How to get more whole grains in your diet (Giveaway)

A popular New Year’s resolution for many people is to eat healthy and make better food choices. Reading labels and knowing what you are putting in your body is very important. Sometimes foods we think are good for us really aren’t.

We all know that thinks like sugar, fats, food coloring and things you cannot easily pronounce are bad for you. When choosing a product for you and your family it’s important to read the label and look for better for you ingredients like whole grains.

What exactly are whole grains anyway?

Whole grains are unrefined grains that haven’t had their bran and germ removed by milling. Whole grains are a great of fiber (which keeps you feeling full) and other important nutrients, such as magnesium, selenium and potassium. 

Dr. Travis Stork, emergency room physician and host of “The Doctors,” know how challenging it can be to identifying whole grain products. Shoppers can look for nutritional cues on the front of the box, but they need to read the ingredient list to know if they are getting enough whole grain.

The ingredients listed on the ingredients list is done by order of prevalence. If the words “whole grain” are followed by a grain like wheat or oats, it means the food contains more whole grain than any other single ingredient. 

Here is a handy info-graphic that gives you more information. You will need to click on it to bring up a larger view (you might have to click it a second time if you happen to be taken to another page – sorry about that).

Dr. Stork has some recommendations to help you include more whole grains into your diet. of whole grain.

-  Start Early. The Dietary Guidelines recommend people get at least 48 grams of whole grain in their daily diets. Get a jump-start on the day’s nutrition by incorporating whole grain into your morning routine. For instance, when choosing cereal make sure whole grain is listed as the first ingredient. One easy choice is cereal with the white check, which have more whole grain than any other single ingredient.

-  Make Simple Swaps. Choose whole grain versions of the foods you love. Great options include whole wheat pasta and whole wheat bread or even whole grain crackers. Also, try different types of whole grain. Use brown rice instead of white rice as a side dish at dinner or popcorn, which is a whole grain, for a snack.

-  Don’t Judge a Food by Its Cover. The front of food packages provide good nutritional cues, but don’t forget to read the ingredients and check the nutrition label and side labels for additional health information. Cereals with the white check even include the amount of whole grain per serving on packaging.

In order to help consumers choose products with whole grain, General Mills developed “Fast Lane for Whole Grain,” an online educational game. This fun and educational game allows consumers to navigate a virtual grocery store and identify products that have whole grain as the first ingredient. At the end of the game you can enter a sweepstakes to win one of each of the 50 cereals with the white check.

To make it easier for you to identify cereals with whole grains, General Mills has put a white check on many of it’s popular cereals including Lucky Charms (my favorite), Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios (my second favorite), Total and Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

For more information on the importance of whole grain and a chance to enter the “Fast Lane for Whole Grain” sweepstakes, visit www.WholeGrainNation.com.

I have a tasty giveaway for my readers, thanks to My Blog Spark and General Mills. The winner will received boxes of the following cereals, all of which have the white check indicating that whole grains is the first ingredient.

- Lucky Charms

- Cheerios

- Honey Nut Cheerios

- Total

- Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

 

To enter please comment on how you add more whole grains into your diet?

For extra entries you can do any or all of the following. Please leave a separate comment for each that you have done. Extra entries are optional. 

- Subscribe to She Scribes via RSS or E-mail. Both options are found on the right side bar.

- “Like” General Mills on Facebook, www.Facebook.com/pages/General-Mills/112649325414107.

- “Like” She Scribes on Facebook, www.Facebook.com/SheScribes.

- Follow General Mills on Twitter, www.Twitter.com/GeneralMills.

- Follow She Scribes on Twitter, www.Twitter.com/She_Scribes and tweet about this giveaway. Please include @She_Scribes in the tweet so I can see it too. This is limited to three tweets per day.

- Share this giveaway with others on Facebook, Digg, Technorati and so forth. Be sure to tell me what you did and please provide a name and/or URL so I can verify.

- Leave a thoughtful comment on a non-giveaway post on She Scribes and tell me which post you commented on. There is a limit of one comment per post, but you can comment on as many posts as you want for an unlimited extra entry option.

- Post about this giveaway on your site and please link back to this post. Please provide the URL.

This giveaway is open to US residents only and will end on January 24, 2012 at 11:59 PM (EST). The winner will be chosen at random using a random number generator from all eligible entries. The winner will be notified via e-mail and will have three days to reply with a name and mailing address (no PO Box). Failure to do so will result in a new winner will be chosen in their place.

Other fun giveaways can be found on the right side bar under “Win It”.

 

Kimberly

* I received free product samples in order to do this review. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own. The products, information and giveaway have been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark

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