Recently I’ve noticed the word ‘wholegrain’ on most breads, cereals and crackers at the grocery store. Even white bread is now ‘wholegrain’ white bread. What started this trend? Why does that one word automatically make the same white bread seem more nutritionally appealing? It’s because wholegrains are supposed help fight diseases, especially those related to the metabolic system like cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes. They are also a great source of dietary fiber, minerals, vitamins and other nutrients.

Researchers from the Healthgrain project, an initiative by the European Union conducted a year long study in Hungary in 2004-2005. They “initially determined the extent of variation of bioactive compounds in cereals” this helped them figure out the total dietary fiber content in cereals through determining the amount of Beta-glucan and arabinoxylan present. They also used other target proteins to determine the amount of antioxidants, phenolic acids and other nutrients in cereals. Then they picked about 150 different wheat varieties and 50 different types of other grains like oats, barley and rye from all across the globe. These lines were grown for a year at the Agricultural Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Once grown and milled, they were analyzed for the content of groups of phytochemicals, beta-glucans, and dietary fiber. The research determined which grains had the highest amount of these bioactive compounds and sterols, tocols, alkylresorcinols, folates, phenolic acids, and dietary fibers.

These results allow researchers to selectively cultivate the most nutritional varieties of grains. The database generated by the Healthgrain project is easily the most extensive of its kind available in the world today. The global collaboration to increase agricultural yield is a positive step towards decreasing world hunger and providing aid to agriculturally struggling nations.

Discussion Question: Does this type of research suggest strains of less nutritional plants will be no longer needed?

News Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081119155941.htm
Scientific Article: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/jf8009574?cookieSet=1