by Amanda A Ashley

Created on: February 12, 2009

Whole grains have lots of healthy benefits, including lowering cholesterol, and blood sugar. But, how do you get your family to eat them?

There are several ways to add whole grain to the menu without too much effort being put into it. The easiest way is to substitute several food items that you are using now for more healthier choices that include whole grains. Foods with whole grains typically have less fat, and calories. So, it can also be used to help you lose a little weight.

One really great way to start is with breakfast. In case you didn't know, all General Mills cereals are made with whole grains. There are so many types of cereal to choose from, and they are really tasty, and they are also healthy too. You can feed your family cereal for breakfast, and they'll be eating whole grains without even knowing about it. You family will soon be seeing the health benefits working in the bodies. So, maybe you can't feed them cereal every day. You can buy whole grain bread, and toast it, add some cream cheese, and you've got yourself another healthy, yummy choice. Or use the bread for other things like grilled cheese, or French toast. You can also try whole grain muffins.

When serving up other home cooked meals like lunch or dinner, your options may be a little more difficult. You might want to buy some whole grain flours, or batter to add to the food when you are getting ready to cook it. You can use the whole grains whenever you are breading anything, you can also just use a small bit, and add regular flour to the mixture as well. You can also add a few whole grain to some of the ground meat choices that you are preparing, especially meat loaf. Another thing to try is to add a little wheat to your diet, by using wheat pasta's instead of regular. They are really good and you won't have to worry about trying to convince your family, because they will love it.

When you are cooking for your family, you want to know that they are eating healthy and that the food is good for them. So, when you want to try to add whole grains to your families diet, just talk to them. Let them know exactly what the health benefits are, and how it will effect them. Let them know what some of the effects can be from choosing an unhealthy diet as well. When they know all the facts, they might just want to start the diet all by themselves, without you having to say a thing!

Learn more about this author, Amanda A Ashley.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.