Here's a little nutrition pop quiz for you.

Which of the following do you think would be the healthiest choice?

Whole wheat bread, whole grain bread, or multi-grain bread?

Or do you think of these labels as being more or less interchangeable?

Well, today we're going to clear up some of the confusion around multi-grain and whole-grain labels.

Hello and welcome to the Nutrition Diva podcast, a show where we take a closer look at

nutrition news, research, and trends so that you can make more informed decisions about what you eat. I'm your

host, Monica Rineagle. Today we're talking grains and all the different ways that they show up in our

food supply. Now being the nutritious, conscious type that I know you are, you've probably taken to heart

the advice to choose whole grains as much

as possible. But when you're standing there in the bread aisle, just trying to get the shopping

done, it's easy to confuse similar sounding terms like multi-grain or whole wheat or whole grain.

And believe me, food manufacturers often use these

somewhat slippery terms, along with other tricks, to make a product look healthier than it really is.

So in today's episode, I want to clear up the differences between some of these terms

and show you how to quickly decode a

label to know what you're really getting. And we'll also touch on how gluten-free and grain-free

products fit into this mix, because while these alternatives may be grain-free, they're not always

free of confusion.

And right off the bat, I want to acknowledge a little nuance that sometimes trips people up.

When we talk about eating whole grains, it might sound like we're only talking about grains in their intact form, like brown rice or faro or wheat berries. And yes, those are

truly whole in the most literal sense. But most of the time, we're actually talking about

...