Oat beta-glucan
Due to their property to lower serum total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and potentially reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, oat β-glucans have been assigned a qualified health claim by the European Food Safety Authority and the US Food and Drug Administration.
After joining Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in 1969, Peter J Wood played an instrumental role in isolating and characterizing the structure and bioactive properties of oat β-glucan.
[2][3] In 1997, after reviewing 33 clinical studies performed over the previous decades, the FDA approved the claim that intake of at least 3 g of β-glucan from oats per day "as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease.
This health claim mobilized a dietary movement as physicians and dietitians for the first time could recommend intake of a specific food to directly combat disease.
Since then, oat consumption has continued to gain traction in disease prevention with noted effects on ischemic heart disease and stroke prevention, but also in other areas like BMI reduction, blood pressure lowering and highly corroborated evidence for reduced blood serum cholesterol.
Oat β-glucans can form into a random coil structure and flow with Newtonian behaviour until they reach a critical concentration at which point they become pseudoplastic.
In July 2009, the Scientific Committee issued the following statements:[14] In November 2011, the EU Commission published its decision in favour of oat beta-glucans with regard to Article 14 of the EC Regulation on the labelling of foodstuffs with nutrition and health claim statements permitting oat beta-glucan to be described as beneficial to health.
In the stomach, β-glucans swell and cause gastric distension – which is associated with the signal pathway of satiation – the feeling of fullness, leading to a decreased appetite.
[22] Postprandial blood glucose levels become lower after consumption of a meal containing β-glucan as a result of increased gut viscosity, which delays gastric emptying and lengthens travel through the small intestine.
[23] A 2021 meta-analysis of clinical trials concluded that oat beta-glucan with molecular weights greater than 300 kg/mol reduced incremental area-under-the-curve by 23%, peak blood glucose by 28%, and insulin by 22% in a dose-responsive fashion, with similar results in participants with or without diabetes.
[24] Diabetic people who increased their daily consumption of beta-glucans by more than 3 grams per day for months also lost body weight.
[26] In preliminary research, oat β-glucan is being studied for its potential immunomodulatory effects, antitumour properties, and stimulation of collagen deposition, tissue granulation, reepithelization, and macrophage infiltration in the wound healing process.
