Intake of whole grain foods and risk of coronary heart disease in US men and women

BACKGROUND: Epidemiological studies have demonstrated a favorable association of whole grain intake with coronary heart disease (CHD) risk, although whether such an inverse association holds true for individual whole grain foods that have various nutritional profiles has not been examined. METHODS: We followed 74,244 women from Nurses’ Health Study since 1986, 91,430 women from Nurses’ Health Study II since 1991, and 39,455 men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study since 1984, who did not have a history of cardiovascular disease or cancer at baseline. Intake of seven individual whole grain foods was repeatedly assessed using a validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire every 2–4 years since baseline. CHD diagnoses were ascertained through review of medical records or death certificates. RESULTS: We documented 9461 CHD cases during an average of 25.8 years’ follow-up. In the multivariable-adjusted model, the pooled hazard ratio (HR) (95% CI) of CHD risk corresponding to each one serving/day consumption of total whole grains was 0.93 (0.90–0.95; p trend <0.0001). Higher consumption of most individual whole grain foods was associated with significantly lower risk of CHD. Comparing participants consuming ≥1 serving/day with those consuming < 1 serving/month, the multivariable-adjusted pooled HRs (95% CIs) of CHD were 0.83 (0.78–0.89) for whole grain cold breakfast cereal, 0.92 (0.86–0.99) for dark bread, and 1.08 (0.96–1.22) for popcorn. For other whole grain foods with lower overall intake levels, comparing intake level of ≥2 servings/week with < 1 serving/month, the pooled hazard ratios (95% CIs) were 0.79 (0.74–0.84) for oatmeal, 0.79 (0.71–0.87) for brown rice, 0.84 (0.78–0.90) for added bran, and 0.87 (0.77–0.99) for wheat germ. Cubic spline regression suggested non-linear associations for certain whole grain foods: the risk reduction plateaued approximately over 2 servings/day for total whole grains, 0.5 serving/day for both cold breakfast cereal and dark bread, 0.5 serving/week for oatmeal, 1 serving/week for brown rice, and 2 serving/week for added bran (p for non-linearity <0.01 for all associations). CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that higher consumption of total whole grains, as well as individual whole grain foods except popcorn, were significantly associated with lower CHD risk. The inverse associations may plateau at various intake levels for total whole grain and individual whole grain foods. This study provides further evidence in support of increasing whole grain intake for the prevention of CHD in US populations. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12916-022-02396-z.