Whole grains extend life
Luise Heine has been an editor at since 2012. The qualified biologist studied in Regensburg and Brisbane (Australia) and gained experience as a journalist in television, in the Ratgeber-Verlag and in a print magazine. In addition to her work at , she also writes for children, for example for the Stuttgarter Kinderzeitung, and has her own breakfast blog, “Kuchen zum Frühstück”.
More posts by Luise Heine All content is checked by medical journalists.Munichblack bread or light rolls - the choice of breakfast basis could in future be more often in favor of the grain-rich diet. Because those who rely on whole grains - that is, grain that is processed with its shell - have a longer life expectancy.
Whole grain lovers have many health benefits: their blood counts are better, they have a lower risk of diabetes and fewer cardiovascular diseases. But does that mean, at the end of the day, that she expects a longer lifetime? To answer this question, Dr. Qi Sun and her team at Harvards School of Public Health obtained data from two large health studies in which 74,000 women and 43,000 men participated.
For a period of up to 26 years, the subjects filled out a questionnaire every two to four years in which they wrote down their eating habits, among other things. Initially, none of the participants had cancer or known cardiovascular diseases. At the end of the observation period, almost 27,000 of the participants died.
28 grams of whole grain per day
At this point, the researchers compared whether consuming a lot of whole grains had any effect. The result: If someone had eaten a lot of black bread and the like, their risk of death was significantly lower than with test persons who had not nibbled as much whole grain. On the one hand, this was true in general: butt portion of whole grain products per day (28 grams), overall mortality fell by five percent. The difference was even clearer in the case of deaths that were cardiovascular, where the risk fell by 9 percent for wholegrain eaters.
Bran has it all
The eater obviously benefits from enjoying the grain bowls, also known as bran. This is what the researchers concluded when they took a closer look at the composition of the food. The pods are by no means a waste product, even if the seedling they contain is often processed on its own - as is the case in white flour products. A large part of the dietary fiber is found in the bran. It also contains vitamins, minerals and amino acids.
Above all, dietary fibers are said to have health-promoting properties. Even if humans do not draw nutrients from the dietary fiber, the fibers massage the intestines. It has long been known that a high intake of these indigestible plant components reduces the likelihood of colon cancer.
Whole grain eaters live healthier lives
In general, people who rely heavily on wholegrain diets also have healthy lifestyles. In other words, they moved around a lot, drank little alcohol, were non-smokers and watched their weight. It does not seem surprising that these people live longer. This is exactly why the scientists calculated these factors out in a further analysis - and the connection remained: Whole grain eaters reduced their likelihood of dying.
Source: Wu H. et al. Association Between Dietary Whole Grain Intake and Risk of MortalityTwo Large Prospective Studies in US Men and Women; JAMA Intern Med. Published online January 05, 2015. doi: 10.1001 / jamainternmed.2014.6283
Nadine Eckert: Long-term data confirm health benefits: Whole-grain food extends life (www.medscapemedizin.de; accessed: January 12, 2015)
