Carbohydrates in Grains
Pastas, Cereals, Breakfast Foods

Written by Sky Taylor, Diet Bites

Start Your Morning Off With Healthy Whole Grains & End Your Day With the Same for Fighting Weight Gain

With our busy world at-times, seeing us catch our own self at the corner on many a day - it's more important than ever to hop out of bed....okay, make that 'crawl' out of bed and hit the deck running.....or scooting, whatever may be the case.

Fact is, if you're a crawler or scooter - if you start your day with a healthy breakfast mined with whole grain goodness, then you're highly apt to revert into the hopper and runner that you were originally intended to be. That's not another dieting myth, mind you - it's the cold, hard facts based on numerous health studies.

Grains are Packed With Energy-Boosting Carbohydrates

We perform better when we start our day with food and if one thinks about it, when we're feeling blah or hungry, it's challenging to concentrate on the tasks, jobs and responsibilities at hand, isn't it?

The following comment isn't going to sit well with many health nuts, but fact is - even if you grab a slice of pizza in the morning and zap it in the microwave - you'll be adding about 200 to 350 kcals to your daily caloric totals - but almost any food is better than no food in the tummy when it comes to starting your new day.

You'll feel eons more energized if that food is a healthy bowl of whole grains, a side of fresh fruit and reduced fat milk than you would with the full-blown pizza, or a cheese Danish or a cookie or two. You can determine such by conducting your own personal experiment on the matter.

Macaroni Came to Town, Without a Feather in his Hat, Even

Let's move on to other grains - such as bread and pasta. The first has been touted through the history of mankind as the staff of life - and rightfully so as the human body requires more grains than servings from all the other food groups for optimum health.

As to macaroni - most dieters wipe it off the slate where their daily meal planning is involved, and if they are not a pasta lover, then they don't feel much pain in doing such.

On the other hand, if you do enjoy pasta - there's no need to do such. It's a grain and counts towards your daily nutritional needs. All pasta, no matter if it's of the bowtie, spiral, shell or lasagna variety contains about 200 calories per cooked cup.

Add healthy vegetables to your meal - or to the pasta along with a lean protein and a side of the dairy and fruit group and you'll be enjoying a well rounded meal that you can feel good about eating. You can soup-up your plate by adding low calorie sauces or dressings.

Carbs in Grains, Pasta, Cereal

Let's start with foods that are highest in carb grams.

Spaghetti [whole wheat and regular], macaroni, egg noodles, spinach noodles, fresh pasta and Chinese cellophane dehydrated noodles all contain about 40 grams per one cup serving size.

White rice and rye contain 30 grams.

Barley: 1/2 cup serving contains 22 g. Other food choices which hold about the same amount of grams per serving size include: Wheat Bulgur, Buckwheat Groats, couscous, millet, quinoa, wild rice, Cream of Rice, Cream of Wheat, farina, oatmeal, ralston, Wheatena and brown rice.

Cornmeal - both yellow and white contain about 23 carb grams.

The following foods contain 11 to 16 grams: grits, hominy, wheat germ.

Corn and oat bran contains 8 grams per 2 Tablespoons, raw while rice bran and wheat bran contain about 5 grams for the same amount.