Grains For LIFE

• Obesity has evolved from a personal health issue to a public health epidemic
  • 65% of Americans are overweight or obese
  • One in five can be considered obese
  • Nationwide, approximately 30% of children (ages 6-19) are overweight and 15 percent are obese.
    
    
• Politicians, pundits and the public are searching for solutions
  • Blaming obesity on single factors and foods rather than on macro issues
  • Promoting restrictive diets that may work short term, but whose long term consequences are poorly understood
  • Perpetuating the notion that 'balance' is difficult
    
    
• Consumers have become overwhelmed with nutritional information – much of it suspect – as a result we are confusing the issues and complicating what sound science and common sense dictate:
  • That calories count – those we take in and those we burn off
  • That a varied diet is more enjoyable to eat and provides the basic, balanced nutrients our bodies need to be healthy and well
  • That all foods can have their place
    
    
• Understanding the urgency of the situation, the Grain Foods Foundation is taking a step that heretofore no other organization has tackled – to examine the library of current clinical research to understand and catalog the myriad ways that a balanced diet, rich in grain-based foods, benefits the human body
  
  
• Analyzing more than 700 clinical articles – the first and most comprehensive database of its kind - a team of nutrition and healthcare experts, representing a wide range of fields, have determined that the clinical literature reveals the following key facts about grains and grain based foods:
  
  
  • Grain products are healthy – providing good sources of vitamins, minerals, fiber and other healthy components and may reduce the risk of early mortality and chronic diseases
  • Obesity is related to factors other than carbohydrate intake, and that diet extremes that rely on restriction of any food group are not sustainable in the long-term and could be harmful
  • Carbohydrates are needed to support a physically active lifestyle necessary for optimal health
  • Grain-based foods and carbohydrates actually improve emotional and mental performance
  • Folate fortification of enriched grain products reduce the risk of some birth defects and may reduce cardiovascular, cancer and other disease risks
  • The research revealed vast fragmentation among and between medical specialties: while nutrition and sports medicine journals publish frequently on the topic of grain-based foods and carbohydrates, other front line healthcare specialists, including cardiologists, obstetricians and gynecologists, pharmacists and pediatricians get little information in this area from their journals
    
    
• In addition, these clinicians and researchers are calling on colleagues to temper the current nutritional debate with a healthy dose of common sense, to avoid confusing and confounding the American public and to reinforce basic, time tested and proven nutritional basics.