A bowl of oatmeal, a sandwich on whole-grain bread and a side of brown rice may do more for your heart and overall health than you think, according to a new study.
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Eating four to six servings of whole grains each day may offer the greatest benefits for heart health, lowering body weight, cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure, a large meta-analysis published in the European Heart Journal found.
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The analysis reviewed data from 87 randomized trials involving more than 6,500 people across Asia, Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and Brazil.
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It found that many of the greatest benefits occurred when people ate about 60 to 100 grams of whole grains daily — about what you would get from a bowl of oatmeal, two slices of whole-grain bread and a serving of brown rice, according to the researchers.
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"This is the largest and most comprehensive meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials on whole-grain intake and cardiovascular risk factors," lead author Helda Tutunchi, of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in Iran, said in a statement.
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People who consumed more whole grains had lower body weight, waist circumference, blood pressure, total cholesterol, LDL ("bad") cholesterol, triglycerides, blood glucose and levels of interleukin-6, an inflammatory marker, the study also found.
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One key finding, Tutunchi noted, was that whole grains appeared to boost heart health through "several modest improvements acting together, rather than through one large effect on a single factor."
The researchers cautioned, however, that most of the studies they looked at were short and did not measure heart attacks or strokes directly.
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Longer-term research is still needed, they said.
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Four to six servings of whole grains is more than the two to four servings the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend — and many Americans don't even hit that, said Lauren Manaker, a South Carolina-based registered dietitian nutritionist.
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"Going from zero to six is a lot," Manaker, who wasn't involved in the study, told Fox News Digital.
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"My recommendation is to start slow.
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Simple swaps can include starting the day with oatmeal or overnight oats, or replacing refined grains with whole-grain sides such as sorghum or brown rice, she said.
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Consumers should also be careful not to assume every brown-colored loaf at the supermarket is whole grain, Manaker added.
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"We want to look at the ingredient list and make sure one of the first ingredients is a whole grain," she said.
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"We also want to look at the nutrition panel and make sure there's some fiber in there."
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Whole grains contain all three parts of the grain kernel — the bran, germ and endosperm — rather than having some parts removed during processing, the researchers noted.
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While researchers say more studies are needed, they concluded that increasing whole-grain intake is "a relatively simple, accessible and affordable dietary strategy" that can complement other heart-healthy habits.
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In an editorial that accompanied the report, Cecilie Kyro of the Danish Cancer Institute in Copenhagen and her colleagues encouraged policies that make minimally processed whole-grain staples accessible, affordable and culturally acceptable while also "avoiding a drift towards ultra-processed products."
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Fox News Digital reached out to the study's authors for comment.
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