You can’t miss it. When you walk down the aisles of the grocery store, more and more labels are screaming out at you "Made With Whole Grain"! One might think that their local grocery store has turned into a nutritious health food store.

This new whole grain craze reminds me of the low fat craze. Consumers are being misled to believe that many foods are healthy, because they claim to contain whole grains. Keep in mind, just because a product advertises whole grains on its package, that does not mean it is necessarily a healthy food.

Healthscience.org helps to shed a little light on the subject regarding cereals "More Whole Grains? Or More Hype?"

"Unfortunately, most are far from 100 percent whole grain. Nor are they necessarily healthy foods. In the cereal aisle, for example, you’ll find products like Trix, Golden Grahams, Rice Chex, and Lucky Charms with the words “WHOLE GRAIN” emblazoned on the front of the boxes.

But few of these reformulated cereals have more than 1 gram of fiber per serving, indicating that there’s not a whole lot of whole grain in the box. Sure enough, in the ingredient list you’ll find refined white flours, often described as “wheat flour” and “enriched flour,” in addition to the heavily advertised whole-grain flour."

Buyers beware. Don’t fall for the pretty packaging with the misleading advertising. The best way to determine if a product is actually healthy is by reading the whole ingredient list. 

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