News about Nutrition (or should it be Nutritional News?)

It took scientists eight years and millions of dollars to sneak whole grains into that spongy, yeasty icon of U.S. health-uncon scious consumerism. Now that they’ve done it, food manufacturers ON THE WEB have begun releasing a bevy of products they hope will get people to eat whole grains.

It’s a move to make bread products healthier. But the process has created some confusion, at a time when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is still defining whole-grain products.

ConAgra Foods Inc., one of the nation’s largest food makers, spent at least eight years and several million dollars developing Ultra-grain White Whole Wheat. The grain was bred for its properties and it is not genetically modified, said Garth Neuffer, a spokesman for the Omaha-based firm.

The company won’t disclose its sales ex- pectations for Ultragrain products. One year since its unveiling, Ultragrain is turning up in such products as cookies, pasta and crackers. These products come as the USDA’s new food pyramid recommends people make whole grains at least half of their daily grain consumption.

Sara Lee Corp., one of ConAgra’s larger customers, last month launched its Soft & Smooth bread, a loaf with Ultragrain that appears white but is 30 percent whole grain. Meanwhile, Interstate Bakeries Corp.’s Wonder Bread is test-marketing its own white bread with 100 percent whole grain, and it plans a wide release next year.

Some 2,600 school districts will carry at least one of ConAgra’s Ultragrain items — which include burritos, chimichangas and The Max pizza, a pie with a half whole-grain crust — Neuffer said.

But not everyone likes the new products. With obesity now called an epidemic, experts are divided on tJltragrain’s merits. Touting these products as whole grain is a marketing gimmick that could confuse well- meaning parents, said Dr. Fred Pescatore, a Manhattan internist specializing in nutrition.

“What they’re doing is playing to the mar- ketplace perception that whole grain is good for us — which it certainly is — but they’re putting a little bit in there so they can say that it’s there,” Pescatore said. “They’re not really doing a great service.”

General Mills Inc., which offers whole grain cereals, has petitioned the government to define whole grains, said Kim Rawlings, an FDA spokeswoman. According to FDA guide lines, products must have only whole-wheat flour to be labeled as “whole wheat.”

As the low-carb craze slowed, bakers and millers stayed alive by creating more whole grain products, said Judi Adams, president of the Grain Foods Foundation, a group representing those industries. Adams, a registered dietitian, said the white whole-wheat goods will help consumers gradually shift toward all-whole grain, like people went from whole milk to skim. But manufacturers shouldn’t jump to change standard products, said Larry Shiman, vice president of Opinion Dynamics Corp., a market research finn. When people think wheat, they think brown, he said.

“I think there’s a general tendency to want to eat things that are intuitive. And whole grain bread that’s white? I don’t know how people will respond to that,” Shiman said.

Parents should still be cautious about other ingredients such as high-fructose corn syrup, which is a sweetener, said Dr. Rebecca Unger, a pediatrician in the Nutrition Evaluation Clinic at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago. And they should read labels to make sure whole grains are listed as the first ingredient, she added.