Question

Which one of the whole grains, refined grains, and enriched grains are more nutritious? Justify your answer.

Answer 1

Grains or cereals form one of the major constituent of human diet. They provide us with dietary fibres, iron and many other nutrients.

Grains can broadly be divided into two categories :

1. whole grain : whole grains are the unprocessed grain and contains the kernel as a whole. Example of whole grain is whole wheat pasta.

2. Refined grain : refined grains have been processed and polished to improve their shelf life and texture. Example of refined grains are polished pulses and white rice.

Sometimes minerals and vitamins like iron, vitamin B are added back to the refined grain. This process is known as enrichment of the grain. The grain is known as enriched grain.

The whole grain is rich of dietary fibres, vitamins like thiamin, niacin, iron. The whole grain does not undergo any type of processing and polishing which preserves its nutritional content. The refined grain loses most of its nutritional content of vitamins, minerals and dietary fibres during processing. Enriched grain can be enriched back with vitamins and minerals but lacks dietary fibres. So looking at the nutritional content of all the three types of grain, we can say that whole grain is most nutritious and including it in daily diet is the mist healthy choice. This is because it supplies body with not only minerals like iron and vitamins but also dietary fibre that is very good for digestive system.