refined grains Archives - Amazing Health Advances

How Healthy Are Ancient Grains?

The AHA! Team — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 08:45:47 +0000

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM via Nutrition Facts – Ancient types of wheat, like kamut, are put to the test for inflammation, blood sugar, and cholesterol control. The number one killer in the United States and around the world is what we eat. As you can see in the graph below and at 0:15 in my video Friday Favorites: Are Ancient Grains Healthier?, our diet kills millions more than tobacco. What are the five most important things we can do to improve our diets, based on the single most comprehensive global study of the health impact of nutrition? Eat less salt, eat more nuts, eat more non-starchy vegetables, eat more fruit, and, finally, eat more whole grains. Any particular type of whole grains? What about so-called ancient grains? Are they any better than modern varieties? For instance, what about kamut, described as “mummy wheat” and supposedly unearthed from an Egyptian tomb? After WWII, the wheat industry selected particularly high-yielding varieties for pasta and bread. Over the past few years, though, some of the more ancient grains—“defined as those species that have remained unchanged over the last hundred years” despite agricultural revolutions—have been reintroduced to the market. As you can see below and at 1:13 in my video, nutritionally, kamut and einkorn wheat, which is the oldest wheat, have more eyesight-improving yellow carotenoid pigments, such as lutein and zeaxanthin, compared to modern bread and pastry wheat, because the pigments have been bred out of the bread intentionally. People want their white bread white, but modern pasta flour (durum wheat) maintains much of that yellow nutritional hue. As you can see in the graph below and at 1:41 in my video, modern wheat may have less lutein, but it tends to have more vitamin E, as seen in the graph below and at 1:45. Based on straight vitamin and mineral concentrations, it’s pretty much a wash. Both modern and primitive kinds of wheat have a lot of each, but primitive wheats do have more antioxidant capacity, likely due to their greater polyphenol content, as you can see in the graph below and at 2:00 in my video. To know if that makes any difference, though, we have to put it to the test. If you expose human liver cells to digested bread made out of ancient grains (kamut and spelt), heritage kinds of wheat, or modern strains, then expose the cells to an inflammatory stimulus, the modern wheat strains seem less able to suppress the inflammation, as you can see in the graphs below and at 2:09 in my video. The investigators conclude that even though these different grains seem to be very similar nutritionally, they appear to exert different effects on human cells, “conﬁrming the potential health beneﬁts of ancient grains.” That was in a petri dish, though. What about people? If ancient kinds of wheat are better at suppressing inflammation, what if you took people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and randomized them to receive six weeks of wheat products made out of modern wheat or ancient wheat—in this case, kamut? Same amount of wheat, just different types. If there is no difference between the wheats, there’d be no difference in people’s symptoms, right? But, when study participants in the control group were switched to the ancient wheat kamut, they experienced less abdominal pain, less frequent pain, less bloating, more satisfaction with stool consistency, and less interference with their quality of life, compared to the modern wheat. So, after switching to the ancient wheat, they had “a significant global improvement in the extent and severity of symptoms related to IBS…” What about liver inflammation? The liver function of those with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease randomized to eat kamut improved, compared to those eating the same amount of regular wheat, suggesting kamut is superior, as you can see below and at 3:47 in my video. People with diabetes, had better cholesterol and better insulin sensitivity on the same ancient grain, as shown below and at 3:57. And those with heart disease? They had better blood sugar control and better cholesterol, as shown below and at 4:03. And, people without overt heart disease had better artery function, as you can see below and at 4:06 in my video. The bottom line is that findings derived from human studies suggest that ancient wheat products are more anti-inflammatory and may improve things like blood sugar control and cholesterol. “Given that the overall number of human interventional trials conducted to date are numerically insufficient, it is not possible to deﬁnitively conclude that ancient wheat varieties are superior to all commercial, modern wheat counterparts in reducing chronic disease risk.” However, the best available data do suggest they’re better for us. Regardless of what type of wheat you may eat, a word to the wise: Don’t eat the plastic bread-bag clip. A 45-year-old man presented with bloody stools, and his CT scan showed the offending piece of plastic from his bag of bread, as you can see below and at 4:53 in my video. When the patient was questioned, he “admitted to habitually eating quickly without chewing properly.” Whole grains—ideally intact ones and ancient and modern varieties alike—are an integral part of my Daily Dozen checklist, the healthiest of healthy things I encourage everyone to try to fit into their daily routines. Whole grains are especially good for our microbiome. Learn more in the related posts below. What about gluten? Also, see the related posts below. Key Takeaways Diet is a major contributor to health, surpassing tobacco as the leading cause of death. Key dietary improvements include consuming less salt and more nuts, non-starchy vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. Ancient grains like kamut, considered unchanged over the last hundred years, have been reintroduced to the market recently. Nutritionally, they may differ from modern wheat, with higher levels of eyesight-improving carotenoid pigments and polyphenols. Modern wheat and ancient grains have comparable vitamin and mineral concentrations, but ancient grains exhibit higher antioxidant capacity due to greater polyphenol content. In a laboratory setting, bread made from ancient grains appears more effective at suppressing inflammation in human liver cells compared to modern wheat strains, indicating potential health benefits. Human trials show that switching to ancient wheat, such as kamut, can lead to improvements in symptoms related to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), liver function in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, cholesterol and insulin sensitivity in diabetes, and blood sugar control and artery function in heart disease, suggesting potential superiority over modern wheat in reducing chronic disease risk. To read the original article click here.

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Healthy Plant-Based Diet Associated With Lower Stroke Risk

AHA Publisher — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 07:00:12 +0000

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health via EurekAlert – Boston, MA – People who eat diets with higher amounts of healthy plant-based foods and lower amounts of less-healthy plant-based foods may reduce their risk of stroke compared to people with lower-quality diets, according to a new study led by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. They found that healthy plant-based diets–defined as rich in foods such as leafy greens, whole grains, and beans, and including lower levels of foods like refined grains, potatoes, and added sugars–may lower overall stroke risk by up to 10%. “Our findings have important public health implications, suggesting that future nutrition policies to lower stroke risk should take the quality of food into consideration,” said first author Megu Baden, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Nutrition. The study will be published online March 10, 2021, in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Evidence suggests that plant-based diets may lower the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other diseases; however, few studies have looked at whether these diets lower the risk of stroke, and their results have been inconsistent. In this study, researchers analyzed health data from 209,508 women and men in the Nurses’ Health Study, Nurses’ Health Study II, and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, who did not have cardiovascular disease or cancer at the start of their participation. They were followed for more than 25 years and completed diet questionnaires every two to four years. Participants were scored on diet quality based on the healthfulness of the plant-based foods that they ate. People who ate a serving or less of meat or fish per month were classified as vegetarians. The researchers found that a healthy plant-based diet–in addition to being linked with 10% lower overall stroke risk–was associated with a modest reduction in risk of ischemic stroke, the most common type of stroke, which occurs when blood flow to the brain is blocked. There was no association found between a healthy plant-based diet and reduced risk of hemorrhagic stroke, which occurs when an artery in the brain leaks blood or ruptures. In a separate analysis, the researchers did not find any association between a vegetarian diet and lowered risk of stroke, although they noted that the number of study participants classified as vegetarians was small. The researchers suggested that this result–as well as inconsistent results in prior studies looking at plant-based diets and stroke risk–may in part be explained by a high proportion of low-quality plant-based foods in participants’ diets. “Many individuals have been increasing the amount of plant-based components in their diet,” said Kathryn Rexrode, associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and co-author of the paper. “These results show that higher intake of healthy plant-based foods may help reduce long-term stroke risk, and that it is still important to pay attention to diet quality of plant-based diets.” To read the original article click here.

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WRONG Idea: Eating Healthy “Most of the Time” for Brain Health, New Study Warns

AHA Publisher — Fri, 22 Jan 2021 08:00:10 +0000

Joy Jensen via NaturalHealth365 – Many people try to follow a healthy diet like the Mediterranean diet. However, sometimes temptations win, and it’s easy to indulge in unhealthy foods, despite eating well most of the time. Unfortunately, new research shows there’s bad news about having “cheat days.” Scientists have looked closely at the Mediterranean diet and the health benefits it offers, but they have never dug into what happens when unhealthy foods are included in a mostly healthy diet. In a new study published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, researchers from Rush University Medical Center set out to uncover answers, and what they found was quite enlightening and disturbing! The More You “Cheat,” the Fewer Benefits Healthy Eating Offers to Your Brain, Study Reveals Following the Mediterranean diet – or another diet that emphasizes whole grains, fish, fruit, vegetables, and healthy fats, positively affects health. However, when you cheat on your diet, combining it with unhealthy options like processed meats, fried foods, refined grains, sweets, and red meat, the benefits of your normal healthy diet seem to be diminished. Since the Mediterranean diet has been linked to lower rates of cognitive decline in aging adults, researchers conducted an observational study on 5,001 aging adults in Chicago. These individuals were all a part of the Chicago Health and Aging Project, which evaluated cognitive health in older adults between 1993 and 2012. Participants in the study filled out questionnaires every three years, tested their memory and processing skills, and then weighed in on the foods they consumed. Rush researchers analyzed how closely these participants stuck with the Mediterranean diet, as well as how often they ate foods from the Western diet like sweets, fried foods, pizza, full-fat dairy, red meats, and refined grains. They discovered that when study participants added more Western foods, the Mediterranean diet had minimal effect against cognitive decline. Try Your Best to Stick to Your Diet to Reap MULTIPLE Other Health Benefits Along with showing the dangers of cheating on your diet, this recent study also complements additional studies on the Mediterranean diet showing that it reduces the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and some types of cancer. Some research even shows that sticking with a Mediterranean diet lowers the risk of premature death by as much as 30 percent. The bottom line: the more we eat healthy foods like fruits, whole grains, healthy fats, vegetables, and fish, the better it is for the body and brain. Many studies show that eating processed whole grains, fried foods, and processed meats are associated with cognitive decline, inflammation, and other negative health consequences. While it doesn’t mean you can never indulge, the key to better health is to avoid cheating as much as possible, sticking to the healthy foods that nourish your body and promote overall health. Sources for this article include: MedicalXpress.com, NaturalHealth365.com, NaturalHealth365.com To read the original article click here. For more articles from NaturalHealth365 click here.

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