Whole Grains – A Top Source of Fiber for Our Overall Health

A healthy, balanced diet includes whole grains. Yet, people often avoid them due to misinformation propagated by fad low-carb diets. This is a huge disservice to our body!

Whole grains are a top source of fiber, a key nutrient for our overall health. Fiber supports our digestion and it is also a strong prebiotic. The best part is that when it feeds our probiotics or good gut bacteria, they produce short-chain fatty acids or SCFAs. These SCFAs help us prevent and manage type 2 diabetes, they support our heart, our lungs, our brain and our immune system, and they also help reduce inflammation. That’s right, whole carbs don’t lead to inflammation, they help us fight it.

Other important nutrients in whole grains include protein, vitamins B like Thiamin, Niacin, and Pantothenic Acid; most essential minerals, and strong phytonutrients.

Do note that we are talking about “whole” grains. Once grains are processed, the fiber and most of their nutrients get removed and all we are left with are simple carbohydrates that turn into sugars. These sugars are quickly absorbed into our bloodstream resulting in high sugar levels. Even grinding or blending our whole grains reduces their nutritional impact in our body. This is because our gut bacteria needs intact food particles to feed on and to produce those important SCFAs. No matter how much we chew our food, we’ll always leave some intact particles for our little guys, but if we eat ground grains, then our gut bacteria gets little to none.

The grains category also includes some seeds, like quinoa or millet, because their nutritional profile aligns more with grains than with other seeds. If you haven’t tried them yet, you should! They make a great alternative to the more commonly used, rice.