Whole Grain Intake and Mortality

This chapter reviews the evidence for an association between intake of whole grains and both total and cause-specific mortality. It presents issues pertaining to dietary patterns and human intervention studies and cardiovascular mortality and cancer mortality. The results of the studies of cardiovascular mortality or ischemic heart disease mortality display some more variability than for total mortality, but the results are based on fewer cases of death per study. The prospective cohort studies report a fairly consistent decrease in total mortality, regardless of whether they studied single whole grain products or total whole grains, and at different levels of intake. Results from both a priori and a posteriori studies of dietary patterns have suggested that whole grains play a role as a part of a healthful dietary pattern. Antioxidants, dietary fibre and many phytochemicals in the whole grain contribute to its anti-inflammatory properties.