Q: How can I get more whole grains into my diet?

Answer: With all the dietary advice swirling around, the prescription to eat more whole grains and fewer refined ones seems as beyond dispute as dietary advice can be.

What is a whole grain? Right off the stalk, kernels of cereal grains (e.g. wheat, rice, barley, oats, millet, etc.) are covered in husks that must be removed. Stripped of its husk, the kernel is now a "whole grain" consisting of three parts: The outer layer, the bran, contains most of the fiber; the inner core, the germ, contains fat, some protein and many nutrients. The bulk of the grain, the endosperm, contains protein and most of the carbohydrates.

A "refined grain" is one whose bran and germ have been removed in the milling process, leaving behind the carbohydrates, but almost none of the fiber and few nutrients.

In wheat, for example, what is milled out to make refined, i.e. white, flour contains practically all of the grain's dietary fiber as well as 86 percent of its niacin, 43 percent of its riboflavin, and 66 percent of all minerals.

To eat more whole grains, you first have to learn how to identify them. This is not always easy, since the FDA has not established a binding standard of identity for foods labeled "whole grain." It does, however, "recommend" that "for a product to label itself whole grain its first ingredient must be a whole grain" and that "products labeled with 100 percent whole grain not contain grain ingredients other than those the agency considers to be whole grains."

On a recent stroll through the bread and cereal aisles at a supermarket, I found most manufacturers following those recommendations. But I also saw a lot of questionable foods whose packages were emblazoned with the words "wheat" "fiber," "grain," and "multigrain," as well as evocative renderings of wheat sheaves.

Remember, if the word "wheat" is not immediately preceded by the word "whole," it's not whole wheat.