WINNIPEG — Beta glucan fibre in oats became a big deal in 1997, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said that eating oats “reduced the risk of coronary heart disease.”
Health Canada followed the FDA lead more than a decade later when it agreed that beta glucan lowered blood cholesterol.
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“The claim is relevant … given that a high proportion of the population (44 to 69 percent) is hyperlipidemic (high cholesterol) and that adults with normal or mildly elevated blood cholesterol concentrations could also benefit from increased oat intake,” Health Canada says.
Put simply, beta glucan lowers blood cholesterol by preventing unhealthy fats in the gut from entering the bloodstream.
“Beta glucan is not digestible. You don’t get any benefit like a drug,” said Sijo Joseph, a research scientist with Agriculture Canada in Winnipeg.
“The only way it can work is by entrapping and eliminating (fat) through the feces.”
Joseph and a team of researchers with Agriculture Canada have studied oat protein to see what it does for cardiovascular health.
They conducted studies on rats, where one group was fed oat protein and a control group was not. The oat protein group had lower levels of blood cholesterol, but the protein works differently than beta glucan.
Joseph said the rats digest the oat protein, and beneficial substances in the protein enter the bloodstream. It may function like a statin, a drug commonly prescribed for high cholesterol and high blood pressure.
“Statin drugs lower LDL cholesterol by slowing down the liver’s production of cholesterol,” says the U.S. Centre for Disease Control.
Joseph and his colleagues are planning a clinical study to see if the impact on rat health can be duplicated in humans.
