Study: Live longer by eating more oatmeal

Lori Grisham | USA TODAY Network

A bowl of oatmeal a day could keep the grim reaper away, according to the results of a study from the Harvard School of Public Health.

The long-term study, published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, found that eating more whole-grain foods could lower an individual's risk of death by as much as 15%.

Researchers reviewed data from 74,000 women and 43,000 men who completed surveys every two to four years about their diet from the mid-1980s to the 2000s.

They found that each 1-ounce serving of whole grains resulted in a 9% drop in the risk of cardiovascular disease-related deaths. And swapping out one serving of red meat per day with a serving of whole grains reduced the risk of death from cardiovascular disease by 20%.

"This study further endorses the current dietary guidelines that promote whole grains as one of the major healthful foods for prevention of major chronic diseases," Qi Sun, a senior author of the study, said in a statement.

The study did not find any connection between eating whole grains and reducing the risk of death from cancer.

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