Department of Nutrition, Gillings Global School of Public Health, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Food Policy Division, The George Institute for Global Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
J Nutr. 2022 Feb 8;152(2):550-558. doi: 10.1093/jn/nxab382.
The health benefits related to intake of whole grain foods are well established. Consumption of whole grains in the US population is low, and whole grain content can vary greatly depending upon the specific products that are purchased.
To examine the proportion of products purchased by US households containing whole grain and refined grain ingredients using time-specific food composition data, and examine whether purchases differ between income, race or ethnicity, and household make-up.
Nationally representative Nielsen Homescan 2018 data were used. Each barcoded product captured in Nielsen Homescan 2018 was linked with ingredient information using commercial nutrition databases in a time-relevant manner. Packaged food products containing whole grain ingredients, refined grain ingredients, neither, or both were identified. The percentage of packaged food products containing whole grain and refined grain ingredients purchased by US households was determined overall, by demographic subgroup, and by food category.
The proportion of packaged food purchases containing refined grain ingredients was significantly higher than whole grain ingredients (30.9% compared with 7.9%; P < 0.0001). Lower income households and households with children purchased a significantly higher proportion of products containing refined grain ingredients, with no nutritionally meaningful racial or ethnic differences observed. Concerningly, across all demographic subgroups >90% of bread purchases contained refined grain ingredients, and the 5 categories with the largest proportion of whole grain ingredients contributed to <20% of overall US household packaged food purchases.
US households are purchasing a significantly higher proportion of packaged food products containing refined grain ingredients than whole grain ingredients. Future policy changes are needed to provide incentives and information (e.g., front-of-pack labels) to aid in encouraging manufacturers to increase whole grain product offerings while decreasing refined grain offerings, and to encourage consumers to substitute away from refined grain products toward whole grain products.
全谷物食品对健康的益处已得到充分证实。美国人口对全谷物的摄入量较低，而且具体购买的产品的全谷物含量差异很大。
使用特定时间的食物成分数据，检查美国家庭购买的含有全谷物和精制谷物成分的产品比例，并检查收入、种族或民族以及家庭构成是否会影响购买情况。
使用全国代表性的尼尔森家庭扫描 2018 年数据。尼尔森家庭扫描 2018 年捕获的每个条码产品都通过商业营养数据库以实时相关的方式与成分信息相关联。确定含有全谷物成分、精制谷物成分、两者都没有或两者都有的包装食品。总体上、按人口统计学亚组和食品类别确定美国家庭购买的含有全谷物和精制谷物成分的包装食品产品的百分比。
含有精制谷物成分的包装食品购买比例明显高于全谷物成分（30.9%比 7.9%；P<0.0001）。低收入家庭和有孩子的家庭购买的含精制谷物成分的产品比例明显更高，但没有观察到营养上有意义的种族或民族差异。令人担忧的是，在所有人口统计学亚组中，超过 90%的面包购买都含有精制谷物成分，而含有最大比例全谷物成分的 5 个类别仅占美国家庭包装食品购买总量的<20%。
美国家庭购买的含有精制谷物成分的包装食品产品比例明显高于全谷物成分。需要进行未来的政策改革，提供激励措施和信息（例如，包装正面标签），以帮助制造商增加全谷物产品的供应，同时减少精制谷物产品的供应，并鼓励消费者从精制谷物产品转向全谷物产品。
