Grains

Every week, the French humanitarian organization ACTED distributes food in the Afghan town of Khwaja Bahauddin, about 100 miles east of Mazar-e Sharif. Every week, more refugees line up, anxiously looking at each 100-pound bag of wheat, hoping they will get some. As each bag is handed out, young girls rush up, sweeping through the thick dust to pick up every grain that might be spilled. The refugees have fled Taliban-held areas, seeking safety and food in this drought-stricken region controlled by the opposition Northern Alliance.

Last spring I received a small azalea plant. I kept it outside in the pot all summer and recently brought it indoors. Should its nut-like nodules — maybe next year's buds or last year's flower remnants — be removed? Suggestions for overwintering the plant? Leave the "nodules"; they're probably buds. Always move your plant gradually from one temperature to another, whether indoors to outdoors or from room to room indoors, to lessen adjustment shock. Keep your azalea in medium to bright light but not direct sunlight and as cool as possible.

The Complete Whole Grains Cookbook By Judith Finlayson Betty Crocker Whole Grains Easy Everyday Recipes Wiley Publishing / 2007 / $19.95 This is a practical book that would be particularly useful to a novice cook who's trying to eat better. Pluses include a user-friendly explanation of how to decipher information about grains on supermarket labels; nutritional information with each recipe; and a heading that tells you how many whole-grain servings are in a serving of each recipe. The Savory Millet and Potato Stew we tried made a quick, basic, one-pot meal that was very low in fat. kate.

Each week a nutritionist from the University of Maryland Medical Center provides a guest post to The Baltimore Sun's health blog Picture of Health (baltimoresun.com/pictureofhealth), which is reprinted here. This week, Mary Gallagher, dietetic intern, weighs in nutrition guidelines. The MyPlate icon, seen on http://www.choosemyplate.gov , has replaced the USDA Food Pyramid as the premier guide to more healthful eating. The MyPlate message is designed around the five food groups people should eat every day: fruits, vegetables, grains, protein and dairy.

Athletes and exercisers on low-fat diets should eat lots of whole grains to help them to recover faster from their workouts.Athletic training is done by stressing and recovering. On one day, you exercise vigorously and your muscle fibers are damaged. On the next day, your muscles feel sore, so you should exercise at a low intensity until the soreness disappears. Every hard workout should be followed by one or more easy ones.Your muscles require large amounts of oxygen for the chemical reactions that provide energy during exercise.

WASHINGTON -- Much of the U.S. food aid going to famine-ravaged Somalia is corn and sorghum, which were chosen because they are less likely to be stolen by roving bands of armed thugs because Somalis don't much like them, according to President Bush's aid coordinator.Andrew Natsios, assistant administrator of the Agency for International Development, said yesterday that the grains are ideal for free food distribution because they are nutritious enough to alleviate hunger but are not popular enough to command high black market prices.

When grains -- breads, cereals, rice and pasta -- moved from the back of the breakfast table to star billing as the foundation of the new food-guide pyramid a couple of years ago, some people were pretty startled.2 Whisk all ingredients in a bowl until blended.

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration proposed yesterday a definition for "whole grains" and labeling that would detail the quantity of the ingredient in breads, cereals and other foods to help consumers figure out what they're eating. When the federal government encouraged Americans to eat whole grains last year, it didn't tell them what a whole grain was or give them help determining whether they were eating the recommended 3-ounce daily allowance. That left it to manufacturers of breads, cereals and other foods to decide whether their ingredients were whole grains and to label their products with claims saying they were "excellent" or "good" sources.

White bread, a mainstay of the American diet since at least the 1930s, is under attack. The Department of Agriculture is considering recommending that consumers drastically cut their consumption of fortified grains. They are used to enrich a wide variety of food products - particularly white bread, which is made from refined white flour. The refined grains sector already has been battered by the popularity of low-carbohydrate diets. White bread came under additional fire from a recent study released by Tufts University in Boston that links the consumption of such bread to wider waistlines.

Chomping on cheeseburgers and french fries at the Towson Town Center food court, Erin Fink and Andrew Rudell don't worry about a balanced diet. The friends even joke that their favorite meal provides at least four of the five major food groups: meat, dairy, grains and, yes, even vegetables - if you count the lettuce leaf and tomato slice under the burger. "People will do what they want to do," Fink says. "So I eat what I want to eat. We have no idea what's good for you and what's not anymore.

Alireza Jafarzadeh's recent commentary ("Iran'snuclear genie is out of the bottle," April 16) is eerily reminiscent of the manipulations of Iraqi exile Ahmad Chalabi who shamelessly fed the US government false information with the express aim of advocating a military invasion of Iraq in 2003 in order to promote his own personal political and economic fortunes. Just as Mr. Jafarzadeh openly sides with the exiled Iranian terrorist group Mujahedin-e Khalq, Mr. Chalibi lived in London while leading an umbrella Iraqi opposition group (the Iraqi National Congress)

He may plug the middle of the Ravens' offensive line, but Matt Birk's life has always been more off-center. In high school, Birk went out for the golf team before trying football. The road to the pros took him through Harvard. And, after signing his first contract, he moved in with ... his parents. The only conventional thing about Birk is his unconventionality. During team breakfasts at the Ravens' complex, he eats granola brought from home. He is donating his brain to science, to help shed light on sports concussions.

Ken Jackson of Knoxville, Tenn., wrote seeking help in finding a recipe for making a vegan whole-grain cornbread. While I did not receive any responses from readers to his query, I was able to locate a good recipe for him on a food blog written by Morgan Anger called Little House of Veggies (littlehouseofveggies.blogspot.com). Anger, a vegan living in Southern California, says that she developed this recipe to accompany her vegan chili. I tested her recipe using sugar instead of evaporated cane juice.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, a man addressed a crowd of about 50 at a brewery right outside Baltimore and said, "Let us pray. " He raised his arm, looked over his flock and solemnly intoned: "Our lager which art in barrels, thy will be drunk, at the Heavy Seas Beer Tour. Give us this day our foamy heads, and forgive us our spillages, as we forgive those who spill against us. " The man wasn't a tipsy priest, but Hugh Sisson, founder of Heavy Seas, who delivers the same speech before the two or three tours that pass through his brewery almost every Saturday.

The Maryland Department of Agriculture has approved more than half a million acres of winter grains in the state's cover crop program, a record that officials said would protect both the land and the Chesapeake Bay. Small grains such as wheat, rye or barley are planted as cover crops in the fall to draw on unused nutrients, control soil erosion and limit runoff to the bay and its tributaries. Gov. Martin O'Malley, appearing Thursday at a farm in Cordova on the Eastern Shore, announced that the state had approved a record 502,323 acres of winter grains – one and half times the two-year milestone – requested by a record 1,688 farmers.

Under a blazing sun, Calvert County farmer David A. Cox Sr. stood beside the 7-acre tobacco field he had planted around Memorial Day and dragged his boot through ash-colored soil. Instead of darker, wetter dirt an inch or two down, there's just more gray dust. The tobacco leaves are beginning to yellow for lack of water, and the plants are no bigger than basketballs. "If this was a normal season, they would probably be approaching our waists," Cox said. "It's a rough year.

* Item: Near East Creative Grains* What you get: 2 1/2 servings* Cost: About $2* Preparation time: 25 to 30 minutes* Review: I couldn't think of a better name for this new blend of brown rice and specialty grains like pearled wheat and barley. Creative Grains offers a welcome alternative to the boring old rice or potatoes routine. We tried the Chicken & Herbs and the Roasted Garlic mixes. I added fresh mushrooms and peas to the chicken flavor. Fresh tomato and chopped scallions gave some extra verve to the roasted garlic grains.

Each week a nutritionist from the University of Maryland Medical Center provides a guest post to The Baltimore Sun's health blog Picture of Health (baltimoresun.com/pictureofhealth), which is reprinted here. This week, Mary Gallagher, dietetic intern, weighs in nutrition guidelines. The MyPlate icon, seen on http://www.choosemyplate.gov , has replaced the USDA Food Pyramid as the premier guide to more healthful eating. The MyPlate message is designed around the five food groups people should eat every day: fruits, vegetables, grains, protein and dairy.

A Dayton farmer wants to maximize revenues from his planned grain silo by leasing space atop it to a cellular company. His neighbors in homes along Big Branch Drive oppose the project, saying their cell service is fine and the unsightly antennae will disrupt their view of rolling fields. The Howard County Council will have to weigh the farmer's property rights with those of his neighbors. The council will review lengthy testimony on the issue that highlights the clash between agriculture and suburbia before voting next month.