Look for a 10-to-1 Carb-to-Fiber Ratio to Find Actually Healthy Whole-Grain Foods

It seems like almost everything is labeled with the healthy eating buzzphrase "whole grain" these days. But those whole-grain claims can be misleading when we're looking for healthy food. Harvard researchers offer this rule of thumb for choosing good whole-grain foods: look for a 10:1 ratio of carbohydrates to fiber.

When you look at the nutrition panel on a product, make sure that for every 10 grams of total carbohydrates there's at least one gram of fiber. As the Harvard Health blog points out, this is about the ratio of carbohydrates and fiber that's in unprocessed wheat, a genuine whole grain.

The recommendation comes from a study done by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health. They evaluated 545 grain products and tallied up their nutritional components. Foods that met the 10:1 ratio "tended to have less sugar, sodium, and trans fats than those that didn't."

This is an easier method than reading a long ingredient list looking for the word "whole" before every grain (a recommendation from the USDA). It might also be more reliable than looking at the order of ingredients or seeing a Whole Grain stamp on packaging, since foods labeled "whole grain" are often unhealthy (Fruit Loops, anyone?).

The trick to recognizing a good whole grain: Use carb-to-fiber ratio of 10-to-1 | Harvard Health Blog

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/O7yldkQMWpw/look-for-a-10+to+1-carb+to+fiber-ratio-to-find-actually-healthy-whole+grain-foods

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