Our daily bread has more benefits than we thought

Abstract

Whole grains in bread and other foods can add a healthy dose of vitamins, minerals, protein, and fiber to our diets. But scientists such as Inge S. Fomsgaard of Aarhus University are looking further at how some lesser-known bioactive grain compounds called benzoxazinoids, or BXs for short, can improve health through their immune-boosting properties. Scientists have known for a few decades that BXs help protect young cereal grain plants such as rye, wheat, and corn against weeds, insects, and diseases. But it wasn’t until 2009 that Fomsgaard’s group discovered that mature grains also contain BXs. Fomsgaard and her colleagues subsequently found that BXs survive food processing and that the composition and concentration of the compounds are enhanced via enzymatic processes during malting or baking. Using mass-spectrometry-based metabolomics methods in rats, pigs, and people, the researchers have shown that BXs are taken up, distributed, and metabolized by mammals and that a