The food and activity choices you make every day affect your health - how you feel today, tomorrow, and in the future. The 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends getting the most nutrition out of your calories.

Three ounces of whole grains every day is recommended and, for many people, breads supply much of this need. The meanings of the words associated with the wheat flour that makes up the bread - Refined, Enriched, Fortified, Whole Grain - hold the key to understanding this product. Refined wheat flour removes 3 of the 4 parts of the kernal - the chaff, the bran, and the germ - leaving only the endosperm, composed mainly of starch and a little protein. Fortified or Enriched mean that specified levels of thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folate, and iron have been added to refined grains. Whole Grain refers to a grain entirely milled, not refined.

The trouble with enriched flour is that it is comparable to whole grain only with respect to the added nutrients, and not to others. Enriched products still contain less magnesium, zinc, vitamin B6, vitamin E, and chromium than whole grain products do. And when a grain is refined, fiber is also lost. Only whole grain flour contains all nutritive portions of the grain. If bread is a staple food of your diet, consider the hearty flavor of whole grain breads, and watch the Nutritional labeling to get your recommended 3 ounces of whole grains per day.

Data provided by Nutrition: Sizer & Whitney,and the National Academy of Sciences.