How Whole Is Whole Grain?

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Of course, how many of those products are made wholly from whole grain is anybody's guess.

"The food industry is notorious for making nutrition claims even when reality is far removed from the appearance, and whole grains is a classic example," says Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale University. "Sara Lee, General Mills (GIS), and others will make small changes in the food and make them appear to be big."

In 2004, General Mills, maker of such popular cereals as Cheerios, Cocoa Puffs, and Lucky Charms, said it was converting its entire cereal lineup to whole grain—a claim it now makes in its ads. But few if any of the cereals are 100% made of whole grain. In some cases, the cereals consist mostly of refined flour. "After that, Cocoa Puffs went from zero grams of fiber per serving to 1g of fiber—that's how small the change was," says NYU's Nestle.

General Mills spokeswoman Heidi Geller says all the company's cereals contain at least 8g of whole grain in each serving, with its flagship Cheerios containing 23g of whole grain. Cocoa Puffs contain 10g, and Honey Nut Cheerios, 14g. However, Geller couldn't provide the percentage of whole wheat vs. processed wheat in General Mills' cereals. The USDA recommends the consumption of 48g of whole grain per day.

Massaging the Marketing

So why don't food companies just make their products with whole grains? For one thing, white flour is easier to bake and has a longer shelf life since it doesn't spoil quickly, says Nestle. Then there are the obvious differences in consumer preferences: Processed flour is lighter and softer than whole wheat. "If consumers want it, only the 100% whole grain counts as the real thing," says Nestle.

The government, for its part, is very aware of how misleading some marketing claims can be. In a statement drafted in 2006, the Food & Drug Administration recognized that consumers could be confused by unqualified "whole grain" claims for products that contain a mixture of whole grain and refined grain.

The FDA stated that manufacturers could make factual statements about the amount of whole grain in a product, including claims such as "10g of whole grains," or percentage claims such as "100% whole grain," as long as they were true.

Manufacturers have gotten around that by stating that their products are "made with whole grain," without saying exactly how much. "It's obviously not untruthful to say that a product is made with whole grain," says William Hallman, associate professor and director of the Food Policy Institute at Rutgers University in New Jersey. "But the question is whether it's substantial enough to make a difference."

Gogoi is a contributing writer for BusinessWeek.com.