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Putting the Food Guide Pyramid on Your Table--Breads and Cereals

Putting the Food Guide Pyramid on Your Table encourages older adults to improve their food behaviors.

The older we become, the more careful we should be when choosing our food. We should depend upon food for good nutrition. Food is much more than just a collection of nutrients. Follow the Food Guide Pyramid for daily food choices and healthy eating practices.

Bread, Choosing the Best

• You should eat six to eleven servings from the bread and grain group every day.
• Most brown bread sold now is low in fiber because not all brown bread is whole grain.
• Bread that is all whole grain is worth the extra cost because of the higher amounts of fiber and healthy items in it.

The days when Mama baked the family a dozen loaves of bread at a time are long gone. With so many kinds of store-bought breads to buy, very few people make their own bread or rolls. This makes it especially important to buy the most healthy bread you can find.

Six to Eleven (6 to 11) Servings

The six to eleven servings from the Food Guide Pyramid bread and grain group have fiber, B vitamins, and iron. The grain group also has starch, protein, and minerals. Some of these are low in people's diets. Whole grains have many B vitamins, vitamin E, and fiber. Bread can be a very good source of fiber. Fiber is important because it can decrease the risk of heart disease. It also can decrease the chance of getting some types of cancer and it helps keep you having regular bowel movements.

What is a serving? Count one slice of bread, one serving of cold cereal, or one half of a cup of cooked cereal, rice, or pasta as one serving. A daily total of 20 to 35 grams of fiber should be eaten. Check the food label on the bread you eat for the amount of fiber in each slice. Remember to drink a lot of liquids when you eat more fiber.

Wheat and Whole-wheat Bread

All whole-wheat is brown but not all brown is whole-wheat. Whole-wheat bread is better for you so it is worth the higher price. By law, bread that is "whole-wheat" must be made only from whole-wheat flour. "Wheat" bread may be made from both white flour and whole-wheat flour or white flour only. The terms for white flour may not be clear. Labels that say "unbleached," "enriched," or "wheat" flour mean white flour. The type of flour in the largest amount is listed first on the food label. Often a darker color is provided by "caramel color." It is also listed on the label. Look first for the brown color and then look for the label saying "whole-wheat."

Extra Fiber in Breads

Whole-wheat flour is not the only ingredient that gives bread fiber. Also look for these ingredients in the bread you can eat: wheat bran, oat bran, wheat berries, cracked wheat, oatmeal, and rye flour. Often people do not eat bread because they think it will make them fat. The toppings we add to bread have many more calories or fat than the bread itself. Most breads--except for biscuits, muffins and sweet rolls--are low in fat.

Cereal for Down-Home Goodness

• To choose a cereal, follow the guidelines listed in the section "Buying Cereals."
• It's better to get many grains than to choose a cereal with 100 percent of the daily value* for vitamins.
• While we suggest oats, whole wheat bran, and other grains, don't be fooled by labels touting oat bran, when only a little is added.

Buying Cereals

Dozens of instant and hot cereals are on the market. There are so many that it's often hard to pick one. Some guidelines are:

1. Fiber: Choose a cereal made from whole grain and 2 to 3 grams of fiber. Proceed grains often lose minerals. Check the ingredient list for the word "whole" before the grain is used, such as "whole-wheat flour," not "wheat flour."
2. Sugar: Avoid cereals with a lot of sugar. Look for a cereal with only 3 to 5 grams of white table sugar (sucrose) and other sugars per serving. Cereals with raisins or other dried fruits could have up to 10 grams of sugars (about 2 and 1/2 teaspoons of sugar), but these dried fruits also provide vitamins, minerals, and fiber.
3. Sodium: Look for a cereal with 300 milligrams or less of sodium per serving.
4. Fat: Choose a cereal with less than 1 to 2 grams of fat per serving.
5. Vitamins: Don't let claims of extra vitamins make you buy any one cereal. Unless you plan to eat nothing but a bowl of cereal each day, you don't need cereal with up to 100 percent of the daily value* for vitamins as shown on the food labels. Look at the nutrition label--called Nutrition Facts--listed on the item of the instant or hot cereal you eat. How many of these guidelines does your cereal meet? If not all or most of them, maybe it's time to think about a new cereal.

The Grains, where it all begins. This is the foundation of the Food Guide Pyramid. There are five other groups in the Pyramid.

Reference

Adapted from Healthy Eating for Life Program (HELP), Kansas State University, 1996.

Follow the Food Guide Pyramid for daily food choices and healthy eating practices.

*Daily value percent (% daily value) is found on the Nutrition Facts label of an item.

Ohio State University Extension 

Adapted by: Alma M. Saddam, PhD, RD. Nutrition Specialist

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