9781422287897

My Daily Diet: Grains

On My Plate

Building a Healthy Diet with the 5 Food Groups My Daily Diet: Dairy My Daily Diet: Fruits My Daily Diet: Grains My Daily Diet: Proteins My Daily Diet: Vegetables

On My Plate

My Daily Diet: Grains

Rosa Waters

Mason Crest

Mason Crest 450 Parkway Drive, Suite D

Broomall, PA 19008 www.masoncrest.com

Copyright © 2015 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

First printing 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Series ISBN: 978-1-4222-3094-7 ISBN: 978-1-4222-3098-5 ebook ISBN: 978-1-4222-8789-7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Waters, Rosa, 1957- author. My daily diet : grains / Rosa Waters. pages cm. — (On my plate) Audience: Age 9+ Audience: Grade 4 to 6. Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4222-3098-5 (hardback) — ISBN 978-1-4222-3094-7 (series) — ISBN 978-1- 4222-8789-7 (ebook) 1. Grain in human nutrition—Juvenile literature. 2. Grain—Juvenile literature. I. Title. QP144.G73W38 2015 613.2—dc23 2014010566

Contents

Introduction

6 9

1. Where Do Grains Come From?

2. Why Do I Need to Eat Grains Every Day? 3. So Why Can’t I Just Eat Grains Every Day? 4. Putting Grains on My Plate Every Day

17 23 27 35 41 44 45

5. Fast Foods, Snacks, and Grains

6. The Big Picture Find Out More

Series Glossary of Key Terms

Index 46 About the Author & Consultant and Picture Credits 48

Introduction

M ost of us would agree that building healthy bodies and minds is a critical compo- nent of future success in school, work, and life. Providing our bodies with ade- quate and healthy nutrition in childhood sets the stage for both optimal learning and healthy habits in adulthood. Research suggests that the epidemic of overweight and obesity in young children leads to a large medical and financial burden, both for individu- als and society. Children who are overweight and obese are more likely to become over- weight or obese adults, and they are also at increased risk for a range of diseases. Developing healthy eating and fitness habits in childhood is one of the most important gifts we can all provide to children in our homes and workplaces—but as any parent can attest, this is not always an easy task! Children are surrounded with both healthy and unhealthy eating options in their homes, schools, and in every restaurant or store they visit. Glossy marketing of food and meals is ubiquitous in media of all types, impacting both children’s and adults’ eating choices. As a result of the multiple inf luences on eating choices, from infancy through adulthood, we all benefit from additional support in making healthy choices. Just as eating and fitness can become habits in adulthood, personal decision-making in childhood is critical to developing healthy habits. Providing healthy options and examples are a starting point, which can support children’s healthy habits, but children also benefit from understanding the rationale for eating reasonable portions of healthy foods. Parents, teachers, and others often communicate messages through their words and actions—but books can provide more detailed information and pictures. Building on this need for developing informed consumers, the O n M y P late series pro- vides elementary school children with an informative yet fun introduction to their eating options. Beginning with an introduction to the five food groups, children can learn about what they ideally will have on their own plate and in their mouths. Tips are provided for

7

Introduction

choosing healthy snacks. And children will understand the importance of eating a range of foods. These books empower our children to make healthy decisions for themselves. An additional benefit of this series may be the trickle-up effect for parents. Even if we all know the importance of making healthy choices for meals and snacks, there’s nothing like a child reminding us why this is important. When our children start citing the long-term consequences of our dietary choices, we tend to listen! Here’s to developing healthy eating habits today!

Lisa Albers Prock, MD, MPH Developmental Behavioral Pediatrician, Boston Children’s Hospital Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School

WORDS TO UNDERSTAND cultivated: Raised or grew plants, especially on a large scale. pesticides: Poisonous chemicals sprayed on plants to kill insects that feed on them. silo: A tower or pit where grain can be stored.

traditional: Having to do with the way things have been done for a long time. transported: Moved or carried across a distance.

Chapter 1

Where Do Grains Come From?

T he next time you eat some cereal, a piece of bread, or some popcorn, take a minute to think about what exactly you’re eating. Before you pop it in your mouth, really look at that food. All three of those foods are made of grains. They’ve come a long way from where they were first grown to your table. Exploring where they came from, why we eat them, and how they help your body will help you make healthier food decisions. WHAT IS A GRAIN ANYWAY? The foods we call grains are all seeds. If you plant a grain, it might grow into a new plant. By definition, a grain is a seed. Most of those grain seeds come from one family of plants—the grass family. The grains we eat don’t come from the grass growing in parks and on lawns, though. But the plants they come from are related to that kind of grass.

MY DAILY DIET: GRAINS 10

Grains like wheat are actually closely related to other kinds of grass—like the grass you see outside in the park or on your lawn!

11 Where Do Grains Come From?

The grains we eat come from grass plants that people have cultivated over time. Some- one (or many someones) thousands of years ago realized that humans could eat certain seeds that came from grass plants. They also figured out they could grow those plants themselves rather than hope to find them growing in the wild. Over time, ancient farmers chose the best seeds to plant for the next season. They chose the ones that were the biggest and tastiest. The process of choosing the best seeds to plant is called domestication. Over many years, farmers were growing the grain plants we know today. When people first started eating grains, the seeds were tiny, and the plants looked a lot different from the ones we know today. But over those many years, the plants started getting bigger. They started producing bigger seeds that were easier to harvest. They did this because when farmers planted their crops for the next year, they usually chose the seeds from the plants that had had the biggest grains in the last harvest. People all over the world eat lots of different grains. In fact, grains are the main food in a lot of traditional diets. In Asia, for example, people often ate rice as their main food. In Europe, wheat was the main grain. In South and Central America, corn was the major grain. Today, with everyone traveling all over the globe, food has moved beyond where people traditionally ate it. People in Latin America eat rice. People in Asia eat corn. People in Africa eat wheat. Grains that come from grass plants include: MAKE CONNECTIONS You may recognize some of these grains, like corn and lima beans, as vegetables. Others, like soybeans and chickpeas, are also part of the protein food group (see chapter 3 for a discussion of food groups). How can they also be grains? We tend to consider these foods grains when they are dried. Take corn, for example. Corn fits the definition of a grain, because it is a seed from a plant in the grass family. However, people can eat fresh corn as a vegetable. If a farmer leaves corn on the stalk without picking it fresh, the corn kernels dry out. Each kernel is actually a seed. When the seed is dried, we can use it like a grain to pop or grind it into corn flour.

• wheat • barley • rice • corn • oats • millet • rye • teff • triticale

MY DAILY DIET: GRAINS 12

Today, farmers can use machinery like this to do all steps of the farming process very quickly and easily. One farmer can grow many acres of wheat.

13 Where Do Grains Come From?

Not all grains we eat come from the grass family, though. A few come from plants that aren’t related to grasses. But they are seeds, and their nutrition is similar to the other grains, so people generally call them grains, too. They are:

• amaranth • quinoa • buckwheat

Sometimes people refer to another set of grains. They are also not related to the grass family. Instead, they are members of the pea family. They are called legumes (or pulses). These grains are seeds too. Legume grains include:

• chickpeas • soybeans • lentils • lima beans

FARMS Most grains come from farms. They all grow in the ground, with the help of water, sun- light, and soil. Farmers and farmworkers grow the grain and then harvest it when it’s ready. Grain farms tend to take up a lot of room, because it takes a lot of plants to grow enough grain to be worth the farmer’s efforts. Every grain is tiny. Think of how small a grain of rice is. A rice plant can have about 3,000 grains of rice on one stalk. This may sound like a lot, but a 1-pound bag of rice has about 30,000 grains of rice in it! That means that 10 plants equals one bag of rice. Imagine how much space would be needed to grow enough rice to fill thousands and thousands of bags. You’d need 10,000 plants just to grow rice for 1000 bags. People eat a lot more rice than that all over the world every year. Though there are some smaller grain farms today (for example, many farmers in Asia have small rice farms), most farms are huge. They grow hundreds or thousands of acres of grains. One acre is a little smaller than a football field. Imagine thousands of football fields, and you’ll get a good idea of the size of a big grain farm. Grains are grown all over the world. Some grains grow best in certain parts of the world. For example, rice grows best in Asian countries like China, India, and Indonesia. That’s where most of the rice you buy in grocery stores comes from. But it can also grow in other parts of the world, like Brazil and even parts of the United States! The other two most popular grains are grown around the world. Wheat was first grown in what we now call the Middle East. People in that area, along with Europe and northern Africa, traditionally ate a lot of wheat. Today, people all over the world eat wheat,

MY DAILY DIET: GRAINS 14

because it can grow many places and can be easily transported to places it can’t grow. China, India, and the United States grow the most wheat and send it around the globe. France, Russia, Australia, Canada, and Pakistan also grow wheat. Corn was originally domesticated in Mexico. Farmers in Mexico still grow a lot of corn. The United States grows the most corn in the world, followed by China and Brazil. You can see that a few countries with a lot of land, like China and the United States, grow a lot of grain. No matter the grain, farmers go through the same process to grow it. First, they plant the seeds. In fact, the seeds are exactly the same thing that people eat as grains. Farmers just save some of the grains to plant instead of eat. Then farmers have to take care of the grain plants as they grow. Some farmers spray pesticides on them to protect them from insects. They also might spray fertilizer on them to keep them growing and strong. If there isn’t enough rain, farmers water the grain using huge machines. After the grain plants have grown for a while, they start producing the grain seeds. Farmers have to wait to make sure the seeds are dried out before they harvest them. Finally, after months of growing, the grains are ready for harvesting. On most big farms, farmers use huge tractors to harvest thousands of plants at a time. The machines separate the grain seed from the rest of the plant so that the farmer doesn’t have to do it by hand. On smaller farms, farmers harvest the grain by hand. They might use a sharp knife called a scythe to cut down the plants. Then they separate all the grains from the plants by hand. Some smaller farmers may use smaller machines to help them. Very large farms often have grain storage right on site to keep the grains until they’re ready to sell them and ship them away. The grain is stored in a silo . Farmers also dry out the grains so that they don’t get moldy and spoil. FACTORIES Most grains don’t go straight from the farm to the grocery store. A lot of them end up in factories first. RESEARCH PROJECT This chapter discusses the domestication of grain plants. Do some research about other living things that people have domesticated over the past few thousand years. Use the Internet or a library to find out more about domesticated plants and animals. Identify one plant and one animal that have been domesticated, and write a paragraph for each about how, where, and when humans domesticated them. Then write another paragraph explaining how domestication of these living things helped humans in the past and how they con- tinue to benefit us today.