingredient list to ensure that you are really getting all whole grains.