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Eating wholegrain cereals has already shown promise for lowering blood pressure and warding off heart attacks, but it may also significantly reduce the risk of heart failure, say US researchers.
They found that men who ate a daily bowl of wholegrain cereal had a 28 per cent lower risk of developing heart failure over a 20-year study.
"Eating half a cup to a cup of wholegrain breakfast cereal may help lower your blood pressure. It may help lower your risk of diabetes and heart disease," said Dr Luc Djousse of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.
"This study adds another piece to the puzzle. It may also lower your risk of heart failure," Dr Djousse said.
Around 5 million people in the United States have heart failure, and about 550,000 new cases of the chronic heart condition are diagnosed each year, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr Djousse and colleagues studied the breakfast habits of more than 21,000 male doctors with an average age of 53.7 years.
Men in the study tracked their cold cereal intake with questionnaires, and the researchers also tracked new cases of heart failure on an annual basis. Cereals with at least 25 per cent wholegrain or bran by weight were classified as wholegrain.
Over the course of the study, 1018 of the men had heart failure. Most new cases were in the men who ate no wholegrain cereals - 362 cases of heart failure out of nearly 7000 participants.
Those who ate at least one bowl a day of wholegrain cereal had the lowest incidence of heart failure, with 189 cases out of 4000.
Since heart failure often develops as the result of a heart attack, the study may simply be an added bonus to the already proven benefits of reduced blood pressure and heart attack risk that come with eating wholegrains, according to Dr Djousse.
Wholegrains had also been shown to help to control body weight and reduce the risk of diabetes, he said.
"The more fibre the cereal contains, the more likely you are getting the righttype."
He suggests looking for four grams of fibre or more per serving.
Heart failure is the leading cause of hospitalisation in the United States. It occurs when the heart becomes less efficient at pumping blood to the body's organs and is usually brought on by clogged arteries, high blood pressure or diabetes.
- Reuters
