All-cause mortality in relation to intake of whole grain
Nina Føns Johnsen, Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society, Copenhagen, Denmark
Whole grains contain a wide range of compounds with beneficial health effects on cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. Traditional analyses have focused on isolated nutrients, but it now seems like the effect of whole grains may be more protective than can be predicted from these singe-nutrient-approach studies. Some studies have investigated the association between intake of whole grains and mortality, but in many of these studies, the participants had very low intakes of whole grain products — and consequently, weak possibility of detecting an association, if one exists. In a large European population, including about 500 000 men and women from ten countries in Europe we aim to investigate the association between all-cause mortality and intake of whole grain and whole grain products. The main advantage of this study, besides its size, is that it includes participants from the Nordic countries with long tradition for eating whole grains, which gives us perfect possibilities for studying health effects whole grains.