Page 8 - Nutrinsight-2

NutrInsight • Whole grain and health: new evidence
Recommendations for whole grain in relation to heart health
The great majority of whole grain products are high in fibre and therefore their consumption is important for meeting recommendations for dietary fibre intake.
A fibre intake of 35 g/day is recommended for the beneficial effect for heart health by the Institute of Medicine [Institute of Medicine, 2002] and in the guideline for fibre intake of the Netherlands Health Council [Health Council of the Netherlands, 2006]. This Council recommends fibre intake via a mixed diet consisting of products - such as fruit, vegetables and whole grain products - that have not been enriched with isolated and purified dietary fibre. If 50% of this recommended fibre intake comes from whole grain, then it follows that 17.5 g/day of fibres from whole grain is recommended to get a benefit for heart health. Converting these fibre recommendations into whole grain recommendations, with whole wheat products as the key source of whole grain, results in a recommendation of ~140 g/day whole grain dry matter.
Consumption of whole grain products other than from whole wheat bread, such as breakfast cereals, biscuits and pasta, will be needed if these intakes are to be achieved. Further, all recommendations invariably advocate consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grain products, nuts, and potatoes rather than adding isolated fibres to products.
1.4 Actual consumption of whole grain across Europe is well below recommendations. Why?
Consumption of whole grains across europe
Unfortunately, actual whole grain consumption in Europe invariably falls well below the recommendations,
even in those countries, such as Denmark, which have a strong whole grain tradition (only 6% of Danes meet the Danish recommendation: 75 g/day) [Strunge Meyer, 2010a] [Strunge Meyer, 2010b] [Danish Whole Grain campaign]. In France, less than 50% of the population meet the French recommendation [French Nutrition and Health Survey, 2006]. One third of British adults never eat whole grain [Thane et al., 2005].
In Germany, average consumption in children from 2 to 18 years is 20 g to 33 g per day, again below national recommendations [Alexy et al., 2010]. The situation is no better outside Europe. In the USA, adults consumed on average 0.7 whole grain servings/day [O’Neil et al., 2010]. But the situation is improving: compared to 2005, consumption in 2008 increased by 20% [The Whole Grains Council].
Factors influencing the gap between recommendations and intakes
What are the barriers to increasing intake of whole grain products? The HEALTHGRAIN consortium identified these as:
• Traditionof“white”products,
• Tasteandtextureofwholegrainproducts,
• Costs(wholemealflourmoreexpensivethanwhite),
• Limitedpositiveperceptionofnutritionandhealthinformationaboutwholegrain, • Consumers’mindsetandreluctancetochange,
• Limitedavailabilityofwholegrainproductswithhigherlevelsinproducts.
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