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NutrInsight • Whole grain and health: new evidence
1 WHAT IS WHOLE GRAIN AND
HOW MUCH SHOULD WE BE EATING?
Dr Jan Willem van der Kamp (Senior Officer International Projects, TNO Innovation for Life, NL) presented definitions, recommendations and intakes of whole grains in Europe and provided some interesting results from the consumer research module of HEALTHGRAIN.
1.1 What is whole grain? How is it defined?
Structure of the grain and specific compounds
Cereal grain kernels consist of three main parts (Figure 1): the germ which contains the vital embryo (3% of total weight of the grain), the endosperm containing the nutritive reserves for the embryo (83%) and the bran outer layers which provide protection (14%).
Figure 1: Wheat grain anatomy and location of some specific compounds
Source: © INRA, Anne Surget, adapted from Surget and Barron, 2005
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