Oat-Bran Study Backs Claims of Cholesterol Drop

Oat bran and oatmeal have passed additional tests of their effectiveness in reducing blood cholesterol, according to a report published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

The study was one of several recent projects that took a second look at oats in the diet. A report last year criticized earlier findings as scientifically inadequate.

The latest study found that people with high cholesterol counts saw those levels fall an average of 15% while they followed a diet that was no more than 30% fat and ate 2 ounces of oat bran daily.

The research determined the dosage needed to produce a drop in the cholesterol level, said Dr. Michael Davidson, medical director of the Chicago Center for Clinical Research.

He said it also demonstrated that the cholesterol level will go up again if a person stops eating oat bran, even if he continues with the low-fat diet.

“His study has all the adequate monitoring,” said Dr. Joseph Keenan of the University of Minnesota Medical School, who also studied the relationship of oat bran and oatmeal to cholesterol.

“What we’ve done is consolidate the evidence to show that it is a real finding,” he said. “Using sophisticated monitoring, it still holds up.”