Authors
Lupton JR. Robinson MC. Morin JL.
Institution
Nutrition Faculty, Texas A&M University, College Station 77843-2471.
Title
Cholesterol-lowering effect of barley bran
flour and oil.
Source
Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 94(1):65-70, 1994 Jan.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To compare the effects of adding barley bran
flour and a barley oil extract to a fat-modified diet on
serum lipids in persons with hypercholesterolemia. DESIGN:
The basic design of the study was a randomized, 30-day intervention trial. It
included a neutral-fiber control group and a 1-week preintervention period
for the collection of baseline data. SUBJECTS: The subjects were 79 men and
women with hypercholesterolemia. Subjects had a mean age of
48.2 years, and all completed the study. INTERVENTION: All participants were
instructed to follow the National Cholesterol Education
Program (NCEP) step 1 diet and were randomly assigned to one of three
treatment groups: 20 g added cellulose, 3 g added barley oil
extract, or 30 g added barley bran flour. MAIN OUTCOME
MEASURES: Total serum cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein
cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein
cholesterol (LDL-C), and very-low-density lipoprotein
cholesterol were measured, along with serum triglycerides,
before the intervention, at week 1, at week 3, and at the end of the
intervention. STATISTICAL ANALYSES PERFORMED: Student's paired t test was
used to detect significant changes within each treatment group from baseline
to the end of the 30-day intervention. In addition, Pearson's correlation
coefficients were used to detect significant correlations between the
variables measured. RESULTS: Addition of barley bran flour
significantly (P = .0001) decreased total serum cholesterol
(-0.60 mmol/L) as did addition of barley oil (-0.50 mmol/L;
P = .002) after 30 days of intervention. Similarly, LDL-C decreased 6.5% with
addition of barley bran flour (P = .036) and 9.2% with
addition of barley oil (P = .003). Total serum
cholesterol or LDL-C of the cellulose control group did not
decrease significantly over the same period. HDL-C decreased significantly in
the cellulose control group and the barley bran flour group
(-0.15 mmol/L, P = .012, and -0.15 mmol/L, P = .006, respectively), but not
in the barley oil group. CONCLUSION: We conclude that
addition of barley bran flour or barley oil
enhances the cholesterol-lowering effect of the NCEP step 1
diet in individuals with hypercholesterolemia.