This year, the Grains & Legumes Nutrition Council (GLNC) are bringing to life the idea of swapping made simple during Whole Grain Week, with the help of the Sprout duo – Callum Hann of Masterchef fame and Themis Chryssidis, an Accredited Practising Dietitian. Broadcasting on national television and radio during 15-21 June, GLNCs community service announcement focuses on the benefits of swapping to whole grain foods. Alongside the campaign, a recently published paper in Cereal Foods World1 recommends that Dietary Guidelines place greater emphasis on whole grain foods. While almost half of 90 global guidelines mention whole grains, some still depict refined food choices like white rice and pasta.
The paper suggests that “choosing whole grain and higher fibre cereal foods, selecting from a wide range and type of grains” would improve on more subtle “mostly whole grain” messaging in current guides. But GLNC says it will take more than this to change eating behaviours of Australians. In response to this, GLNC are challenging Australians to take the #wholegrainchallenge by swapping three of their daily grain serves for whole grain choices to meet the 48g whole grain target.
“Making the swap to whole grain foods is a change we can easily make, with big benefits for health. Eating 2-3 serves of whole grains and high fibre grain foods each day may reduce the risk of chronic disease by up to 30%” says APD Themis Chryssidis. It’s easy to make the switch according to Hann “To swap at breakfast, look for oats or whole grain (and high fibre) breakfast cereals. At lunch, try a sandwich made with wholemeal bread and for dinner, swap to brown rice, whole grain tortillas, wholemeal pasta or wholemeal pita breads. When snack time calls, swap to popcorn, whole grain crackers or muesli bars with a high Health Star Rating.”
As well as easily accessible whole grain or wholemeal breads, breakfast cereals, crackers, brown rice and pasta, other grains like buckwheat, quinoa, freekeh and teff are now all widely available to allow you to enjoy a range of different whole grains.
To help Australians #lookforthewholegrain, GLNC established a voluntary Code of Practice for whole grain claims on product packaging in 2013. In the seven years since the launch of the Code there’s been a 71% increase in the number of whole grain claims on food packaging, making it easier for all Australians to choose whole grain. To enjoy the benefit, look for whole grain messaging on-pack!
Head on over to Instagram to take part in the #wholegrainchallenge or search for your favourite whole grain foods via GLNCs searchable whole grain database.
