Dr. James J. (Jay) Kenney, PhD, RD, FACN
 Director of Nutrition Research and Educator at the Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa
Dr. Kenney, highly acclaimed nutrition researcher, author, and educator, offers expert advice on hot health topics such as Diet Wars (high protein vs. high-carb), Adolescent Obesity, Trans Fats, Diabetes, Heart Disease, Hypertension, Cancer, Women's Health, and more.
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A lot of bread products, from bagels to burger buns, have headlines on the front of their packages saying they’re an “excellent source of fiber.”
Remember what you learned in label reading class at Pritikin? Don’t believe anything you read on the front of a package. That fiber is not necessarily from whole grain. It could be “isolated” fiber from, for example, oat hulls or chicory, which means it does not have the many other beneficial nutrients in whole grains, much the same way that beta carotene isolated from carrots and put in a pill lacks the many other benefits of whole carrots. There is no evidence that isolated fibers lower the risk of heart disease or diabetes. There is a mountain of evidence, however, linking whole grains, naturally rich in a myriad of nutrients and phytochemicals in addition to fiber, with reduced risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and many other illnesses. So when shopping, look first for bread products that show as their first ingredient in the Ingredient List a whole grain, such as whole-wheat flour or sprouted whole-grain kernels. Don’t be fooled by healthy-sounding names like wheat flour, enriched flour, multi-grain flour, semolina flour, durum flour, unbleached flour, bleached flour, or even spinach flour. These are all refined white flours. It’s got to say "whole." |
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