Whole grains and cardiometabolic health: strong evidence, new questions in an ultra-processed world

“For clinicians, the message from Naghshi et al. is reassuringly simple: encouraging patients to replace refined grain foods with minimally processed whole grains is likely to yield modest but meaningful improvements in body weight, waist circumference, and blood lipids, perhaps particularly in individuals with type 2 diabetes. At the population level, even small shifts in these markers can translate into substantial reductions in cardiometabolic events. Adding evidence from research into other disease endpoints indicates that the beneficial effects of whole-grains foods even go substantially beyond cardiometabolic disease.”

“This is the largest and most comprehensive meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials on wholegrain intake and cardiovascular risk factors. Unlike previous reviews, we looked specifically at how much wholegrain people need to eat to get the greatest benefits. We also evaluated the certainty of the evidence and found high-certainty evidence for improvements in several outcomes, including body weight, waist circumference and total cholesterol.”