What can you gain from whole grain?

By 23. September 2015Blog, Health

Short answer, a lowering of your LDL cholesterol (the bad one).

Yes, yet again we are back on the topic of whole grains. We’ve blogged about it a number of times (Lowering cholesterol is oat so simple, Whole grain, it’s all in the fibre, Looking for a new year’s resolution, Fight cholesterol the Nordic way). In general, it has been reported to lower bad cholesterol levels or chances of developing heart disease.

And this paper is no different. Published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition the researchers delved into the literature and looked at over 6,000 publications containing randomised controlled comparisons of adults eating a diet with or without whole grain. Of these publications 24 were deemed eligible for the meta analysis.

When all put together, consuming a diet with whole grains led to a decrease in the amount of LDL cholesterol (the bad one) but not HDL cholesterol (the good one). Oats seemed to have the biggest impact.

So with winter approaching, perhaps it’s time to consider porridge some mornings.

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