Quaker Funds Studies on Oat Bran Benefits

Quaker Oats Co., which controls about 70% of the oat bran cereal market, said Tuesday that it is funding studies into the health benefits of oat bran, despite recent research indicating that oat bran has little effect on reducing cholesterol, a Quaker spokesman said.

Ronald Bottrell, senior manager of corporate communications at the Chicago-based corporation, said the fact that the company has funded half of the 11 published reports that affirm the health benefits of oat bran “is nothing new.”

Bottrell wouldn’t give financial or research details on the latest two. He did say however, that one was completed and has been submitted to a publication for review and could be released “in the next few months.”

Bottrell claims that the two studies were in progress long before the New England Journal of Medicine published a Harvard University study two weeks ago. The study says, in essence, that oat bran has little specific effect on lowering cholesterol when eaten daily as part of a low-fat diet.

In response to that, Bottrell said last week that the company did “a snapshot” of 50 people who eat oat bran as part of a low-fat diet. The one-day survey suggested that those that were tested weren’t “going to revert back to eating bacon and eggs” because of the report in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Quaker Oats also paid for full-page ads Friday in newspapers, including The Times, that listed 10 of 11 different studies dating back to 1963. The studies listed stated that there are cholesterol-lowering properties in oat bran.

Bottrell said the Harvard University report--the first that challenged oat bran’s effect on cholesterol--failed to represent an adequate portion of the country.