[Villages PL]

In today's Daily Sun (Friday, p.5) there's a column: "Increase whole grains in your diet with MyPlate."

First paragraph - question: "What are whole grains."

The answer given, in part: Whole-wheat flour, and cerials, breads, crackers, and pasta, (all made with whole wheat flour).

I'm sorry, but it's just not true. If you take whole grain and grind it into a fine flour, it's not whole anymore. What could be more obvious than that? By law, it can be called "whole grain", meaning that nothing has been removed. But, again, it's obviously not whole if it has been ground into flour. Therefore, any products made with flour are not whole either, they are highly processed.

"So what", you may ask? Your digestive system knows the difference because products made from flour get absorbed faster. To the extent that you consume these products, you may likely have a faster rise in blood sugar and a resulting faster rise in insulin. You could become insulin-resistant, gain weight and become pre-diabetic or diabetic.

So, beware: "Healthier" does not always mean "healthy". What it means in this case is "good marketing"; as I said last week, MyPlate is more about marketing U.S. agricultural products than it is about health.