CHICAGO — Erin Ball, executive director of the Grain Foods Foundation (GFF), introduced the organization’s most ambitious study yet at the American Society of Baking’s BakingTech conference, held in Chicago, Feb. 27-29. 

The study, conducted by Purdue University and started in January, will supply 100 people with controlled diets for 12 weeks and track their food intake, fullness and hunger, body weight, and shift in their gut microbiome. Richard Mattes, PhD, distinguished professor at Purdue University, and Steve Lindemann, PhD, associate professor of Food & Nutrition Science at Purdue University, who are conducting the study hypothesize that refined grains are not the culprit when it comes to glycemic index but rather the added sugars present in these formulations. Participants in the study all have elevated hemoglobin A1C levels, a marker of high blood sugar and determining risk for diabetes. They are most likely to show the effects of diet intervention, Mattes explained. 

The 100 participants will be split into four groups served different degrees of both whole grains and added sugars according to the average American diet and the recommendations of the latest Dietary Guidelines. One of the aims is to evaluate the impact of both sugar and whole grains on blood sugar.

“This study will provide a rich data set that doesn’t exist right now,” Mattes said. 

Lindemann is eager to see what the study reveals about the impact of whole grains on gut health, an area of the body with plenty of press but not a lot of research.

“One of the things that’s becoming increasingly clear is how individual people are in their gut microbiome and how different their communities of microbiome are,” he said. “There’s been a lot of work in looking at compositional changes and how the microbiome shifts after they eat specific diets or types of foods and to associate those with certain disease states. The problem is very little of that has ended up being actionable, so we’re going to continue to measure how gut health positions are shifting as a result of our diet, but the other thing we’re measuring that’s a bit more novel is we’re looking to see how the function of the microbiome is shifting over time and I think that’s the next frontier.”

With this study, GFF will add to its robust library of research that it can use to further clarify and extol the benefits of whole grains to medical professionals, the media and the industry.  

“As an industry we need to understand the positives that whole grains can do in a country where so many people are pre-diabetic, and can grain foods have a role in moving those people toward health,” Ball said.