Over the years, much has been said about the benefits of a diet rich in whole grains, such as the fact that it may help weight management in patients, plus the heavy fiber composition aid with constipation; now, it has been suggested that, for whole grains, mortality decrease may be in the list of benefits.

A new study has pointed to the possibility that whole grains and mortality decrease could be among the benefits of a diet healthy in foods like barley, oats, rye and wheat among others; the more a person eats this type of food in their diet, the longer their lives will be.

According to Science Daily, scholars made the new discovery regarding whole grains and mortality from different universities, such as the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. The research paper is called "Association Between Dietary Whole Grain Intake and Risk of Mortality" and was published in the online version of the journal by JAMA Internal Medicine at the beginning of 2015.

According to Medical Daily, for their research regarding whole grains and mortality, the scientists studied 74,341 women from 1984 to 2010 and 43,744 men from 1986 to 2010, taking their data from the Nurses' Health Study - everything from age to smoking, body mass index and even whole grain intake was measured. And, in all, it was found that those who had consumed more whole grains in their period had a much lower mortality rate, as well as lower risk for cardiovascular disease.

"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," said Qi Sun, the senior author of the study and an assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, to the Los Angeles Times.

The idea of consumption of whole grains and mortality having a favorable relationship hadn't been found so directly up until now, but earlier studies had shown that a high intake of these foods could lower the risk of disease like type-2 diabetes.