Eat Cereal and have less Heart Disease?

Have you seen that cute little Cheerios ad where the little boy talks to his father or grandfather about eating a healthy breakfast so the man can pass his ‘test’ at the doctor’s office? According to researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, that little boy was onto something. From a study spanning over 20 years that analyzed data from more than 20,000 doctors, men who ate significantly more whole-grain cereal (7 servings or more per week) had significantly less (28% lower) risk for heart failure than non-healthy-cereal-consuming men. Men who had 2 – 6 servings of whole-grain goodness cut their risk by a solid 22%. While this is definitely not an excuse to overindulge your cereal cravings, it is a good reason to make a healthy breakfast a consistent part of your day. Whole – grain cereals also often pack other health benefits too. Here are some whole grain cereals to try out:

Cheerios
Grape-nuts
Nutri-Grain
Raisin bran
Shredded Wheat
Total
Wheaties
Kashi, various

It’s also important that the study was based on serving sizes – 1/2 cup to 1 whole cup of cereal. Doctors recommend accompanying those grains with skim milk.