Don't Judge a Grain By Its Color

You've surely heard that whole grains are much healthier for you than refined grains, but how can you tell which is which? Many people assume that the darker the bread the more whole grains it contains, but that isn't always true. Sometimes food coloring is added to highly refined products to make them look darker, and other times products that look white are actually made with whole grains. Case in point: There's actually something called "whole white wheat." It's made from an albino variety of wheat so it's white in color, but it has the same healthy nutritional profile as traditional whole wheat, according to the Whole Grains Council.

There's also a new rice that looks white but is really whole grain: Uncle Ben's Whole Grain White Rice. The company starts with 100 percent whole grain brown rice, mills it (refines it), then adds the rice bran and germ (which are removed during the refining process) back in.

So the good news is that you can still have "white" grains and get the benefits of whole grains… but the catch is you can't trust your eye to judge. When buying packaged foods—like cereals, breads, and rice—the easiest thing to do is to look for the Whole Grain Stamp, which guarantees that the food contains at least 8g of whole grains per serving. (Some versions of the stamp have a "100% banner" across the middle, which is even better because it means it has at least 16g per serving.)

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How do you make sure you get enough whole grains each day?

—Barbara Brody, Health Editor

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