White Bread's Whole-Grain Makeover

Manufacturers Try To Sneak Fiber Past Picky Eaters

(AP) 
"What they're doing is playing to the marketplace perception that whole grain is good for us — which it certainly is — but they're putting a little bit in there so they can say that it's there," Pescatore said. "They're not really doing a great service."

General Mills Inc., which now offers whole-grain cereals, has petitioned the government to define whole grains, said Kim Rawlings, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. According to FDA guidelines, products must have only whole-wheat flour to be labeled as "whole wheat."

Consumers know they want whole grains in their diets, said Larry Shiman, vice president of Opinion Dynamics Corp., a market research firm. Fifty-one percent of those surveyed said eating whole grains is a high priority, he said.

And consumers are more likely to embrace a whole-grain trend more than they did the meat-based Atkins Diet, Shiman said. He noted the company behind the diet, Atkins Nutritionals, recently filed for bankruptcy.

Manufacturers recognize this, and as the low-carb craze slowed down, bakers and millers stayed alive by creating more whole grain products, said Judi Adams, president of the Grain Foods Foundation, a group representing those industries.

Adams, a registered dietitian, said the white whole wheat products will help consumers gradually shift toward all whole grain, the same shift that moved people from drinking whole milk to skim.

But Shiman said manufacturers shouldn't jump to change standard products. When people think wheat, they think brown, he said.

"I think there's a general tendency to want to eat things that are intuitive. And whole grain bread that's white? I don't know how people will respond to that," Shiman said.

It's always a good thing when children eat something with whole grains in it, said Dr. Rebecca Unger, a pediatrician in the Nutrition Evaluation Clinic at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Although these new breads have less fiber than whole wheat bread — between 3 and 4 grams for two slices compared with upward of 5 or 6 grams — she said they do have more than white bread, which sometimes doesn't have any fiber.

But parents should still be cautious about other ingredients such as high-fructose corn syrup — a sweetener — and should read labels to make sure whole grains are listed as the first ingredient, she said.

"By educating families to read food labels, we can help them to make healthier food choices," Unger said.

Pescatore argues that parents should just take the leap and change to whole grain.

"If we don't make really significant inroads in this, where will we be in 10 to 15 years?" Pescatore said. "We can't afford to have people continue to be sick and eating themselves to death."