I have been rather annoyed lately. Having written a book on losing weight I had to go to the ACIM Bookstore and research books on losing weight to see if what I had written was unique. The good news for me was that it is entirely unique. The bad news is that many of the other books out there made me very annoyed and angry. I am sure I will have plenty of time to write about why so many of them have me feeling this way at some later time, but there is one element I want to tackle now. Whole grains, or better yet, to quote Authors Dr. Lisa Hark & Dr. Darwin Dean, ‘The Whole Grain Miracle’.
Whole wheat has been gaining popularity as a diet concept since the discovery of the Glycemic Index and that fibre slows the release of insulin in the blood stream (thus reducing the storage of energy as fat), as well as having potential to reduce cholesterol and colon cancer. These are all great things, in fact, some could even say miraculous, but what does that have to do with whole grains?
Well one of the best sources of fibre is whole grains. Wheat bran (the outer layer of the wheat that is removed when making white flour) is made up almost 50% of fibre. This is great. Two slices of Weight Watchers Whole Wheat Bread contain approximately 5g of Fibre, putting them at or near the top of quantity of fibre in bread (remember, a slice of weight watchers bread is actually half a regular slice). The thing is, bread is also one of the number one sources of carbohydrates, those pesky things that cause a high GI response, as well as having a ridiculously high calorie density. As I have pointed out in You Are Not A Fit Person, two of the three sins a food can commit is high GI Response and high calorie density, so even though it may be an excellent source of fibre, it is terrible in all other ways.
Think about it, every society that made its way from nomadic to settled, did so with the massive calorie density of breads and rices. These were unrefined as well. The power in these foods to create civilizations is currently the power to make us fat.