Are whole grains healthy?

Whole Grains Protect against Heart Disease

It’s been all over the news for years: eat more whole grains to protect your heart, lower cholesterol, and ward off chronic disease. But there haven’t been many studies actually showing how much and what types of whole grains provide this protection, until now.

“Our findings have important public health implications and provide a sound scientific basis for advising the daily consumption of three servings of whole grain foods to combat cardiovascular disease,” said UK researchers in a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

When it’s better to be unrefined

The new trial aimed to see how diets rich in whole grains (whole wheat, with or without oats) stacked up against a refined grain diet when it comes to heart disease risk.

More than 200 middle-aged people at risk for heart disease were divided into three groups:

one group was advised to eat whole wheat products three times per day (comprising 80 grams of whole wheat bread and 40 grams of whole wheat cereal),
another group had one serving of whole wheat and two servings of oats, and
the third ate a diet including refined cereals and white bread.
Blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, and measures of inflammation and insulin sensitivity were assessed throughout the 12-week study.

By the end of the study, systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) decreased significantly in both whole grain groups compared with the refined grain group, translating to a projected 15% reduction in coronary artery disease incidence and 25% decrease in stroke incidence. (Other markers of cardiovascular disease risk remained unchanged in all groups, except for cholesterol levels, which actually went down in the refined grain group.)

People eating the refined grain diet got more vitamin D and B vitamins in their diets, but this didn’t seem to affect blood pressure levels. “This may indicate that the potential bioactivity of the micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) is more marked when part of the natural grain product is present compared with the fortified food,” said the authors.

How to get those grains

With lots of media attention on whole foods, it’s easier than ever to find whole grain versions of your favorite foods in stores.

Here are a few places that you can focus on whole grains that can make a big difference in your health.

Choose whole wheat or other whole grain pastas. These have come a long way over the years, and many brands have perfected a smooth texture much like that of traditional white pasta.
Get into porridge. A simple way to meet your whole grain quotient is by choosing a hot cereal for breakfast. These come in whole wheat, 7-grain, and of course the old standby, oatmeal.
Switch to whole grain breads. You might have to get used to the nuttier flavor and darker color, but whole grain bread is a taste you won’t want to go back on. For choosy children (or if you really have the hankering for a softer consistency), give white whole wheat bread a try. White whole wheat flour also substitutes well in any recipe calling for white flour.
(Am J Clin Nutr 2010;92:733–40)

Kimberly Beauchamp, ND, is a licensed, board-certified naturopathic physician with a passion for real food. Dr. Beauchamp received her doctoral degree from Bastyr University, the nation’s premier academic institution for science-based natural medicine. She co-founded South County Naturopaths in Wakefield, RI, where she practiced whole family care with an emphasis on nutritional counseling, herbal medicine, detoxification, and food allergy identification and treatment. Her blog, Eat Happy, helps take the confusion out of healthful eating with real food recipes and up-to-the minute nutrition news that you can use.

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It is now becoming apparent that reactions to gluten are not limited to CD, rather we now appreciate the existence of a spectrum of gluten-related disorders. The high frequency and wide range of adverse reactions to gluten raise the question as to why this dietary protein is toxic for so many individuals in the world. One possible explanation is that the selection of wheat varieties with higher gluten content has been a continuous process during the last 10,000 years, with changes dictated more by technological rather than nutritional reasons. Wheat varieties grown for thousands of years and mostly used for human nutrition up to the Middle Ages, such as Triticum monococcum and T. dicoccum, contain less quantities of the highly toxic 33-mer gluten peptide [65]. Apparently the human organism is still largely vulnerable to the toxic effects of this protein complex, particularly due to a lack of adequate adaptation of the gastrointestinal and immunological responses.

Additionally, gluten is one of the most abundant and diffusely spread dietary components for most populations, particularly those of European origin. In Europe, the mean consumption of gluten is 10 g to 20 g per day, with segments of the general population consuming as much as 50 g of daily gluten or more [66,67] All individuals, even those with a low degree of risk, are therefore susceptible to some form of gluten reaction during their life span. Therefore, it is not surprising that during the past 50 years we have witnessed an 'epidemic' of CD [68,69] and the surging of new gluten-related disorders, including the most recently described GS [44,62]. This review provides some rationale to explain these epidemiological phenomena and expands our current knowledge to gain more insights into gluten-related disorders.

The primary functions of the gastrointestinal tract have traditionally been perceived to be limited to the digestion and absorption of nutrients and to electrolytes and water homeostasis. A more attentive analysis of the anatomic and functional arrangement of the gastrointestinal tract, however, suggests that another extremely important function of this organ is its ability to regulate the trafficking of macromolecules between the environment and the host through a barrier mechanism. Together with the gut-associated lymphoid tissue and the neuroendocrine network, the intestinal epithelial barrier, with its intercellular tight junctions, controls the equilibrium between tolerance and immunity to non-self antigens. Zonulin is the only physiological modulator of intercellular tight junctions described so far that is involved in trafficking of macromolecules and, therefore, in tolerance/immune response balance. When the finely tuned zonulin pathway is deregulated in genetically susceptible individuals, both intestinal and extraintestinal autoimmune, inflammatory, and neoplastic disorders can occur. This new paradigm subverts traditional theories underlying the development of these diseases and suggests that these processes can be arrested if the interplay between genes and environmental triggers is prevented by reestablishing the zonulin-dependent intestinal barrier function. This review is timely given the increased interest in the role of a "leaky gut" in the pathogenesis of several pathological conditions targeting both the intestine and extraintestinal organs.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21248165