When Chips a’Hoy boasts whole grains you know something is up. Even the federal government thinks so. This week the FDA issued an official definition of whole grain foods to help consumers weed out the imposters from those that are legitimate [note: Chips’ whole grain version is the real deal with thirteen grams of whole grains per serving].

The whole grains craze stems from the FDA’s recommendation that Americans eat at least three one-ounce servings of the grains daily as they have been proven to reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer. But what are whole grains? Cracked wheat, stone-ground wheat, and wheat flour are what they’re not.

“Many of these foods have a mixture of whole and refined grains. You may be eating three times as much of the refined grains as the whole grains,” Bonnie Liebman, nutrition director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, told the Washington Post.

According to the FDA, whole grain foods must contain all three components of the seed or kernel — bran, endosperm, and germ. That’s not all. To bear the “whole grain” label foods must feature the three parts of the kernel in the same proportion that they exist in naturally.

For more on this recently regulated health food check out Kat’s take on whole grain cereals.

[via Washington Post]

Image: Tony Cenicola/The New York Times