Sometime during the recovery from low-carb diets, a curious thing happened: Lots of folks reached for whole grains.
Chefs started playing with foods such as quinoa, farro and Job's tears. Bakers touted whole-wheat chocolate chip cookies and pound cakes. And in 2005, the U.S. Department of Agriculture advised Americans to eat at least 3 ounces of whole grains a day. The USDA had a good reason for revising the dietary guidelines: The fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants in whole grains make these foods healthier than white flour and other refined grain products.
As a result, what used to be health food became trendy.
Vanessa Roper, an assistant manager of Kristina's Natural Ranch Market, noticed the change in the health-food store in Fresno, Calif.
When she started working at the market almost seven years ago, "there was that group of people who were into the whole grains, sprouting and that kind of thing," she says. "In the past few years, (demand for whole grains) has really boomed. I've noticed a lot more people...asking questions about whole grains because they've heard about it in a magazine. It's not the normal clientele you would picture in a health-food store."
Cookbooks document the change. In addition to recent ones devoted to the subject - such as Robin Asbell's "The New Whole Grains Cookbook" (Chronicle Books, $19.95) and Lorna Sass' "Whole Grains: Every Day, Every Way" (Clarkson Potter, $32.50) - there are others that treat whole grains like any other food.
You'll see an olive-studded quinoa salad in "Isabel's Cantina" (Clarkson Potter, $27) by Isabel Cruz, a San Diego restaurateur who blends Latino and Asian cooking. Alice Waters, owner of Berkeley's Chez Panisse, cooks up pancakes with whole-wheat, buckwheat and spelt flours in "The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons and Recipes From a Delicious Revolution" (Clarkson Potter, $35). And Marcy Goldman, a baker known for decadent desserts such as caramel-chocolate, cookie-stuffed sour cream deluxe cake and chocolate eruption cheesecake, includes a chapter devoted to whole grains in her latest book, "A Passion for Baking" (Oxmoor House, $29.95).
Why are whole grains so healthy?
It's all in how the grains are processed, says Len Marquart, assistant professor in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota. Grains have three components: the bran, germ and endosperm. "The endosperm contains very little beyond starch," Marquart says. "The bran and germ contain the vitamins and the minerals."
In refined grains, such as all-purpose flour, the bran and the germ are removed. The result is a more shelf-stable product - but one that lacks the fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants from the bran and germ.
Though more studies are needed to show how such substances help the human body, one result is documented: Eating three servings of whole grains daily is associated with a 20 to 25 percent reduced risk of heart disease and diabetes.
"The data is fairly strong," Marquart says. "All those different constituents interact quite positively."
To get the full benefit from whole grains, it's a good idea to eat different ones. Rye, for example, is high in fiber and rich in antioxidants, Marquart says. Barley and oats help lower blood cholesterol.
Adding such a variety of foods may seem challenging, but the cookbooks aim to make it easy. "As long as you make the food taste good, it's really not as hard as people think," says Asbell, author of "The New Whole Grain Cookbook."
She adds buckwheat groats to chocolate chip cookies; pairs brown rice with chicken, porcini mushrooms and pinot noir wine; and makes chicken and dumplings with whole-wheat pastry flour.
Her other advice: Use long-grain brown rices for fluffy pilafs. Instead of regular pasta, try whole-wheat versions or substitute grains such as wheat berries and kamut, "an ancient relative of durum wheat." And since whole-grain rices (identified by their black, brown, red and purple colors) tend to have a stronger taste than white rice, add more flavors to the stir-fries paired with them. Asbell's book also offers extensive descriptions of whole-wheat couscous, bulgur, quinoa, amaranth, teff, millet, buckwheat, barley, Job's tears, whole-grain rices, wild rice, wheats, oats and rye.
After buying whole grains, it's best to store them in the refrigerator, Asbell says. Both the whole grains and the whole-grain flours can turn rancid when stored for long periods in warm temperatures.
She also advises rinsing the whole grains (not the flours). Swirl them in water, and massage harder grains. Drain off the water, chaff and broken kernels.
Then it's time to cook them. Asbell's methods include simmering them until they absorb the cooking liquid, baking, steaming, pressure-cooking and pasta-style cooking.
The most common mistake cooks make, she says, is undercooking whole grains. "There's a misunderstanding of how much water to use," she says.
Cooks shouldn't be intimidated, though. Like all other cooking, preparing whole grains takes a bit of practice. Folks who don't like to cook have another option: Visit bakeries that sell whole-grain products.
Reach Joan Obra at jobra@fresnobee.com.
