On Healthy Living

WebMD had an interesting article recently about how the regular consumption of whole grains may help lowering the risk of developing high blood pressure. I always being up and going first when it comes to finding healthier alternatives to the foods I already eat, whole grains are something I’ve integrated within my diet for years, even though I admit still consuming refined grains at times (now you can’t shun that kind of things all the time when having dinner at friends’, can you?).

The study followed 29,000 women 45-years old or more, of which 8,722 were newly diagnosed with hypertension, for ten years, and reported that eating four portions of whole grain a day would lower their risks of developing high blood pressure during the study by about 23%. Eating refined grains brought no particular benefit in that area. The study also tried to keep all the involved factors consistent, although it isn’t known (like in many studies, I suppose) if the involved women accurately reported their grains intake, or if other dietary changes played a role as well.

Are those fantastic findings? I don’t know, but still, it does make sense to me that whole grains containing more nutrients (after all, they are less refined–is it possible to have entirely non-refined food, anyway?–than their white counterparts), they must wield more benefits, whatever those may be, for our bodies. If it can help lowering blood pressure, it’s all the best.

As for introducing more whole grains in your diet, lots of these, I’ve found out, can easily replace your former white grains habits: brown rice can be used and eaten just like white rice, whole-wheat pasta like egg-pasta, etc. And there are plenty of other grains, such as oatmeal, buckwheat or quinoa, that can be involved in delicious recipes, whether for breakfast or for the other meals. As usual, make sure to carefully read the list of ingredients, to make sure those are indeed whole grains, and not just “multigrain” or “made with 100% wheat”, which doesn’t mean the same thing. (I’ve also noticed that in our stores here in France, real whole grains often don’t even need to be advertised with such words: they’re self-sufficient, so to say. But I don’t know how it goes in other countries.)

Yzabel wrote this on August 11th, 2007 and filed it under Healthy Eating, Health Foods |