Eating four to six servings of whole grains a day may deliver meaningful benefits for heart health, according to a large review of 87 clinical trials. Researchers found improvements in body weight, waist size, blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, triglycerides, and some markers of inflammation.

A meta-analysis of 87 randomized trials found that increasing whole-grain intake was associated with improvements in several cardiometabolic risk factors, although many individual changes were small or clinically unimportant. Dose-response analyses suggested that the magnitude of the effects varied by outcome and intake level, with limited evidence at very high intakes.