Reading food labels

It's not always easy to know what kind of grain is in a product. For example, bread may look like it's made from whole wheat because it's brown. But the color may be from molasses or some other ingredient.

Ingredient labels can help you choose whole-grain foods. Tips for reading labels include the following:

• Ingredients on a food label are listed from the greatest to least amount.
• The words "whole grain" should be at the beginning of the list of ingredients.
• If there's more than one whole grain, the grains should be near the start of the list.
• If you get all of your grains from whole grains, choose some whole-grain breads or breakfast cereals fortified with folic acid. Folic acid is a form of folate. Folate is very important during a pregnancy.
• If you buy foods with refined grains, look for the words "enriched" and "fortified."
• If you like white bread, try a whole-grain white bread. The flour is made from wheat that has a light-colored bran with a finer texture and milder flavor than regular whole-wheat flour.