Whole grains

Eating an average of 2.5 servings of whole grain foods each day can lower your risk of cardiovascular disease by almost one-quarter. That’s the finding of a seven-study meta-analysis of 285,000 men and women led by Philip Mellen of Wake Forest University. In light of this evidence, Mellen said, policy-makers, scientists and clinicians should “redouble efforts” to get people to eat more whole grains.
Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseases, May 2008; 18(4):283-90. Epub April 2007.

Australian researchers led by Neil Mann recruited 50 young males (age 15-25) with mild to moderate acne for a twelve-week study of the relationship between diet and acne. Half the group ate a typical Western diet, while the other half ate lean meat, poultry, fish, fruits, vegetables and substituted whole grain bread, cereals and rice for refined foods. After twelve weeks, the acne of the group eating more protein and whole grains “improved dramatically, by more than fifty percent.”
Journal of Dermatological Science, April 2008; 50(1):41-52. Epublished January 4, 2008.

Swedish researchers at Lund University have determined that certain whole grain products can help control blood sugar for up to ten hours. A team led by Anne Nilsson fed twelve healthy subjects test meals including different whole and refined grains, and found that barley and rye kernels at one meal had a long-lasting effect on controlling blood sugar extending to most of the day after the whole grain breakfast, or overnight with whole grains at dinner.
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, March 2008; 87(3):645-54

In a clinical study conducted at Penn State, researchers put 50 obese adults on a reduced calorie diet for 12 weeks, during which time half the group was asked to eat all their grains as whole grains, and the other half was advised to avoid whole-grain foods. Body weight, waist circumference and percentage body fat decreased significantly in both groups, but the whole grain group saw a signicantly greater decrease in abdominal fat, and a 38% decrease in C-reactive protein (CRP), an inflammatory marker for cardiovascular disease.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, January 2008; vol 87(1): 79-80

A double-blind, randomized, cross-over study at the University of Reading, UK, divided 31 healthy adults into two groups. Half the volunteers ate 48g of whole grain cereal daily; the other half ate the same amount of wheat bran cereal daily for three weeks. After a two-week washout on normal diets, the groups were reversed for a second period of three weeks. The study concluded that whole grain cereal promoted increases in bifidobacteria and lactobacillus, while the bran cereal did not.
British Journal of Nutrition, January 2008; vol 99(1):110-20. Epublished August 29, 2007.

A team of scientists in Boston and Baltimore led by PK Newby studied data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, and found that seniors consuming the most whole grain had lower body mass index (BMI) and weight, and smaller waist circumference. More whole grain consumption was also associated wtih lower total cholesterol, lower LDL cholesterol and improved glucose response.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, December 2007; vol 86(6): 1745-1753

 

UK researchers Janice Harland and Lynne Garton pooled data from fifteen studies on whole grain intake and BMI or adiposity, and found that in 119,829 male and female subjects age 13 or older, a higher intake of whole grains (about three servings per day) was associated with lower BMI and less central adiposity (abdominal fat).
Public Health Nutrition, November 16, 2007; 1-10. Epublished ahead of print.

Pancreatic cancer is the most fatal cancer in the U.S., but eating two servings or more of whole grains daily may cut the risk of this swift and deadly killer by up to 40%. That was the finding of researchers at UC San Francisco led by June Chan, who compared diets of 532 pancreatic cancer patients with 1,701 people not suffering from the disease.
The American Journal of Epidemiology, November 2007; 166(10):1174-1185

After following 21,376 male physicians for almost 20 years, Luc Djoussé and J. Michael Gaziano at Harvard found that those eating two to six servings of whole grain cereal a week reduced their risk of heart failure 22%, while those eating whole grains daily reduced risk by 28%. For this study, cereals with at least 25% whole grain or bran by weight were classified as whole grain.
Archives of Internal Medicine, October 2007; 167: 2080-2085

At the Harvard School of Public Health, researchers led by JS de Munter pooled data from six cohort studies including 286,125 participants, and found that a two-servings a day increment in whole grain consumption was associated with a 21% decrease in risk of type 2 diabetes.
PLoS Medicine, August 2007; 28;4(8):e261