Multi-Center Study Finds Compelling Evidence for Oat Beta-Glucan

Men and women from Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom consumed 2 servings of OatWell cereal per day for 4 weeks and, at the end of the 4 weeks, participants demonstrated a 5.5% average decrease in their LDL-cholesterol levels.

Sep 27 2010 --- A new study on oat beta-glucan & its viscosity effect published at American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has confirmed, with up-to-date data, that 3g/day bioactive beta-glucan from OatWell oat bran is effective to significantly lower LDL-cholesterol levels. Men and women from Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom consumed 2 servings of OatWell cereal per day for 4 weeks and, at the end of the 4 weeks, participants demonstrated a 5.5% average decrease in their LDL-cholesterol levels. This is beneficial for human health since 1% reduction in LDL-C reduces CHD risk by 2%. 3g/d of bioactive oat beta-glucan could reduce CHD by 10-12%. (1)

The researchers concluded that the study proved that beta-glucan affects LDL-cholesterol levels by increasing the viscosity of the gut contents. Researchers observed that when subjects consumed the cereal which produced the lowest gut viscosity there was no significant reduction in LDL-cholesterol. Thus, highlighting that development of viscosity in the upper gut (small intestines) was related to bioactivity. (2)

The study also discovered that the extrusion process used to make OatWell cereals makes the beta-glucan more soluble and, as a result, produces higher viscosity in the gut. Previously, there had been concern that processing – high temperature and pressure – would breakdown the beta-glucan molecules so much so that they would lose their effectiveness.

1)Wolever TMS, Tosh SM, Gibbs AL, Brand-Miller j, Duncan AM, Hart V, Lamarche B, Thomson BA, Duss R, Wood PJ, 2010 Physicochemical properties of oat β-glucan influence its ability to reduce serum LDL cholesterol in humans: a randomized clinical trial Am J Clin Nutr doi: 10.3945/ajcn. 2010.29174 (first published ahead of print July 21, 2010)
http://www.ajcn.org/future/92.4.dtl
http://www.fasebj.org/content/vol24/1_MeetingAbstracts/aindex.shtml

2)Tosh SM, Brummer Y, Miller SS, Regand A, Defelice C, Duss R, Wolever TMS and Wood PJ, 2010 Processing Affects Physicochemical Properties of β-Glucan in Oat Bran Cereal J Agric. Food Chem, 58; 7723-773. First published ahead of print June 9,2010 Journal of Agriculture and Food chemistry  2010   http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf904553u

www.oatwell.com, Adrian.Meyer@creanutrition-sof.com