Cereal Firms Are Defiant, Stick By Their Oat Bran : Food: Despite research discounting the grain’s role in reducing cholesterol, companies say they aren’t changing their marketing plans.
If the New England Journal of Medicine has its way, Wilford Brimley may have to eat his words, the ones he uses when he exhorts us to eat Quaker Oats because “it’s the right thing to do.”
A study published in the journal today charges that oat bran has little specific cholesterol-lowering effect. To cereal makers, who have poured millions of dollars into oat bran promotions, that’s tantamount to heresy and not to be believed.
“There’s 25 years worth of work--good quality work--that shows that oat bran does indeed lower serum cholesterol,” said Fred Shinnick, a research scientist for Quaker Oats Co. in Chicago. “We are aware of this study. . . . I don’t think it’s going to have any effect on how we market our cereals.”
Oat bran products have been the fastest-growing segment of the $6.5-billion cereal industry since Robert E. Kowalski published his best-selling diet book, “The Eight-Week Cholesterol Cure,” in 1987.
The number of new oat bran products introduced into the market--from cereals to pretzels and tortilla chips--has jumped dramatically in response, says Lynn Dornblaser, general manager of Gorman’s New Product News.
Manufacturers debuted five such foods in 1987, 44 in 1988 and 218 in 1989, Dornblaser said. And while such fiber-filled foods were originally hidden away in health-food stores, they now have a home on the shelves of mainstream groceries from coast to coast.
So there’s a lot to lose if oat bran’s properties are debunked. Although one analyst said Wednesday that cereal companies “have had the wind knocked out of them” by the study, most manufacturers and analysts argued that the one bad review won’t ruin their market. At least not immediately.
“I don’t think the American public will react to one study immediately, but there will be some impact,” said Lawrence Adelman, senior vice president for food, beverages and tobacco at Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. in New York. “And consumers will eventually react to that in terms of maybe cooling off the demand for oat bran-based cereal products.”
Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston followed 20 subjects for six weeks in the controversial experiment. The four men and 16 women were dietitians or other hospital employees. While continuing on their usual diets, participants ate supplements containing either 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of oat bran or low-fiber wheat for separate six week periods.
The study concluded that “oat bran has little cholesterol-lowering effect and that high-fiber and low-fiber dietary grain supplements reduce serum cholesterol levels about equally, probably because they replace dietary fats.”
Translation: Breakfast can be Cheerios or Cream of Wheat, just make sure it isn’t two fried eggs over easy, a side of sausage and an order of biscuits and gravy.
John C. Maxwell Jr., senior vice president of Wheat First Securities in Richmond, Va., was dubious on Wednesday and took particular exception to the study’s methodology. Six weeks aren’t long enough, he said, 20 subjects aren’t enough, and they can’t all be from the same place.
“I just don’t see that that says very much,” Maxwell argued. “To me, it’s a piece of sensationalism. Anyone who reads this study will put it in the proper perspective. There are tons of other studies that say exactly the opposite.”
Which is what you’ll hear if you talk to the makers of Heartwise, Common Sense Oat Bran, Cheerios, Oat Flakes, Oat Chex, Mueslix, Old Fashioned Quaker Oats, Oatmeal Raisin Crisp, Oat Bran Options, Real Oat Bran Cereal and Quaker Oat Bran High Oat Fiber Cereal.
“It would be foolish for cereal marketers or consumers to change their eating habits or marketing habits on the basis of this study,” said Craig Schulstad, director of corporate public relations for General Mills. “If this study is replicated several times, it will start to take on some meaning.”
The most important point about the study, said Schulstad, is that it does not contradict the surgeon general, the American Medical Assn. or other nutrition authorities when they exhort consumers to eat more complex carbohydrates and less saturated fat. Cheerios, General Mills’ flagship oat bran product, is a perfect part of just such a diet, he said.
At Kellogg Co. in Battle Creek, Mich., there are no plans to change their product line or their marketing strategy. Kellogg introduced Cracklin’ Oat Bran in 1976, Common Sense Oat Bran at the end of 1987 and Oatbake and Heartwise within two weeks of each other in the fall of 1989.
“Basically, Kellogg has always promoted our products as part of a balanced diet,” said Nancy Roach, company spokeswoman. “We do not claim that our oat bran products will lower cholesterol. We do indicate that these as well as all of our products are low in fat and make a significant contribution to the diet.”
And at Quaker Oats, neither Brimley, the apple-cheeked Quaker, nor cholesterol-cure author Kowalski will be out of a job because of the New England Journal of Medicine, said Polly Kawalek, director of product management.
The Quaker will smile out from print ads above the slogan “Oat Bran from the Expert.” Kowalski will tote his book in an ad that ends: “Exercise, a low-fat diet and Quaker Oat Bran--that’s how you can help fight cholesterol.”
And Brimley? He’ll keep telling us to do the right thing.
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