Do you typically start your day with white toast or refined cereals? If so, you might want to switch to wholegrain. There is now strong and growing evidence that regularly eating wholegrain foods can play a powerful role in preventing cardiovascular disease and promoting health.
The recent Grains and Legumes Health Report released by GoGrains in May 2010 provides an overview of the latest scientific research on the important role of grain foods in the diet. The main findings included:
Eating two or three serves of wholegrain food a day is consistently reported to reduce the risk of developing chronic disease — including cardiovascular disease, type two diabetes and certain cancers — by 20 to 30 percent.
Eating two to four serves of wholegrain foods a day can reduce the risk of heart disease by as much as 40 percent — comparable to the effect of common cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.
Wholegrains can help lower blood pressure. Replacing refined grain foods with wholegrain foods, such as white rice with brown rice, has been shown in clinical trials to reduce blood pressure over a short period of time in people who have high cholesterol and are overweight.
The mysterious active ingredient
Researchers still do not know exactly which part of wholegrains is so beneficial to heart health. Wholegrain foods contain many substances, such as resistant starches, soluble fibres, gluten, phytoestrogens and unsaturated fatty acids, all which can help protect the body against heart disease and stroke.
Wholegrains also contain many vitamins and minerals (such as vitamin E, vitamin B6, folate, selenium, copper, iron, zinc, and magnesium) that may act as antioxidants to mop up damaging free radicals. In fact, wholegrain foods are just as high in antioxidants as fruits and vegetables.
So how much is a good thing?
According to the GoGrain report, eating at least 48g of wholegrains each day can have significant benefits.
Wholegrain products vary in the amount of wholegrains they contain. In Australia the wholegrain content of a product is usually found on the label, and products labelled as “wholegrain” are required to state the percentage of wholegrains they contain in the ingredient list.
Single servings of wholegrain foods and their wholegrain content include:
two slices of wholemeal bread, 30g to 40g;
two slices of multigrain bread, 5g to 30g;
two wheat flake breakfast biscuits, 30g;
½ cup of natural muesli or porridge, 30g to 45g; and
one cup cooked wholegrain pasta, 55g to 65g.
Overall, most people would be surprised there is this much protection against cardiovascular disease, one of Australia’s biggest killers, available just by eating more wholegrains. It is important to remember for people with chronic diseases to consult your doctor regarding management of these conditions.
Your say: What are some of your favourite ways to include wholegrain foods every day? Do you think you eat enough wholegrains? Share with us below.
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