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A spoonful of porridge keeps the cholesterol under control
FERGUS SHEPPARD, The Scotsman, 1 Aug 07

FOR hundreds of years it has been a staple of the Scots diet with generations reared on its health-giving properties.


But the humble bowl of porridge was endorsed as a health food from an unusual source yesterday - the UK's advertising standards watchdog.

The ASA, the body which deals with complaints about advertising, has endorsed a claim by porridge maker Quaker Oats that the hot breakfast cereal can help the body remove harmful cholesterol, which can lead to blocked arteries and heart attacks.

The ruling came after a TV viewer challenged a claim in a commercial for Quaker Oats that it contained a "soluble fibre called beta glucan which naturally helps to remove cholesterol from the body".

Quaker claimed the blood cholesterol lowering properties of oats were well documented and pointed out that health claims for oats lowering blood cholesterol had been approved in the UK, US and Sweden.

Quaker explained that one of the major uses of cholesterol in the body was in the synthesis of acids in the liver, which were secreted as bile into the intestine where they were used to help digest fat. The bile acids are mostly re-absorbed from the lower intestine and then recycled to the liver.

Quaker said oats contained a soluble fibre called beta glucan which attaches to bile acids in the intestine and resulted in a greater than normal excretion from the body.

Cholesterol in the body was then used to make new bile acids in the liver, so helping to lower cholesterol levels in the blood.

Quaker acknowledged some investigators believed an increase in bile acid excretion might not explain the entire cholesterol lowering effect of oat soluble fibre, although the considerable difference in bile acid excretion observed in some carefully controlled studies strongly supported their importance.

Quaker listed additional ways in which oats might lower cholesterol levels.

In order to reflect the many potential beneficial effects of oats, the firm said it used the expression "helps naturally remove cholesterol from your body", which it believed was fully supported by available scientific evidence.

Quaker added that although the claim was a precis of the way oats worked, it did not feel it was misleading, but rather allowed it to present the cholesterol lowering benefit of oats to consumers in a "concise, understandable and engaging manner".

The British Advertising Clearance Centre, which gives ads the green light before they are shown, said their nutrition expert backed Quaker's claims and believed there was enough evidence to support the claim.

Rejecting the complaint, the ASA said Quaker had provided enough scientific evidence to support the claim.

The watchdog said: "We noted Quaker oats contained at least 0.75 grammes of beta glucan per serving, which was the amount required by the Joint Health Claim's Initiative to enable an oat/cholesterol lowering claim to be made."

After taking advice, the ASA added: "Our expert considered that, although other ingredients of oats might contribute to the effect, there was sufficient evidence to support a cholesterol-lowering effect of beta glucan. We considered the totality of evidence supported the proposed action of beta glucan in increasing the excretion of cholesterol in bile salts. We concluded that the claim 'helps to remove cholesterol from the body' was unlikely to mislead."

Porridge has a colourful history stretching back into antiquity, when Roman armies were fed on oatmeal. In more recent times, 18th-century recipe books contain instructions for an attractively-named "water gruel" while an anti-Jacobite song derided Bonnie Prince Charlie's troops for cooking oatmeal in cold water. Long dismissed as the food of the poor, porridge has enjoyed a recent makeover due in large part to the popularity of the GI diet, which promotes foods with a low glycaemic index.

Other health claims made for porridge include its supposed ability to boost the libido, cure hangovers, heal the skin, pep up the immune system, tackle obesity, counter depression, reduce blood pressure and aid pregnancy.
 
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