The Power Of Whole Grain Consumption Against Coronary Diseases

The old saying about you are what you eat definitely holds true when you are trying to avoid heart disease. You eat fatty foods and that fat tends to end up collecting in some of...

The old saying about you are what you eat definitely holds true when you are trying to avoid heart disease. You eat fatty foods and that fat tends to end up collecting in some of the arteries in your body, blocking proper blood flow. However, whole grains are surprisingly a strong opponent to heart risks and when you consume several servings a day, your risk for heart attack and other heart related problems lowers.

There have been a number of studies bandied about regarding whole grains and one of them says that just by introducing breakfast cereal into your daily diet that contains whole grains, you could reduce your risk of heart disease by almost 30% over time. Of course, you have to eat cereal that has not be processed or refined with a ton of sugars, hydrogenated stuff or other unnatural things added to it.

A number of whole grain products exist, more than you think! If you are not quite sure how to introduce whole grain products into your diet and that of your family’s, take baby steps. Purchase whole grain wheat pasta and cook it with some white pasta to become accustomed to the flavor and then slowly replace the white pasta with the wheat. Replace your white bread with whole wheat or grain varieties.

Try wild rice or brown rice varieties over the white versions. Consider incorporating more corn, oats, rye and barley products and try new ones such as quinoa, millet, buckwheat and triticale. When you are choosing whole grain products, ensure the packaging doesn’t just say “derived from” or “made from” whole grain products. This means these may have components of whole grains but likely all the good stuff has been processed out. You need to ensure the grain still packs the fibrous, nutritional punch that lowers your heart risk.

You want to choose whole grain products that are obtained from the grain’s seeds that have not had the outside coating of the grain seed removed. This coating is the bran or germ components where all of the healthy nutritional value lies. If you choose a product with refined grains, the germ and bran has been removed, leaving only the endosperm which contains the simple carbohydrates that adds fat to your body.

The fiber content of whole grains is part of the reason why it is so good for you. These fibers improve on your digestion and they also do not raise your blood sugar, unlike refined products. The vitamins, minerals and antioxidants help in lowering blood pressure, cholesterol and more, which in turn, lowers heart disease risk.

Switching from white refined rice, flours and pastas does take some getting used to which is why you should slowly introduce them as mentioned above. Mix the white products and the “brown” whole grain products together. Slowly remove the white products until you are just left with the healthy wholesome whole grain. Whole grains are an acquired taste but once you really enjoy them, it is rather hard to switch back to products made with white flours.

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