1. Introduction
The concept of wholeness in whole grain foods has two major
aspects, both of which appear in the definition of ‘‘whole’’ in the
Oxford dictionary (Sykes, 1976). One is the idea that all of the food
components that constituted the whole grain are present, congruent
with the definition of whole as ‘‘4. Undiminished, without removal
of part’’. The other is the idea of wholeness as retained
structure, which we will call primary structure, congruent with
the definition of whole as ‘‘2. — intact’’. However, the concept of
wholeness in grain foods may be extended further, to the idea of
survival of structure referred to as a secondary structure. This is
generated when disintegrated grains, in the form of flour, are processed
to form a conglomerate or matrix that has strength because
of molecular interactions developed within the cooked ingredient
mixture during processing. The secondary structure is independent
of any primary structure in the individual ingredients before processing.
In this paper the wholeness in the sense of the survival
of both primary and secondary structure is focused on, in both
whole grains and in grain products, and its influence on the digestibility
of starchy foods. The research is about digestion of both
wholegrain foods, and whole, grain-foods.