Plenty of fad diets throughout the years have made the suggestion of doing away with grains; from low carbohydrate diets, to gluten free, and even paleo. New research however suggests that eating a diet rich in whole grains could be a simple answer for extending the lifespan.

The long term study was done at the Harvard School of Public Health and was published in JAMA Internal Medicine. The study concluded that eating whole grains regularly might be able to reduce the risk of death by up to 15 percent.

The study gathered information from over 117,000 people from the mid 1980s until 2010. Researchers carefully adjusted for factors that could have an impact on the findings, such as ages, different levels of physical activity, smoking habits, body mass index, and diet overall.

It was actually found that the people who eat more whole grains in their diet also engage in more physical activity and engage in less risky behaviors like smoking and drinking than people who did not eat a lot of whole grains.

Part of the health benefits attributed to eating whole grains has to do with the fact that they cut down the risk of developing heart disease. The type of fiber that whole grains offer is the type that helps bind with cholesterol in the body and flush it out instead of being reabsorbed into the body.

Lowering the levels of cholesterol in the intestinal track can ultimately lead to lower cholesterol levels overall, reduce blood sugar in some people, and reduce blood pressure in people who have high blood pressure. All of these things together significantly reduce the risk of developing heart disease overall.

The study suggests that people get one quarter of their daily diet from grains. Sources of whole grains include oatmeal, brown rice, bran, barley, and farro. Interestingly, wheat germ does not seem to have the same health benefits as the whole grains. Processed foods and breads are generally not the best sources of fiber and whole grains because the stripping process reduces the amount of heart health fiber in the meal.

Whole grains have plenty of health benefits beyond the fiber content as well. Whole grains are a good source of nutrients like magnesium, vitamin E, and phytochemicals. They can reduce inflammation in the body, prevent damage that occurs to the DNA in the body, and keep the blood vessels healthy.

When whole grains are added to the diet, they can impart even greater health benefits when they are used to replace red meats and refined grains. Switching one serving a day of refined grains to whole grains can reduce the risk of dying from a cardiovascular disease by 8 percent, while swapping out the red meat for whole grains can cut the risk by 20 percent.

It is still undermined if eating whole grains can help to reduce the risk of dying from cancer or not, but the other helpful health benefits seem entirely worthy of incorporating more of them into the diet. Something to consider when you weight the pros and cons of every new fad diet that comes along.