I love information like this, and with excellent reference articles – this makes it so much easier to make healthy food choices – thank you!

It makes me crazy when a package claims whole grain and it’s only a small percentage of the ingredients. Beware of marketing!

What’s better, wholemeal or wholegrain?

@ Jo

I’m going to have a crack at answering your question, but don’t make any life or death decisions based on my advice, Kathryn is the pro!

Wholemeal is generally the processed ‘white’ flours, with some of the bran either left in or post-mixed in. So compared with white, wholemeal would have more fibre and B vitamins. Wholegrain actually contains entire grains, so it might have higher values of carbohydrates, proteins and some vitamins. In short, wholegrain gives you more nutrients than wholemeal.

I was amazed when I first read into the nutritional benefits of wholegrains. I don’t eat a lot of meat but as a wannabe athlete I need to be extra conscious of things like iron and protein, and wholegrains can actually provide those things in my diet.

My theory with food is that the closer it is to resembling the plant or animal it came from, the better it is for you. White bread? No thanks!

Thanks kylieonwheels! I always thought that wholemeal was the whole grain, just ground up – and at some stage when my kids were small, I was told to give them wholemeal rather than wholegrain because they would be able to digest and absorb the nutrients better. Things are different now, because they’re bigger than me.

Hi there all, I’ve been on holidays – hence the delay in responding to your comments. But thank you to kylieonwheels for her excellent response to Jo’s question.

You’re right wholegrain is better than wholemeal, because food made with this includes all three components of the wheat grain – the bran, the germ and the endosperm. So basically you’re getting all the nutrients possible from the original grain.

Having said all that, when children are small it is often better to give them wholemeal bread, or even good white bread. I know it sounds counter-intuitive in our wholegrain obsessed times. And it’s different advice than I’d give to most adults. However too much fibre can fill fast-growing and/or highly active children up too quickly. Which means they may not be getting enough actual kilojoules. Moreover fibre can block the absorption of some vitamins and minerals, which they need for growth.

This is true for children up to the age of five. Beyond that I’d start switching over to wholegrains. And for the vast majority of adults, wholegrains are most definitely better.

I went through a bread baking phase once, and I read somewhere that the whole-meal flour in Aus is not reall whole-meal. It’s just white flour mixed in with grain?

Anyway I have started to eat brown rice again. Not easy at first, but I do a 50-50 mix of white-brown rice (cook wonderfully in my rice cooker). Will increase the mix later when we are used to it.

I think there are a lot of recipes where brown rice tastes much better than white – like brown rice with chick peas, onions, celery and whatever vegies you have hanging around, and earthy spices like cummin and coriander. It’s so wintery and warming, and my body always feels good after I’ve eaten it (although perhaps that’s psychological).

Hi there Anh. most of the wholemeal in Australia is white flour with some of the bran layer (ie the outer shell of the grain) added back in. So it has more fibre than white flour, but that’s about it. The germ part can then be sold separately (as wheatgerm) or made into oil (wheatgerm oil), which means the manufacturer is getting two sources of income from one product – obviously a much more lucrative strategy for them.

Jo I think you’re right about brown rice tasting better with some things. I love brown rice with white beans and greens, and I also really like it for breakfast with maple syrup, fruit and yoghurt. But I still eat the occasional bit of basmati, particularly with Indian-style dishes. There’s just something about that combination that works for me.

Brown rice, now there’s something I haven’t tried yet. I’ll put that on the shopping list.

Glad I was on the right track there, Kathryn! I’m fascinated by nutrition (I suppose we all are, that’s why we’re here) and I love food and cooking, so it all ties in nicely. I’ve done a tiny bit of study in sports specific nutrition, and I’m at the right time of life for a new job, but not sure if I’m ready to do another 4 years at uni just yet to get right into nutrition and dietetics. We’ll see where I end up in a year’s time, life’s a bit of an adventure for me at the moment! In the meantime I’ll stick to absorbing everything I can, in terms of information and inspiration :)

Now another one for you … is there a difference between quick oats and normal rolled oats, as far as nutrition is concerned? I assume they are nutritionally identical, except that quick oats are finer for faster cooking – but I’m not sure of anything anymore!

I’ve started making my own bread recently, and although I use mostly white flour still, I’m adding oats, linseed, pumpkin seed and sunflower seeds. Occasionally also almonds and mixed dried fruit, as well. Is the wholemeal flour we buy also just white flour plus added fibre? Should I try adding wheatgerm to the bread? Or can I get a benefit from using wholemeal flour with seeds etc.? Thanks!

Jo – that’s a really good question and I’m going to answer it in a separate blog post. I’ll put a link here when I’ve done that.

Sarah, you’re definitely getting lots of benefit from all those gorgeous seeds you’re adding to your bread. They are jam-packed full of good nutrition, so really benefit your health. In terms of the flour you’re buying, it’s difficult for me to comment, because different brands do different things. Some of the basic, cheap wholemeal flours you buy at the supermarket are white flour with the fibre added back in. But it should also be possible to buy flour made from the whole grain. You certainly can here in Australia, where it’s marked as wholegrain flour. If you’re uncertain, then give the flour manufacturer a call and ask them the question.

Otherwise, if you can find a stoneground wholemeal flour, that will almost certainly contain all parts of the grain – it’s a different milling process which retains the whole grain.

It gets more and more frustrating that manufacturers use healthy sounding terms such as “wholegrain” as a marketing ploy, despite the fact that their products may contain ridiculous levels of salt or other ingredients that health authorities advise against. I’d love to see more ethical marketing of products based more on their nutritional content than these gimmicks which can fool us into thinking we are feeding our families in the right way.