Originally published August 6 2005
Whole grain foods contribute to healthy hearts.
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
New research has found that a diet rich in whole grains can lead to a healthier heart.
Women with a history of heart disease who participated in a research study and reported having eaten six or more servings of per week had slower progression of atherosclerosis, a condition in which built-up plaque narrows the passageways through which blood flows.
Researchers funded by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and other granting agencies reported the findings in the July issue of the American Heart Journal.
This latest piece of scientific evidence shows that food manufacturers introducing wholegrain products are right to emphasize the health-giving properties of whole grains.
Insufficient milling breakthroughs had, until last year, prevented bakers from making a wholegrain bread with a similar taste and texture to white bread, the preferred choice of most Americans.
But in August last year, ConAgra Food Ingredients produced a wholegrain flour using a special white winter wheat and patent-pending new technology to achieve a finely milled product, Ultragrain, with a similar texture to refined flour products.
This is an extra-fine flour designed to produce finished goods with the health benefits of whole-wheat flour and the consumer appeal of white flour.
The 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans urges people to consume at least three servings of whole-grain foods per day, but experts say currently most Americans consume less than a single serving of whole grains daily.
The ARS study was led by Alice Lichtenstein, director of the Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts.
The researchers found that the progression of stenosis - narrowing of the diameter of arterial passageways - was less in women who reported higher intakes of cereal fiber from whole-grain foods than those reporting lower intakes.
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