Eat more whole grains to live longer

Consuming nearly four servings of whole grains such as bran, oatmeal and quinoa a day can reduce the risk of premature death, says a new study.
The findings showed that the multiple bio-active compounds in the whole grains contribute to various health benefits.

Also, whole grains contain high fiber that is likely to lower cholesterol production, glucose response and increase satiety.
Further, people who consume around 70 grams of whole grains a day showed 22 per cent lower risk of total mortality, 23 per cent lower risk of heart diseases mortality as well as a 20 per cent lower risk of cancer mortality in comparison to those who ate little or no whole grains.

“These findings further support current dietary guidelines that recommend at least three daily servings (or 48 grams) of whole grains to improve long-term health and prevent premature death,” said Qi Sun, Assistant Professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in the US.
The results were published online in the journal Circulation.

People should choose foods that are high in whole grain ingredients and reduce the consumption of unhealthy refined carbohydrates, the researchers suggested.
For the study, the team conducted a meta-analysis of 12 published studies and which included 786,076 people in US, Britain and the Scandinavian countries between 1970 and 2010.

Keep healthy options first to distract kids from junk food

Do you want your children to eat more healthy food and less fast food? Researchers have recommended placing healthy food more visibly, attractively and conveniently so that your child can eat and stay healthy.

Strongly preferred foods, like fries at fast food restaurants or red meat at buffets, are so standard that it can be difficult to get people-especially children-to opt for healthier options, even if the healthy option is the default.

The findings indicated that more children choose French fries over apples when apples were presented as the default option.
“We guessed that children would opt out of a healthier default when much-loved fries were an option,” said David Just from the Cornell Food and Brand Lab in the US.

“We were surprised that this was the case even for a relatively attractive healthy option like apple slices,” Just added in a paper published in the journal BMC Research Notes.

The team analysed 15 children aged from six to eight in which they ordered meal of chicken nuggets from a fast food restaurant to see if they would opt out of the healthy option.

Half of the children were given fries with their meal and told they could exchange them for apples and the other half were given apples and told that they could exchange them for fries.

The results suggested that even when the default side was apples, 86.7 percent opted to swap for fries.

“A more realistic solution would be to offer a smaller portion of fries with apples and in this way, children aren’t forfeiting their favourite food; they are just eating less of it,” said another researcher Brian Wansink.