More whole grains associated with lower early mortality, especially cardiovascular

Date: January 5, 2015

Source: The JAMA Network Journals

Summary:

Eating more whole grains appears to be associated with reduced early mortality, especially deaths due to cardiovascular disease, but not cancer deaths, according to a new report.

Eating more whole grains appears to be associated with reduced early mortality.

Credit: © lily / Fotolia

Eating more whole grains appears to be associated with reduced early mortality, especially deaths due to cardiovascular disease (CVD), but not cancer deaths, according to a report published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.

Whole grains are widely recommended in many dietary guidelines as healthful food. However, data regarding how much whole grains people eat and mortality were not entirely consistent.

Hongyu Wu, Ph.D., of the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, and coauthors examined the association between eating whole grains and the risk of death using data from two large studies: 74,341 women from the Nurses' Health Study (1984-2010) and 43,744 men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (1986-2010). All the participants were free of cancer and CVD when the studies began.

The authors documented 26,920 deaths. After the data were adjusted for potential confounding factors including age, smoking and body mass index, the study found that eating more whole grains was associated with lower total mortality and lower CVD mortality but not cancer deaths. The authors further estimated that every serving (28 grams/per day) of whole grains was associated with 5 percent lower total mortality or 9 percent lower CVD mortality.

"These findings further support current dietary guidelines that recommend increasing whole grain consumption to facilitate primary and secondary prevention of chronic disease and also provide promising evidence that suggests a diet enriched with whole grains may confer benefits toward extended life expectancy," the study concludes.

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by The JAMA Network Journals.Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Journal Reference:

Hongyu Wu, Alan J. Flint, Qibin Qi, Rob M. van Dam, Laura A. Sampson, Eric B. Rimm, Michelle D. Holmes, Walter C. Willett, Frank B. Hu, Qi Sun. Association Between Dietary Whole Grain Intake and Risk of Mortality. JAMA Internal Medicine, 2015; DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2014.6283

Cite This Page:

The JAMA Network Journals. "More whole grains associated with lower early mortality, especially cardiovascular." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 5 January 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150105125834.htm>.