Eating lots of whole grains – especially those high in cereal fiber – may help people live longer, according to new research. The study out in BMC Medicine this week suggests that eating hefty amounts of cereal fibers can help reduce the risk of death from a number of causes, including cancer and diabetes, by almost 20%. Previous research has certainly linked whole grains to the reduction of certain chronic diseases and to reduced mortality, but this one is the largest of its kind to show a reduction in death from a number of different causes. So if you want to live longer, grab a bowl of cereal. The less refined, the better.

Whole grains are grains in their most unadulterated form, still containing the endospore, bran, and germ – most of the plant’s nutritional value lies in the brain and germ. When grains go through milling to become processed or refined, they’re typically stripped of the brain and germ parts, along with a number of B vitamins, fiber, and iron. (See here for more on this.)

Wholewheat spaghetti is what is cooking.

In the new study, the Harvard Medical School team tracked over 367,000 healthy people who were taking part in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study, for an average of 14 years. Anyone with a preexisting condition like heart or kidney disease, stroke, or diabetes was excluded from the analysis. The researchers asked the participants questions about their diets, exercise habits, and other lifestyle factors; they were also monitored for health conditions, and of course, mortality.

It turned out that people who ate more whole grains – 1.2 ounces of per day, on average – had a 17% reduced risk of death, compared to those who ate much less, around 0.13 ounces per day. And when it came to the cereal fiber itself, people who ate the most had a 19% reduced risk of death from any cause, compared to those who ate the least.

The researchers even broke it down by disease: People who ate the highest amounts of whole grains had a 48% reduced risk of death from diabetes, and an 11% reduced risk of dying from respiratory diseases. And people who ate the most cereal fiber had 15% and 34% reduced risk of death from cancer and diabetes, respectively. In fact, when cereal fiber was removed from the equation, the associations disappeared almost completely, suggesting it was in fact the fiber itself that was mostly responsible for the health effects.

The study cannot of course determine causation, since it’s just observational. Though the team tried to control for some confounders, like alcohol consumption, physical activity, smoking, and BMI, and found the results remained strong. But it could still be another lifestyle variable – or a concert of variables – that contributed to the participants’ reduced mortality risk.

Still, a number of studies have pointed to a strong connection between whole grains and improved health and longevity in recent years. It may be the anti-inflammatory properties of fiber per se – and its effect of reducing c-reactive protein (CRP) and tumor necrosis factor – that are responsible for their health benefits.

If you’re going to up your grain intake, make sure to choose whole ones, like steel cut oats, quinoa, or even whole grain bread, over refined ones like cereal flakes or white bread. In other words, the chunkier and wilder the grains, the better – and the more good they may do over the course of a (hopefully long) lifetime.

This is why I do not follow research expert-diet recommendations, they never say rules and stick to them.

"Grains are the devil" is now "eat full grains to live longer. "Red meat is bad" is now "eat red meat and exercise". "Egg yolks kill" is now "yolks are the best part of the egg".

Abegi jor. Sofar what I eat now is the same thing my dad, grand dad - his dad and his grand dad ate then it would not kill me in anyway possible. These stupid scientists only set trends the stupid masses follow.