So, what is a whole grain?
I think I assume sometimes that people know the same things I do. Often, when I am posting, I feel like I am posting a bunch of stuff that people already know. The reality is that most people don't know about the stuff I am talking about. I apologize if I lose some of you in the midst of my meanderings. It simply does NOT occur to me that I might be talking a foreign language. No matter though. Writing about eating, cooking, and being healthy is something I enjoy immensely even if some of the material seems obvious to me.
So the question I wish to answer is: "What exactly is a whole grain?"
The word "whole" means something like "containing all parts" or "all inclusive" or "lacking none of the essential parts." A grain is essentially the fruit of a grass or more specifically a monocot. A monocot is basically a plant that sprouts with one seed leaf (versus a plant that sprouts two seed leaves). Soooo, that said, grains include all kinds of seeds such as: wheat, oats, barley, buckwheat, rice, corn and less common grains such as quinoa, amaranth, millet, and sorghum. There are way more grains than just those one but it is more likely that you will run into those before the more obscure ones.
A WHOLE grain means a grain whose parts have all been retained. In the case of flour (flour is the ground up seed) a whole grain flour means that the ENTIRE grain is in the flour versus a refined flour in which part of the grain (usually the germ which is the part containing all the nutrition) has been removed.
In answer to your question CB, whole wheat IS a whole grain. Whole wheat just happens to be a type of whole grain. There are lots of different types of whole grains as I said earlier.
Grains are not to be confused with other types of edible seeds like flax, sunflower seeds, and beans which are all dicots.
Phew! How's that for a biology/herbology lesson?
So the question I wish to answer is: "What exactly is a whole grain?"
The word "whole" means something like "containing all parts" or "all inclusive" or "lacking none of the essential parts." A grain is essentially the fruit of a grass or more specifically a monocot. A monocot is basically a plant that sprouts with one seed leaf (versus a plant that sprouts two seed leaves). Soooo, that said, grains include all kinds of seeds such as: wheat, oats, barley, buckwheat, rice, corn and less common grains such as quinoa, amaranth, millet, and sorghum. There are way more grains than just those one but it is more likely that you will run into those before the more obscure ones.
A WHOLE grain means a grain whose parts have all been retained. In the case of flour (flour is the ground up seed) a whole grain flour means that the ENTIRE grain is in the flour versus a refined flour in which part of the grain (usually the germ which is the part containing all the nutrition) has been removed.
In answer to your question CB, whole wheat IS a whole grain. Whole wheat just happens to be a type of whole grain. There are lots of different types of whole grains as I said earlier.
Grains are not to be confused with other types of edible seeds like flax, sunflower seeds, and beans which are all dicots.
Phew! How's that for a biology/herbology lesson?
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