Whole grain 250 g Woman +2.05 years Man +2.6 years
What is your first childhood memory of freshly baked goods? My grandmother Nanny used to bake thin, fine-grained wholemeal flatbread where every bite tasted of Norrland’s baker’s huts. Mom learned to bake from her mother, Elsa, in Klinthult in Småland, and Elsa learned to bake from her mother in Lammhult. Elsa was widely known for her cooking - and Grandpa used to slip into the pantry (which you walked into and whose smell I remember as a mixture of crusts and country store) and bake her pastries after a hard day’s work in the woods.
Grandfather had three daughters, and when one of the four women in the house found him in the pantry, he said, “I’m a bad person” for taking the tip of everything. Mother gave the lecture “The Aunts of My Childhood.” and told about aunts and neighbor women who met over coffee and freshly baked goods in all their forms.
But the whole grain disappeared in some generations that baked before us, and only the processed white flour remained. Our culture, which is full of refined flour, makes it difficult to change the taste palette to appreciate the raw, unprocessed - but therein lies a complex, more excellent taste sensation.
Initially, everything was whole grain, giving us health benefits that refined grains lost. The invention of industrialized rolling mills at the end of the 19th century removed the bran and germ, and the easily digestible endosperm with a longer shelf life remained. Refining wheat removes half of the B vitamins, 90% of vitamin E, almost all fiber, and cancer-preventing phytochemicals.
Positive effects: The study “Estimation of the impact of food choices on life expectancy” shows that whole grains give you more years. An example of a longer lifespan is 250 g of whole grains per day for a 20-year-old who consumes 2322 kcal: Woman +2.05 years, Man +2.6 years.
Fadnes LT, Økland J-M, Haaland ØA, Johansson KA (2022) https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=...
A 17-year study found that women who consumed at least two servings of whole grains daily had a 30% lower risk of dying from inflammation-related conditions.
Jacobs DR, Jr., Andersen LF, Blomhoff R. Whole-grain consumption is associated with a reduced risk of noncardiovascular, noncancer death attributed to inflammatory diseases in the Iowa Women’s Health Study. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007;85:1606-14.
Studies of 786,000 individuals showed that 70 grams of whole grains per day (compared to little or no whole grains) resulted in a 22% lower risk of death, 23% lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease, and 20% lower risk of death from cancer.
Zong G, Gao A, Hu FB, Sun Q. Whole Grain Intake and Mortality From All Causes, Cardiovascular Disease, and Cancer: A Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies. Circulation. 2016;133:2370-80.
According to the Nurses’ Health Study conducted by Harvard University over ten years, women who eat 2 to 3 servings of whole grains daily are 30% less likely to experience a heart attack or die from heart disease than those who consume less than one serving per week.
Liu S, Stampfer MJ, Hu FB, et al. Whole-grain consumption and risk of coronary heart disease: results from the Nurses’ Health Study. Am J Clin Nutr. 1999;70:412-9.
According to a study that tracked the health and diet of over 160,000 women for up to 18 years, those who consumed 2 to 3 servings of whole grains daily had a 30% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes than those who rarely included whole grains.
de Munter JS, Hu FB, Spiegelman D, Franz M, van Dam RM. Whole grain, bran, and germ intake and risk of type 2 diabetes: a prospective cohort study and systematic review. PLoS Med. 2007;4:e261.
A study of more than 72,000 women without diabetes at baseline found that the higher the intake of whole grains, the more significant the risk reduction for type 2 diabetes. A study found that women who ate at least two servings of whole grains daily had a 43% reduced risk compared to those who did not.
Parker ED, Liu S, Van Horn L, et al. The association of whole grain consumption with incident type 2 diabetes: the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study. Ann Epidemiol. 2013;23:321-7.
A review of 4 extensive population studies showed a protective effect of whole grains against colorectal cancer with up to 21% lower risk.
Aune D, Chan DS, Lau R, et al. Dietary fibre, whole grains, and risk of colorectal cancer: systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of prospective studies. BMJ. 2011;343:d6617.
Tip: Go back to how your ancestors ate and always choose whole grains. The taste buds are rearranged, and you soon think that ordinary pasta and white bread taste boring. Whole grains protect your body like a bulletproof vest or bike helmet, making it easy at the grocery store.
If it’s not 100% whole grain - don’t buy it at home, and don’t put it in your body. 100% whole grain (read the contents and not the misleading cover) simplifies the action - choose two instead of 30 varieties of pasta. Instead of 50 types of bread, choose from 4 - or bake yourself.
You feel fuller and eat less wholemeal bread than white bread - so you buy less. Anxiety over free choice is something philosophers have written about for centuries - and when you cut choices to what makes you feel good and what protects your body, life becomes more accessible.
Gain freedom and independence when you control what you put in your mouth instead of letting food chains and brands rule. You go from being led to becoming the ship’s captain and taking the helm in life.