Good nutritious question. That's true, eye catching and refined grains attract us. But I occasionally prefer them to have as part of my routine diet.

Dear Ratan

No, I do not go for refined grain at all. I do not sieve the flour while  chapatis made. I rarely eat rice. If I  do, I prefer course rice or brown rice. I eat all healthy food, so I always try to ensure  that i do not eat polished grain at all.

@Debi, Some times it is better to have a different taste.

I believe that since mankind has been processing food, it has not improved food at all. In the last few decades we humans have been making a big mess of what Mother Nature had so nicely organized

My preference is for whole grains.

Dear Ratan,

as a gastroenterologist I clearly recommend food with more whole grains (unless there are medical reasons not to take them) because their intake augments the  healthy effects of fibres. There are plenty of papers about positive effects, eg. the paper of James W. Anderson et al. in Nutrition Reviews 2009, Vol. 67, Issue 4, p 188-205:

"Dietary fiber intake provides many health benefits. However, average fiber intakes for US children and adults are less than half of the recommended levels. Individuals with high intakes of dietary fiber appear to be at significantly lower risk for developing coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and certain gastrointestinal diseases. Increasing fiber intake lowers blood pressure and serum cholesterol levels. Increased intake of soluble fiber improves glycemia and insulin sensitivity in non-diabetic and diabetic individuals. Fiber supplementation in obese individuals significantly enhances weight loss. Increased fiber intake benefits a number of gastrointestinal disorders including the following: gastroesophageal reflux disease, duodenal ulcer, diverticulitis, constipation, and hemorrhoids. Prebiotic fibers appear to enhance immune function. Dietary fiber intake provides similar benefits for children as for adults. The recommended dietary fiber intakes for children and adults are 14 g/1000 kcal. More effective communication and consumer education is required to enhance fiber consumption from foods or supplements."

The situtation in Europe is similar to the US. By the way, if you take non refined grain, drink enough to stimulate the bowel to move.  At the beginning you will get some air in your bowel, frequency and weight of stool will rise but intraluminal pressure will decline and stool defecation will be eased. In Europe we have a usual 200 to 300 g stool weight per day, those who eat many fibres may have up to 1,5 kg per day. Because of the low stool weight the pressure to release the stool must be higher, producing more hemorrhoid diseases. So if the intraluminal pressure reduces, diverticulitis, constipation etc. will benefit.

The polished grains definitely have a lees nutritional value to comapre with unpolishing one. One of the point is an antioxidant prperties of the pigments of the seeds coat, In addition, majority of the importnat nutriins (micro nutrrients, pigments etc) accumulated in the area close to coat and in many case have been removed during seeds polishing.

So, in any case, whole garins (unpolishing) is much better to compare with the polishing one.

Whole grains are definitely more nutritious than polished grains, needless to say. Less processing also consumes less energy and costs less. The issue is appearance versus substance we often face in various aspects of life.

I prefer whole gain rice but find that they are not readily available. So I always have whole meal bread as an offset.

Whole grains are definitely healthier, and add the necessary fiber to the diet. They help feel fuller with lesser and enable a stable breakdown of energy. The sad fact is that in our modern diets, our tastes have become so acclimatized and conditioned by the taste of refined foods that they engender cravings for the salt-sugar-fat trio, making natural foods appear less appealing. This is especially true of young people. Research has shown that consumption of fast food leads to chemical releases in the brain that tricks us into eating more than we should. Once our tastes adjust to this pattern, natural foods seem like a lot of work (chewing) for less pay (taste.) Brain-training and self-control are important as is parental guidance/ role modeling. It does not always have to be a strictly spartan diet, but could be a matter of exerting subtle choices, like opting for a multigrain rye muffin over the traditional blueberry muffin, or low fat dark chocolate over frosted desserts.

'Refined pulses are worn out with the necessary fibres which are hitherto a health cover both to the pulse as well to those who consume it"...

There is a lot of awareness creation through advertisements, from the date the large conglomerstes have stepped in Agriculture - such as ITC, Tatas and so....

Dear @ Asmat, Devi, Esther, Wolfgang, Taras, Huagiang, Kamal, Monica, Adel and Krishna, thanks for the valuable inputes and i agree with your statements.

In summery, you all have supported the use of whole grains instead of refined grains.

@ Devi and Adel, Thanks for sharing personal experience.

@ Wolfgang, Thanks for providing physiological effect of refined grains.

@ Krishnan, Thanks for adding marketing stretegies

I think that refined grains are not nutritious enough when compared with whole grains. Nowadays, most people eat the wheat bran.

Dear all, 

referring to the question of Ratan Khuman with the title „Do you prefer going with refined grains as a part of routine diet”? I realise that nearly all comments  point to the importance and advantage of whole grains because of the fibre content in ingested food. On the other hand I observe that  refined grains are much more often found in the storage racks of shops . I am very well aware of the fact that the responders to the aforementioned question belong to  a special sample of our world population. But I wonder why selling of refined  grains in supplying the population with food has such a powerful position  in sales though the disadvantages in terms of healthy food are widely known.

Is it because of an easier preparation of meals if refined grains are used?  Is the white colour  of refined  food more attractive than the usually more dark colour of whole grains containing food?  Is the velocity  of food ingestion higher  so we do not need so much time when eating meals prepared with refined grains? Is the higher portion of fibre content in food an obstacle for its  consumption?  Is the low  consumption of more fibres a question of a detoriating  dental situation? Is it easier or more comfortable for elder people to eat food prepared with refinded grains?  What about the price of fibre and non fibre prepared  meals ? Is it a cultural phenomenon with the lack of natural environmental orientation  in the population and a tendency to think that being „modern“ means  to use refined grain in food as practiced by the former higher (aristocratic) society when lower class people were starving (as a status symbol)?  Is the reason a continuosly developing dissociation of soul and body with the body looked upon as an  instrumental  contraption which can be repaired easily  instead of an arduous,  constantly necessary and  permanent care devoted  to one`s own body?  What do you think is the reason?

Dear Ratan

I am happy; you asked this question. Sometimes, I wonder what will be the status of global health when McDonaldization shows its full impact. Today, USA has declared obesity as a national disease and concern. There are parents who do not bother what the children are eating; what habits get formed in them. All the fast food companies are using refined grains, sugar and other inputs that are not good for health.

dear Wolfgang, you have raised many very appropriate questions here. In my humble opinion people do NOT know what is happening. I remember that Nestle started using food additives, at the time (1967-ish). We (the people) did not question this at all. I did think it unneccessary, but who am I? For my, it took years to understand that the very people we thought were taking care of us (politicians, corporate bodies of food companies) had not been taking our best interests to heart. I was very naieve as so many are most probably still.

At some point decisionmakers started talking about consumers, not citizens anymore.... These decisionmakers are the ones that:

- tested nuclear material on its 'citizens' 

- are very happy to allow foodprocession and genetic manipulation to continue

- manipulate regulations (Europe, Africa) in favour of big companies, forcing people out of their homes or taking their livelyhood from them.

etc etc... 

yes ignorance of how bad processed food is and not having the money or possiblities to obtain good foods are the mayor problems I would say.

Thank you Kamal

Dear all,

it is my impression, that the content of fibres  in human food or its absence might be a challenge for our intellectual activities. It might be worthwile to compile our knowledge and our proposals for solutions to create healthy food and promote its  ingestion as a public health goal for the entire population. Researchgate could be a platform for a multiprofessional, multinational and multicultural  research community to produce a positioning paper with „world status“ . The contents could be:

1.       What is secured by analysis and by which evidence grade to have positive or negative effects resp. to refined or fibred human food? (medical, philosophical, sociological etc.)

2.       What is secured by analysis and by which evidence grade to have an effect on the sales and amount of consumption of refined or fibred food?  (economy, mico and macro, political …)

3.       Which are possible  obstacles to enhance the consumption of fibred food in different regions in the world? (geography etc.)

4.       Which are  promising interventions to augment the consumption of fibred food in different regions in the word? (different cultures, political systems, geography, agriculture etc.)

5.       What must be done to bring promising interventions into political action? (different  cultures, political systems,economies,  geography, agriculture  etc.)

I haven`t  yet done a literature review. My hypothesis is that a paper has not been published up to now by such a powerful multiprofessional research group coverting the whole world. It might be arranged using this medium. I feel happy appraising and may be initiating such a joint research project. In the first step I would like to discuss irrespective of the results whether you consent to my considerations and about yourestimationabout the feasibility of such a study which surely would require some ressources of time to be  allocated. All authors with substantial contributions would act as co-authors of course.

Refined grains are processed , losing important ingredients. Whole grains and flour from whole grains should be nutritionally preferred .

The health benefits of whole grains are explained by Harvard Scholl ofPublic Health

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/health-gains-from-whole-grains/

It is sad that much of the world is following our bad example of diet by eating fast-food which is totally devoid of whole grain.

Dear @ Jaya Mam, Ali and Joan, I agree with you and thanks for the input...

        Today most of the people are getting most of the food stuffs prepared from refined grains and worst thing is that they are not aware of the importance of whole grains and dietary fibre content therein. Even it is the truth of rural and slum areas. Whenever I go for nutritional surveys and plan need based nutrition education programs, I observed that there are only a few persons who are ready to listen. Most of the times, they think that if someone is trying to give us knowledge, there must be some personal interest. I have observed many families in rural and slum areas who do not use any millet as staple food. They prefer only  wheat and consider it as a status symbol. They prefer polished rice (costlier) to hand pounded rice which is within their reach (economical). 

             When talking about my own use of grains, I use Jwar, Bajra, Ragi equally with wheat. I prefer hand pounded rice unpolished red colored rice for my personal consumption.  

Dear Leena, I agree with you. The general public need awareness of this issues...

Thanks Ratan ! I have a recent study report regarding awareness of people. i will post it very soon.

1

Hand Pounding is a better and less destructive to the grain than the commercial milling.

During the very many processes which the grain goes through, such as

The grain loss is around 5-7%, this can be better saved (with more nutrition value - as already discussed) when consumed as a WHOLE GRAIN.

Dear @ Leena, kindly do upload the article, it would be useful to all of us...

Dear @ Krishna, thanks for the alternative option to achieve whole grains...

Considering health concern: whole grain bread, non-polished rice (brown rice)

Considering environmental concern: prefer vegetables and fish since they require less energy meaning much less greenhouse gas emissions compared to beef, poultry etc.