Dive Brief:
- People are consuming fewer grain-based food products, according to recent research published in the journal Nutrients. The study found that consumption of bread, rolls, tortillas and ready-to-eat cereals makes up less than 15% of all calories in diets of U.S. consumers.
- The study analyzed more than 10,000 adult dietary surveys collected from 2009 to 2012 by the National Center for Health Statistics of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Data included the consumption of all grains and various sub-categories — bread, rolls, tortillas, ready-to-eat cereals, cooked grains, quick breads and sweet bakery products.
- Researchers noted that grain-based foods provide critical nutrients — dietary fiber, folate and iron, as well as calcium, magnesium and vitamin A — that people need for optimum health, and therefore their consumption should be encouraged. "These data show that grain foods are the foods we love that love us back — finally, we can enjoy bread again," study co-author Yanni Papanikolaou, vice president of Nutritional Strategies Inc, said in a release from the Grain Foods Foundation and Nutritional Strategies.
Dive Insight:
The U.S. government's latest Dietary Guidelines recommend that whole grains should make up half of all the grains consumers eat. It also suggests that people limit their intake of refined grains and products made with them — especially those high in saturated fats, added sugars and sodium such as cookies, cakes and some snack foods.
Most refined grains — those processed to remove the bran and germ, which also removes dietary fiber, iron and other nutrients — are enriched to add back iron and four B vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and folic acid). Both whole grains and these so-called "enriched grains" are important to human health, the study noted. Previous data has established that "nearly the entire U.S. population consumes a diet with fewer whole grains than recommended," the researchers stated. As a result, the assumption in this latest analysis is that most of the grains being consumed are enriched products.
Despite recent food industry reformulations lowering the level of sodium, sugar and saturated fats in certain products, some consumers are still concerned that enriched grains can cause obesity and other health problems. Many people have grown wary of carbohydrates altogether, and others have reduced or eliminated gluten — the protein in wheat, spelt, kamut, rye, barley and other grains. In response, the food industry has turned out an array of products featuring gluten-free grains such as corn, millet, rice and sorghum.
Retailers could take advantage of this growing consumer awareness of grains by highlighting enriched-grain, whole-grain and gluten-free food products in stores and providing nutritional information about each. Those with bakeries might benefit by adding educational outreach to customers about why consumption of grain-based foods is important for general health.