Sunshiney Daze: Whole Grain Goodness!

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Whole Grain Goodness!

Like many of you, I made some New Year's Resolutions to eat healthier and make better health choice for my family and myself.

It takes a lot of time and energy to be a label reader at the grocery store. I've been one ever since my daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I spend a lot of time checking out ingredients and trying to make better choices for my family.

Well, General Mills has now made it easier! The have added a white check to their boxes. This means that cereal has more whole grains than any other single ingredient. How easy! Just look for the check!

General Mills has a great website called Whole Grain Nation that can help you on your quest for eating Whole Grains. There's a great game and sweepstakes where you can navigate through grocery store aisles and identify products that have whole grain as their first ingredient. Then you can enter a sweepstakes to win one each of all 50 whole grain cereals!

From General Mills:

According to Dr. Travis Stork, emergency room physician and host of “The Doctors,” identifying whole grain products can be challenging. 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. Ingredient lists detail ingredients in order of prevalence, and 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’s how to determine if your cereals have whole grain as a first ingredient:

With all the health messages facing grocery store shoppers, it can be confusing to translate what appears on food labels into nutritional needs, and hard to determine which foods have a meaningful amount of whole grain. Dr. Stork has some additional recommendations to help you include whole grain easily into your diet. They include:

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.

We have added a lot more whole grains to our diet as a family, and I feel so much better. I'm fuller faster, and that feeling stays with me longer. I love that I can find whole grains in some of our favorite cereals including Honey Nut Cheeries (I Love Honey Nut Cheerios), Lucky Charms, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Want to try some of these delicious cereals? Well, how about a great giveaway to help! One of you lucky readers can win a prize pack containing 5 boxes of General Mills with the white check! Woot!

Mandatory Entry:

Please leave me a comment letting me know which of your favorite General Mills cereal with the white check you like to start your morning off with. Please include your email in the comment if it's not visible in your profile (jane smith at yahoo dot com)

Extra Entries:
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Contest ends Thursday, February 9, 2012. One (1) winner will be randomly chosen from all correct entries. Winner will be notified by email and has 72 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen. This contest is open to residents of the US, ages 18 and over.
Disclosure: The prize pack, information, and giveaway have been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark.

Contest is over and winner has been chosen! Thanks to all you amazing readers!