Great grains

In the 2008 animated movie “Bolt,” the main character is an eponymously named dog, who’s a Hollywood star. When Bolt comes across two pigeons who admire his work, Blake and Tom (and their assistant, Billy, who is embarrassingly fanatic), Blake sends Billy on an errand, saying, “Why don’t you make yourself useful and go get me some breadcrumbs? Whole grain! Go!”

A pigeon with nutritional know-how? That may be more of a stretch than a movie-star dog (although there was Rin Tin Tin). But he got it right: Going with the grain can help your health take wings.

We’ve known that whole grains boost heart health, and now a tightly controlled study shows that they can help fortify good gut bacteria, strengthen your immune system, reduce inflammation and help you burn more calories.

In the study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, each participant ate the same meals, except one group’s food was made with refined grains while the other’s food used whole grains. After two weeks, people on the wholegrain diet had more diverse gut bacteria; T cells with stronger memories, increasing protection against infection; and were burning more calories while at rest. The grain’s dietary fibre made other calories more digestible.

Do your own experiment, and try these whole grains: amaranth, barley, buckwheat, bulgur wheat, corn, farro, Kamut (a branded form of ancient wheat), millet, oats, brown rice, rye, sorghum, teff, triticale (hybrid of durum wheat and rye) and, of course, whole wheat. You’ll likely feel the difference, and we predict you’ll become a grain fanatic.