Event Details

Details

Grains – Healthful or Harmful?

Homemade bread, fresh out of the oven. Do you remember the smell? Can you feel the knife cutting through the brown crust to reveal a soft, warm center that will soak up delicious butter?
    

Across the world, grains are harvested, transported, processed and made into delicious breads and cereals. Grains, some grown for thousands of years, have become treasured family recipes—passed down from generation to generation.

But now, the health value of grain foods is in question. The over-consumption of breads, rolls, crackers, snack bars, breakfast cereals, and cookies is blamed for contributing to overweight and a variety of digestive and chronic diseases. These headlines often leave consumers confused about which grains are best to eat.

The good news - experts are finding that eating half of your grains as whole grains proves to benefit health. In fact, persons regularly including whole grains such as bulgur, oats, and whole grain breads and pastas have a lower risk of heart disease and stroke.  
    
May’s Fresh Conversations program will feature the difference between refined and whole grains.  We’ll discuss how simple steps for adding them to recipes and tips for transitioning from their less fibrous, refined counterparts.
    
Because tasting promotes trying, participants will sample bulgur pilaf made with seasonal fresh vegetables during May’s program.  Nutrition experts recommend we eat more whole grains and incorporating foods like bulgur is one way to do this. Cooking tips for preparing perfect grains, as well as shopping advice will be part of the food sampling.
    
May’s typically warmer weather and sunshine has many people back outdoors. Each site this month will choose an activity to help you get ready for spring – whether it’s a walk in the woods or your backyard garden that awaits.  
    
Join a Fresh Conversations program for fun, fellowship and food. Sites offering the program in May include Arlington, Bellevue, Cedar Falls, Cresco, Dyersville, Decorah, Eldora, Epworth, Grinnell, Iowa Falls, Independence, Greene, Guttenberg, Grundy Center, Lansing, Manchester, Marshalltown, Oelwein, Waterloo, Walnut Court – Waterloo, West Union, and Waukon.  Maquoketa members can expect their program to return early summer. New members and sites are welcome anytime. Bring a guest and check your local meal site for the date and time. If your meal site is interested in bringing Fresh Conversations to your location, contact coordinator Anne Blocker at anneblockerrd@gmail.com.