Grain

The price of America's daily bread and meat could soar this fall, as surging wheat prices in anticipation of a Russian ban on exports stoked fears about tight supplies. Grain shortages and food price hikes in 2007 and 2008 sparked riots worldwide, but agriculture analysts said the U.S. wheat crop has been strong, and that stockpiles of wheat and other grains worldwide are greater now than they were three years ago. According to media reports, U.S. farmers have rushed to put out millions of bushels of wheat to bolster worldwide inventories.

I'll bet you had a lot of hits on your chocolate health benefits story. My survey of the news spin cycles finds that the three that always make health claims are chocolate, red wine and coffee. Decades ago, it was claimed smoking was good for you because it "exercised" your lungs. Tomorrow they'll be claiming oil-flavored seafood caught in the Gulf of Mexico is good for you because you can get more gas in your engine. Please, as John Lennon said, "just gimme the truth." Dan McAloon Sydney, Australia • If there is even a glimmer of hopefulness or a specter of forthcoming favorable news that chocolate has any beneficial, redeeming qualities aside from the fact that its taste is just this side of heaven, we as the human race, including me, will most assuredly jump on the possibility that something so good can also be good for you. Bill Spitalnick Newport Beach Don't knock my Pop-Tarts I read your May 31 article on whole grains and came away thinking nutritionists are missing the boat when it comes to nutrition.

The messages are all over the supermarket aisles: "Made with whole grain goodness," screams a bag of Tostitos tortilla chips. "With whole grain guaranteed," says a box of Chocolate Cheerios. "One serving of whole grain," declares a package of frosted strawberry Pop-Tarts. Whole grains have been the darlings of the food industry ever since the government's 2005 food pyramid recommended we eat more of them — at least 3 ounces per day. These days, you'll find them in a wide array of products, some expected, some not: breakfast cereals, crackers, frozen dinners and snack chips.

Stephanie Jacobson eats a smattering of whole grains and vegetables, which is better than none at all. She's cut way back on her soda consumption and stopped drinking coffee. But fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins and foods with calcium need to be added to her daily diet ASAP. What she's doing right: Stephanie Jacobson eats a smattering of whole grains and vegetables, which is better than none at all. She's cut way back on her soda consumption and stopped drinking coffee because of her vertigo, replacing those beverages with water.

Real wild rice, the reedy lake and river grain beloved by the Ojibwa Indians, is a prehistoric pantry staple older than the country itself. Far more than its cultivated cousins, it expresses the flavor of the land that fosters it: vegetal and savory, with aromas of water and wood. Those sensory associations — coupled with the fact that it is harvested in early fall — are the likely reasons so many cooks consider wild rice an ingredient to be stuffed inside the holiday bird and forgotten about until the next November.

Gloria Hale rose at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, as usual, to swim laps before work. Active though she is, however, the 55-year-old Orange County woman was a bit stunned to learn the latest advice from researchers regarding exercise -- that women should work out 60 minutes a day, seven days a week, to maintain a normal weight over their lifetime. "Most people are going to say, 'No way. I don't have time for that,' " said Hale, a trim 5-foot-5 and 138 pounds. The 60-minute-a-day recommendation, released online Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

A member of Abu Dhabi's ruling family was found not guilty Sunday of the torture and rape of an Afghan in a case that has embarrassed the Gulf emirate and raised questions over human rights. The judge reading the verdict at a court in the United Arab Emirates did not give a reason why Sheik Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan was exonerated of responsibility for abuse shown in a video first made public by ABC television last year. ABC identified one of the abuse participants as Issa.

Sprouted-grain bread offerings in the market have been slowly but steadily on the uptick of late, and a number of health claims have attached themselves to the spongy, nutty-tasting loaves: more digestible, richer in protein and higher in vitamins and minerals compared with other breads. But are the claims true? Yes -- and no. Sprouted-grain products have distinct nutritional advantages over white breads, but when compared to other whole-grain breads, they're usually nutritionally comparable -- although nutrient contents can vary, depending on the sprouts included.

Farber on Film The Complete Film Writings of Manny Farber Edited by Robert Polito Library of America: 824 pp., $40 At this year's Academy Awards, the most incongruous moment came during the "In Memoriam" roll call. Among the distinguished deceased was "Manny Farber, Film Critic." Outside of Martin Scorsese and a few other relative old-timers, I wonder how many members of the academy recognized the name, let alone remembered Farber's 1957 assessment of the complicity between the typical good-housekeeping movie reviewer and Hollywood's distribution of those 13 1/2 -inch statuettes: "His choice of best salami is a picture backed by studio build-up, agreement amongst his colleagues . . . and a list of ingredients that anyone's unsophisticated aunt in Oakland can spot as comprising a distinguished film."

Beginning today, women and children who receive food vouchers through the federal government's WIC program will be able to use them to buy fresh fruits and vegetables. "It's a really welcome change," said Gail Harrison, a public health professor at UCLA who was on the national Institute of Medicine panel that recommended the revisions to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children - the first major change in the program since it began in the 1970s.