It’s conference season in medicine and the ACC abstract “Consumption of Breakfast Cereals and Risk of Heart Failure: The Physicians’ Health Study” has nothing to do with the usual treatments, but doesn’t fight them, either.
Eating a bowl of wholegrain cereals every day could reduce the risk of heart failure by 27 per cent: if you’re on ACE-inhibitors, ARBs, Aldactone (spironolactone), Inspra, (eplerenone), Loop diuretics (furosemide), Thiazide diuretics, Coreg (carvedilol),
Toprol-XL (metoprolol), other Beta-blockers, BiDil (fixed dose isosorbide dinitrate and hydralazine hydrochloride), Hydralazine hydrochloride (HYD) , isosorbide dinitrate (ISDN), isosorbide mononitrate (ISMN) or nitroglycerin…then you need this study.
10,469 cereal-eating physicians, average age 54 years old, ate two to six servings of wholegrain breakfast cereals over 24 years. They reduced their risk of heart failure by 22 per cent.
Definition of whole grain? At least 51 percent whole grains by weight.
Euphemism for fiber? Whole grain.
What to look for in cereal: At least 5 grams of fiber per serving.
Good cereal choices: Almost anything from Kashi. (Go Lean Crunch has 10 grams per serving). Trader Joe’s High Fiber Cereal line: Plain and Strawberry. All Bran. All Bran Buds, Steel-cut (not rolled, not instant) oats.
Take a hard look at: Cheerios, Granolas, anything with more than 8 grams of sugar per serving…likely to be a ground up cookie.
Hot and cold other excellent whole grain cereals here.
e it is likely to strike more of a chord of recognition for its healthy benefits.
The new study used food frequency questionnaires to assess the consumption of wholegrain and refined grain cereals and related this to the incidence of heart failure from 1982 to 2006.
How much gets you the benefit? Seven or more servings per week gets a 28 per cent reduction in the risk of heart failure. Two to six servings per week was associated with a 22 per cent risk reduction. One serving per week reduced the risk of heart failure by 14 per cent.
Good news: even for healthy people, it works.
But why?
Perhaps because whole grains are rich in calcium and magnesium, which helps mitochondria, the engines of the muscle cells, to boost energy production. But no one knows.
Heart failure comes about when the heart weakens and cannot pump efficiently. Tens of millions of people have it in the U.S. and about 14 million people in Europe: it is the end stage of heart disease.
See your doctor. And your cereal aisle.