Go with the grain and protect your heart

SWITCHING from white to brown rice could save you from a heart attack, new research has found.

The grain has been hailed as a new superfood and a potential weapon in the fight against heart disease across the UK.

Brown rice has also been found to fight high cholesterol.

Researchers say the heart-attack fighting qualities of brown rice are found in the layer just under the outer brown layer, which gives the rice its colour.

These two layers are lost when rice is polished to be turned into white rice.

Researchers from America's Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia and Japan's Wakayama Medical University have found that the sub-layer in brown rice could reduce heart disease.

Prof Satoru Eguchi, of Temple University, said a component in brown rice would fight high blood pressure.

"Brown rice might have an advantage over white rice by offering protection from high blood pressure and atherosclerosis or 'hardening of the arteries'," he said.

Researchers found that the sub-layer of rice was able to fight cholesterol activity in cultured lab samples and also prevent hardening of the arteries which causes heart attacks.

Prof Eguchi said: "This suggests that the sub-layer of rice offers protection against high blood pressure."