Want to add some oats to your festive menu? New research has claimed that eating three portions of whole-grain foods every day significantly reduces blood pressure.
A study by scientists at Aberdeen University said eating whole-grain rich food, such as porridge and wholemeal bread, can lower the risk of developing cardiovascular disease because it reduced blood pressure.
More than 200 volunteers took part in the study, which is published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which is one of the first to test the theory of health benefits of whole-grain foods in a well-designed clinical intervention trial.
They each received three daily servings of whole-grain foods, which were either wheat, or a mixture of both wheat and oats and were widely available in supermarkets. The whole-grain diets were compared with one that contained the same amounts of refined cereals and white bread.
Participants were encouraged to eat their usual food choices.
Dr Frank Thies, senior lecturer at The Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health University of Aberdeen, who led the study, said there was a decrease in systolic blood pressure of 5-6 mm Hg in the volunteers who ate the whole-grain foods.
“This effect is similar to that you might expect to get from using blood pressure-lowering drugs,” he said.
“This drop in systolic blood pressure could potentially decrease the incidence of heart attack and stroke disease by at least 15 and 25 per cent respectively.”
The study was funded by the Food Standards Agency and by the Scottish Government.
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