Thursday, November 2, 2017

Whole Grain Spinning

It's interesting how news reports of nutritional studies can spin the results, probably without the authors realizing that's what they're doing.

Take a recent report titled "Several reasons why whole grains are healthy." Now, you see a headline like that and you're apt to think "Whole grains good" and you might eat more of them, increasing your carbohydrate consumption.

Yet the article might just as well have well been titled "Several reasons why processed grains are not healthy." In that case you would be apt to think, "Processed grains bad" and eat less of them. Instead,  you might eat more whole grains, or you might eat more fish or broccoli or beef or whatever. And if you have diabetes, the latter would be more beneficial for your blood glucose levels.

The study I cited took 50 adults at risk of cardiovascular disease or diabetes and had them substitute whole grains for the processed grains they usually ate. They found that doing so reduced the amount of inflammatory markers in these adults.

I have no problem with the study or the results. Just with the way it's spun.


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