From white rice to cake flour. Americans have a soft spot for highly, processed cereal grains. We also have a weakness for strokes, which kill 160, 000 of us each year and deprive thousands of speech 

 and mobility. New research; published in The Journal of the American Medical Assodction, suggests there may be a connection. Researchers: led by Dr. Simin Liu of Harvard Medical School analyzed stroke rates among 75, 521 healthy U.S. women who were followed for 12 years as part of the ongoing. Nurses' .Health Study. Those who averaged even 2.7 servings of whole grains each day( the government recommends 3) were nearly 43 percent less likely to suffer a stroke, regardless of their other risk factors, than were those with the lowest consumption.