Health Studies

In India and some other countries, sprouted (malted) grains are commonly used as weaning foods for infants and as easily-digested foods for the elderly and infirm.  A study at the Central Food Technological Research Institute in Mysore, India, measured the changes caused by malting finger millet, wheat and barley. They found that malting millet increased the bioaccessibility of iron (> 300%) and manganese (17%), and calcium (“marginally”), while reducing bioaccessibility of zinc and making no difference in copper. The effects of malting on different minerals varied widely by grain.
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 14 July 2010; 58(13):8100-3.

Scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health followed 39,765 men and 157,463 women as part of the Health Professionals Follow-up Study and the Nurses’ Health Study I and II. They found that those eating several servings of white rice per week had a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes and that those eating 2 or more servings of brown rice had a lower risk. They estimate that replacing about two servings a week of white rice with the same amount of brown rice would lower diabetes risk 16%.
Archives of Internal Medicine. June 14, 2010; 170 (11): 96-9.

A Polish team from the Instytut Zywnosci in Warsaw analyzed 22 gluten-free products and 19 naturally gluten-free grains and flours, for gluten content. Gluten content in the products ranged from 5.19 to 57.16 mg/kg. In the inherently gluten-free grains and flours, no gluten was detected in rice and buckwheat samples, but was detected in rice flakes (7.05 mg/kg) in pearl millet (27.51 mg/kg) and in oats (>100 mg/kg). ?(Poland)
Rocz Panstw Zaki Hig. 2010; 61(1):51-5. ??

Meanwhile, in the U.S., Tricia Thompson, MS, RD, a nutrition consultant specializing in gluten-free diets, arranged for gluten-testing of 22 retail samples of inherently gluten-free grains, seeds, and flours. She found contamination of 20 to 2925 ppm in seven of 22 samples, putting them over the proposed FDA limit of 20 ppm, with lower levels in some others. Both articles point to the importance of gluten-free certification even on foods that are naturally gluten-free, such as millet.?(USA)
Journal of the American Dietetic Association. June 2010; 110(6):937-40.

For several years, researchers in Boston followed 39,765 men and 157,463 women with no history of type 2 diabetes. During a cumulative 3,318,196 person-years of follow-up, 10,507 people developed type 2 diabetes. After adjusting for age and other factors, the study found that those who ate two or more servings of brown rice per week had an 11 percent lower risk of diabetes compared to those who ate brown rice less than once a month. Conversely, those eating white rice five or more times per week increased the risk of type 2 diabetes by 17 percent. Researchers recommended replacing white rice in the diet with brown rice – or, even better, with a variety of whole grains.
Presented at the American Heart Association’s Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism conference, March 3, 2010.

An increasing body of research shows that resistant starch, a newly-recognized type of dietary fiber found in grains, cold potatoes, legumes and other foods, has many health benefits. Now researchers at the University of Toronto have found that certain whole grain varieties with naturally-high levels of resistant starch may be especially good at making us feel full longer. In the study, 17 male volunteers consumed five different test soups, at one week intervals, after which scientists recorded their glycemic response and their food intake at various intervals over the next few hours. Eating whole grain corn soup with 66% resistant starch content reduced subsequent food intake by 15% compared to eating a high-glycemic control soup.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, February 17, 2010 doi:10.3945/ajcn.2009.28443