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Oldways is a nonprofit food and nutrition education organization, inspiring good health
through cultural food traditions and lifestyles.
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Dear Oldways Whole Grains Council members,
Your company's dedication to whole grains shows you're interested in attracting health-conscious customers. As part of your health focus, have you been using the word "natural" to attract customers in the U.S.? Then you may want to be aware that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is now accepting comments on use of the term "natural." Submit your comments by February 10, 2016 at regulations.gov, under the docket FDA-2014-N-1207.
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| Sample at Supermarkets & More on March 30 | |
We're ramping up now for Whole Grain Sampling Day 2016, which will take place on March 30. As always, this annual celebration provides plenty of opportunities for WGC members to get added visibility for their products. After you check out the basics of how Whole Grain Sampling Day (WGSD) works, here are two options to get you started:
*** We'll Help You Reach Supermarket RDs ***
Two sister programs of the WGC (the Oldways Nutrition Exchange and the Supermarket Dietitian Symposium are in regular contact with the vast majority of supermarket dietitians in the U.S. If your company would like to offer samples to supermarkets for their WGSD promotions, contact Harley Songin ( [email protected] or 617-896-4832) to learn more about our supermarket matchmaking service. While this matchmaking service can be very successful, we encourage you to have realistic expectations, as stores have widely different policies for sampling, and generally will only sample products already in inventory. That said, the benefits can be great, so it's worth a try. If you're interested in participating, the deadline to apply is Dec. 31, 2015.
*** We'll Help You Plan Your Own WGSD Events ***
 Now is the perfect time to start planning your own headline-grabbing social media contest, guerrilla marketing campaign, or whole grain product launch event for next spring. Because WGSD takes place within National Nutrition Month, it's the perfect time to shine a spotlight on your better-for-you whole grain products. Just about any promotional activity can be part of Whole Grain Sampling Day, as long as it helps more people try more whole grains. Download some ideas here, then contact Kelly Toups ( [email protected] or 617-896-4884) to brainstorm what your company can do.
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| Study: Whole Grains May Help Fight Childhood Obesity | |  Want another reason to tout the benefits of your whole grain products? British researchers studied three-day food records of more than 4,600 kids in the UK at ages 7, 10, and 13, and analyzed which foods were most associated with excess weight gain. Most of their conclusions came as no big surprise: some of the foods most likely to be linked to weight gain were butter or margarine; breaded or battered poultry; potatoes cooked in oil (French fries, roasted potatoes, potato chips); breaded or battered fish; processed meats; other meats; desserts and sweets; milk; and sugar-sweetened beverages.
The only foods consistently linked with weight loss were whole grains and high-fiber cereals, suggesting that whole grains may be particularly important for youngsters struggling with their weight. Read More...
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| Harley's Tip: Update all Products for Total Grain Now |
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Harley Songin, who heads up our Whole Grain Stamp program, offers a monthly tip to smooth the process of product approvals.  November Tip: Over the course of the last few months, you should have received an email from us with "Product Check" in the subject, detailing all of the products your company has had approved for Stamp use. This email asked you to fill in a new field for each previously approved product, the Total Grains field, which has become a required field for all new (and old!) products. We're asking everyone to please complete their product updates as soon as possible. If you have any questions about this, or need the "Product Check" email resent, please email [email protected].
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| Whole Grains Supported in Common Ground Consensus | | 
Last week Oldways convened many of the world's top nutrition experts -- a diverse group advocating for everything from Paleo to vegan diets -- in one place, asking them to come to consensus on the most important tenets of healthy eating. We were gratified that whole grains were recommended over and over by the scientists. Even Boyd Eaton, the father of the Paleo diet, said that "modest whole grain intake" is part of the Paleo approach, and that grain consumption way back then was limited largely because processing them into edible form with existing technology was too labor intensive for routine use. Others in our Dream Team of speakers, such as Dean Ornish, Colin Campbell, Neal Barnard, David Katz, Walter Willett, and many others made it clear that whole grains belong in everyone's diet in this millennium!
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Best regards,
Cynthia Harriman
Director of Food and Nutrition Strategies
[email protected]
Kelly Toups, MLA, RD, LDN
Program Manager
[email protected]
Harley Songin
Stamp Program Manager
[email protected]
... and from all of the Oldways and Whole Grains Council staff
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