Posted on April, 19, 2024 at 09:33 am
While industry-backed research can be criticized by the public, the Grain Foods Foundation sees it as one of the baking industry’s best tools against misinformation about the health and nutrition of grain-based foods. At the 2024 American Bakers Association (ABA) Convention, held in Scottsdale, Ariz., April 13-17, a panel of members of the GFF Scientific Advisory Board as well as a partner from Nutrition in Demand spoke with GFF co-chairs Angie Goldberg, Ardent Mills, and Lorraine Hale, Bimbo Bakeries USA, on how scientific research has demonstrated the benefits of grain-based foods and how that has been used to influence policymakers and nutrition messaging. “Now is the time to double down on research and thought leadership,” said Michelle Kijek, partner, Nutrition in Demand.
Glenn Gaesser, PhD, member of the GFF Scientific Advisory Board, explained how his review article on carbohydrates and body weight that was published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association in 2007 had a direct impact on policy years later.
“When they were working on the US Dietary Guidelines for 2010, they were considering the incorporation of glycemic index and they chose not to, and one reason was the paper I published a few years earlier that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to make any recommendations around glycemic index,” Gaesser explained.
Gaesser has continued to review and analyze the ongoing recommendations to reduce the consumption of refined grains, showing that refined grains actually have no impact on negative health outcomes that they are often associated with. Gaesser has published several articles with GFF on this subject.
“Not only did we find that refined grains don’t bear any relationship to increased risk of chronic diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease, but it was the first ever analysis that separated out refined grain staple foods like breads, cereals and pasta with indulgent grain foods like cakes, cookies and donuts,” he said. “That research showed that even when you include indulgent foods in this category it bore no relationship for the increased risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.”
And while some may criticize industry-backed research, Gaesser was quick to point out that the meta analyses he and his colleagues work on are analyzing and compiling previous research that was not backed by industry.
“We have to lead with the evidence to illuminate the health benefits of grain-based foods,” Kijek said.
While things look promising in the science for grain-based foods, there are still the impacts of weight loss drugs and the growing noise around the definition of health impact of ultra-processed foods. While US government agencies weigh how to define ultra-processed, Gaesser and his colleague on the Scientific Advisory Board, Siddhartha Angadi, PhD, stressed higher quality evidence is needed on these topics: the impact of weight loss drugs on morbidity and mortality in obese individuals without other comorbidities and whether or not Americans should avoid ultra-processed foods for health reasons.
“Thinking something and looking at evidence are two very different things, and the evidence isn’t resolved on these issues,” Gaesser said.
Source: Baking Business