Grains Choice for CVD

The staple food in Malaysia is rice and it is mostly consumed by Malaysian. Rice is one of the grain products that is believed to have effect on reducing the risk of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD).

However, there is a lot of CVD cases in Malaysia although most of us are eating grains product. Hmm, maybe there is something that we don't know about grains? So, let us know in details about grains and CVD.

Grain product consist of wheat, rice, oats, cornmeal, barley, bread, pasta, oatmeal, tortillas, grits and breakfast cereals. It is divided into 2 groups - Whole Grains and Refined Grains. If you are going to eat the grains product, choose the nutritious one! And the answer is the WHOLE GRAINS. But why? See the structure of the whole grains;

Whole grains consist of the bran, germ and endosperm with so many nutrients inside it. Which is the most important in CVD is the fiber content and low fat as it help in reducing total cholestrol and LDL level. But, refined grains only consist of the endosperm and has lost many of the nutrients. Although most of the refined grains product had been fortified with certain vitamins B (thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folic acid) and iron, the fiber are not added back after processing. 

The best way to identify your foods contain of the whole grains or not is by read the food labels. Most of Malaysian doesn't care of reading the labels especially the nutrition information. As long as the food is tasty, cheap, and meet their desire, it will be chosen. Stop this habit! You should concern more about what you eat today. To find foods with whole grains is a bit challenges as the product may state 'whole grain' even its content is very low. So, see the first list of the ingredients as it state the main ingredients of the products. The list below are some of the ingredients that may help you to choose a wise whole grains product. 

• Bulgur (cracked wheat)
• Whole wheat flour
• Whole oats/oatmeal
• Whole grain corn/corn meal
• Popcorn
• Brown rice
• Whole rye
• Whole grain barley
• Wild rice
• Buckwheat
• buckwheat flour
• Triticale
• Millet
• Quinoa
• Sorghum

Fiber content in the whole grain products shows significant inversely relationship with the CVD occurance compared to fiber from other source based on studies from American Heart Association and the recommendations is 25 to 30 gram/day intake from dietary source. So, choose whole grain and it may help you to achieve the recommendations!