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By Charnicia E. Huggins
NEW YORK, Mar 13 (Reuters Health) - Eating whole grain bread may promote longevity and protect against certain diseases, study findings suggest.
Similar findings among Americans have prompted the United States Department of Agriculture to recommend that Americans "eat a variety of grains daily, especially whole grains."
In the study of nearly 34,000 Norwegian adults, those who ate the highest amounts of whole grain had a 23% reduced risk of death from heart disease, and a 21% reduced risk of death from cancer compared with people who ate little or no whole grains.
"This study bolsters the whole idea that the whole grain might be good for you," lead study author Dr. David Jacobs Jr., of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, told Reuters Health.
Study participants reported eating anywhere from one slice of whole grain bread made with 5% whole grain flour per day, to nine slices made with 60% whole grain flour per day, Jacobs and his colleagues report in the February issue of the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
However, people who eat a lot of whole grain products tend to lead healthier lifestyles in general. Some other factors associated with such a lifestyle may be responsible for the dip in mortality risk seen in whole grain eaters, the report indicates.
The researchers did take into account the fact that whole grain eaters tend to be nonsmokers, are less likely have high cholesterol and high blood pressure, and are more likely to consume less fat than those who eat less whole grain bread. However, they did not take into account fruit and vegetable intake, which may be partly responsible for the lower death risk seen in the whole grain eaters.
"The people who eat (whole grains) tend to have healthier lifestyles in general, so their diet is generally higher in fruits and vegetables and lower in red meat," Jacobs said. "We find then that part of the benefit of the whole grain is the other things that people do with it, but part of it seems to be related to the whole grain itself."
Consumers interested in increasing their intake of whole grains should note that not all breads labeled "multi-grain" will fit the bill, Jacobs warns. "Those multi-grain breads are notorious for being lots of different kinds of refined grain, but all of them are mostly starch," he said. There is therefore less nutritional value in these breads than if the grains were non-refined.
If you really want to eat a whole grain bread, "rolled" oats, "cracked" wheat, or "steel cut" wheat or oats should be the first ingredient listed on the label, Jacobs said.
SOURCE: European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2001;55:137-143.
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