Consuming wholegrains, but not refined grains, rice or other grains, may have a beneficial effect on health, according to a major population study published today.
In the light of recent attention on the role of carbohydrates in health, a team led by Dr Dagfinn Aune of Imperial College London, UK, examined information from 12 population-wide studies.
They explain that this type of observational research is "useful for pulling evidence together, but cannot be used to draw conclusions about cause and effect", particularly as individuals who consume wholegrains rather than refined grains may engage in other health-protecting activities.
The study, published today in The BMJ involved details of 786,076 people in the US, Scandinavia and the UK. Of these, about 7,000 were diagnosed with coronary heart disease, 2,000 with stroke, 26,000 with cardiovascular disease, 34,000 with cancer. Approximately 100,000 deaths were recorded during follow-up.
Wholegrains appeared to reduce the rate of coronary heart disease, cardiovascular disease, all cause mortality, and mortality from stroke, cancer, respiratory disease, infectious disease, and diabetes.
The authors warn that "great care" should be taken not to promote whole grain foods with high sugar and salt content, and stress the importance of more research into the biological mechanisms of different grain types.
Victoria Taylor of the British Heart Foundation said: "Unlike in the US, the UK doesn’t have specific recommendations for the number of portions of wholegrains we should eat every day, but we do have a recommendation on the amount of fibre we should eat."
Writing in the journal, Dr Cecilie Kyro of the Danish Cancer Society Research Centre, Denmark, added: "The new meta-analysis has several weaknesses, including poor information on the assessment of whole grain intake in many of the included studies and few studies for some endpoints such as mortality from diabetes and infectious diseases."
Higher intake of whole grains associated with lower risk of major chronic diseases and death BMJ 15 June 2016 [abstract]
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