Barley Gets a Boost as a Cholesterol Fighter
The grain family’s cholesterol-fighting ability got another boost last week with the release of a new study at a chemists’ convention.
This time it was barley’s turn to demonstrate a tendency to lower elevated blood cholesterol levels in humans, according to a report presented at the American Chemical Society’s national meeting in Boston.
The author, Rosemary K. Newman of Montana State University, found that “Barley is right up there with oats as one of the best foods for lowering cholesterol.”
The findings emerged from two separate feeding studies conducted by Newman, a professor in the school’s Plant and Soil Science Department. Although the groups’ sample sizes were small, the results are promising.
In the largest study, 22 men and women with elevated cholesterol levels were chosen. The group was then split into two sections. One set of participants was served a six-week diet that included three products--cereal, muffins or flat bread--made from oat flour. The other set of subjects were served the same baked goods, except that the items were prepared with barley flour.
“There was a lowering of cholesterol of up to 14% in both groups with no appreciable difference between (the two),” Newman reports.
(Oat bran’s ability to effectively battle cholesterol was minimized in a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. However, the journal report has subsequently been questioned by leading researchers in the cholesterol field. In a separate development, rice bran has also demonstrated cholesterol-lowering capabilities.)
The other Newman study demonstrated that baked barley products, when incorporated into a four-week diet, were more effective in lowering levels of low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol, or that form of the substance considered harmful, than were baked wheat products.
The author theorizes that an ingredient in barley--beta-glucans--works in conjunction with other soluble fibers to partially prevent the absorption of dietary fats and cholesterol in the intestine.
Another important component of barley--tocotrienol--also works to suppress cholesterol production in the liver, Newman reported.
“Therefore, we believe that barley has an advantage over all other grains in controlling cholesterol,” she said.
Health Claims Stall--Whether barley growers and processors will capitalize on the grain’s cholesterol-fighting potential is not as clear as it was just a few months ago.
Prior to February, food manufacturers rushed to make health claims on product labels or packaging when any such encouraging research was published. But the activity has subsided now that the U. S. Food and Drug Administration is close to adopting new regulations on any health-related statements on product labels or in advertising, according to an advocacy group’s newsletter.
Nutrition Week, a publication of the Washington-based Community Nutrition Institute, reports that the FDA will intensify enforcement of “inappropriate health claims” made on food products.
The newsletter reports that breakfast cereals are likely to receive a great deal of the agency’s regulatory attention because of the proliferation of health claims made in this category.
Kellogg’s is believed to have been the first to incorporate health information on a product package when it stated that a high-fiber diet might reduce the risk of cancer. The statement appeared on Kellogg’s All-Bran cereal, which is advertised as a high-fiber food.
In announcing the agency’s labeling proposal, Health and Human Services Secretary Louis W. Sullivan virtually acknowledged that things had gotten out of hand.
“In hindsight, the 1987 proposal has proved to be too permissive,” said Sullivan, whose department includes FDA. “We need an interim policy to serve as a mid-course correction and provide guidance to industry on what health messages will and will not be allowed. Only with such a consistent set of standards can Americans be sure of the meaning of health information on labels.”
The public comment period on the federal proposal recently closed. Final regulations will be written after the statements are reviewed.
Unlike the present, almost free-wheeling attitude toward label claims, the FDA’s initial proposal greatly narrows the areas where health claims can be made for foods. Only a limited range of messages on relationships between diet and health will be allowed. And these areas must be substantiated in recent research by the U.S. Surgeon General or the National Academy of Sciences.
There are six dietary relationships that the FDA is considering in its rule-making process. They are: calcium and osteoporosis; sodium and hypertension; lipids and cardiovascular disease; lipids and cancer; dietary fiber and cancer, and fiber and cardiovascular disease.
Helping the Endangered--Even as health claims on food products may be fading, similar pro-environment messages seem to be taking their place.
One of the more unusual examples of this environmentally sensitive packaging comes from Hughes Markets. The chain recently announced that it would begin carrying the pictures of endangered species on its store-brand milk cartons.
The first animal to appear on Hughes half-gallon milk cartons is the California condor.
The supermarket chain, with 47 outlets, claims to be the first in Southern California to embark on such a program, which is being coordinated with the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Assn. The effort aims to “educate the community on the threat facing many endangered species such as lions, tigers and elephants.”
In the coming year, Hughes will produce as many as three million milk cartons carrying the pictures of endangered species. The packaging also will include information on the animals and a telephone number from which to receive more information on animal conservation.
