Role of staple cereals in human nutrition: Separating the wheat from the chaff in the infodemics age
Olaf Erenstein, Nigel Poole, Jason Donovan
Abstract
Staple cereals always have been important dietary components, yet recent debates on their role in human diets are riddled with myths and misinformation. This article examines the informational controversies, particularly about wheat, and reviews the evidence. The discussion centers on three nutritional cereal debates: i) ‘empty calories’, ii) over-consumption, and iii) how ‘free-from’ fads confound dietary transitions. This article makes two principal points, that i) advances in nutrition are a complex, slow process, and that ii) they can be easily confounded and undone by misinformation. Hence we suggest that more consumer-oriented work is needed—including behavioral approaches and political economy—in order to improve the quality of information, communication and dietary decision making. There is a clear need to tackle nutritional misinformation given the costs of inaction and the need to formulate a coherent agri-nutrition agenda.