With all the diet wars continuing and foods being ditched, it’s nice to get a good news story about one of the food groups that I love, cereal grains. I absolutely love my daily muesli, oats, granola or porridge and look forward to breaking the overnight fast. Master 10 is a cereal lover too and sometimes we even let him do brinner. So how fabulous to hear that new Harvard research published in BMC Medicine shows people with the highest cereal fibre intakes had a 19% reduced risk of death from all causes. Let’s explore.
In this new study Harvard researchers examined the diets of 367,442 people from the prospective National Institutes of Health – AARP Diet and Health Study, with an average follow-up period of 14 years.
They found a diet high in cereal fibre (around 10g/day) reduced the risk of premature death from a range of chronic diseases including cancer (15%), heart disease (20%), respiratory disease (21%) and diabetes (34%). This was compared to people with the lowest cereal fibre intakes (2.02g) and accounted for lifestyle factors such as health, physical activity and obesity.
In addition to the benefits of cereal fibre, the study reported that eating an average of 34g of whole grains a day was associated with a 17% reduced risk of death from all causes, an 11% reduced risk of death from respiratory disease, and a 48 % reduction in the risk of diabetes.
Researchers stated that cereal fibre may provide multiple protective properties such as anti-inflammatory effects and that the protective effects of whole grains may be due, at least in the main part, to its cereal fibre component. In the discussion they go on to expand on possible mechanisms and I love that they include benefits to intestinal microbiota that is oh so hot right now too:
“The protective effect of whole grains and fiber consumption on risk of mortality is biologically plausible. Dietary fiber intake is associated with lower levels of inflammation markers, such as C-reactive protein, and tumor necrosis factor α receptor 2, which play key roles in chronic inflammatory conditions. Whole grain foods are rich in fiber. Therefore, the anti-inflammatory effects of dietary fiber may help explain, at least in part, the inverse associations of whole grains and fiber consumption with chronic disease death. Moreover, whole grains and cereal fiber have a high content of antioxidants, vitamins, trace minerals, phenolic acids, lignans, and phytoestrogens, which have been associated with a reduced risk of colorectal cancer and lower risk of death from non-cardiovascular, non-cancer inflammatory diseases and respiratory system diseases. In addition, dietary fibers have specific and unique impacts on intestinal microbiota composition and metabolism. Additionally, recent studies have related gut microbiota with various chronic diseases such as obesity, CVD, diabetes, and cancer. Further functional investigations are warranted to verify these potential mechanisms.”
Wake up to the benefits
“In Australia, breakfast cereal is one of the main sources of fibre in our diets contributing 10.6% towards our daily fibre intake per capita, and even more for Australians who eat breakfast cereal regularly,” said dietitian Leigh Reeve from the Australian Breakfast Cereal Manufacturers Forum who are promoting this study.
“If you are looking for a breakfast option that is higher in fibre look for a high fibre or whole grain breakfast cereal or mix high fibre cereals into your current favourite. The average bowl of ready-to-eat breakfast cereal, muesli or oats contains around 4g of fibre, with some higher fibre options containing upwards of 10g a serve.”
