Whole Grains Deliver on Health Benefits

A human nutrition study reaffirms the health benefits of substituting refined-grain products like white bread with whole-grain foods like whole-wheat bread, oatmeal, barley, rye, and brown or wild rice.

Food grains at a market. Image credit: Thagadooran/Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Scientists with the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA)—jointly run by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts—conducted the study to clarify the role of whole grains in helping regulate weight, blood sugar levels, and calorie (energy) use, among other benefits.

Unlike refined grains, which undergo extensive milling or other processing, whole grains are sold for consumption with their bran and other constituents intact—all rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber, carbohydrates, and phytonutrients.

Besides measuring weight and waist circumference, the researchers monitored all participants’ insulin and blood sugar levels, resting metabolic rates (energy expenditures while sedentary), and adherence to the whole-grain diets using specialized tests.

The participants were also asked about their dietary habits and activity levels. Analysis of stool samples helped to calculate calories excreted rather than burned or stored.

Among the results, participants in the whole-grain group lost approximately 100 more calories per day than refined-grain eaters—the equivalent of walking briskly for 30 minutes, notes Roberts. Her team attributes the lost calories in the whole-grain group primarily to increased metabolic rate and increased fecal energy losses.

In a tandem study, they founded that whole grains, even in the absence of a significant difference in weight, have a modest effect on gut microbiota, which could be beneficial in terms of reducing inflammation and improving immune response to pathogens.

Related to that, we observed that participants in the whole-grain group had cytokine levels similar to those of the refined-grain group but slightly higher number of immune cells involved in defense against pathogens—notably of infection-fighting memory T cells.

Specifically, the whole-grain diet gave a moderate boost to populations of beneficial Lachnospira bacteria, which make protective short-chain fatty acids and help counteract another bacterial species that contributes to inflammation.

Such gut bacteria comprise a larger community of microorganisms, called the microbiota, that live on or in the human body.

They are of increasing interest to scientists for the diverse and often beneficial roles they play, including helping digest food, extract nutrients, regulate metabolism, and protect against disease and infection, among others. (U.S. Department of Agriculture)

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