Thin gruels, hard breads and stodgy may not sound much like superfoods but these humble meals fuelled our forebears as they worked long days in the fields. They were nutritional powerhouses in comparison with the sugary cereals and fluffy white loaves that many of us eat today. What they lacked in finesse, they more than made up for in nutritional value as potent sources of fibre-rich, nutrient-dense whole grains.
Since then, consumption of whole grains has dropped to the extent that, according to the 2019 Global Burden of Disease study, a diet low in whole grains was linked to almost 215,000 preventable deaths and more than 3.5m years of life lost due to ill-health, disability or early death in the EU in 2019 alone. Studies on whole grain intake are few – most focus more broadly on fibre intake – but an oft-cited UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey back in 2015 found that only 17% of UK adults are eating the recommended amount.
This matters because research shows that eating 50g of whole grains daily is linked to 25% lower incidence of Type 2 diabetes, a 20% reduced risk of heart failure and a 12% reduction in cancer deaths.
