| Abstract: | Researchers at the Division of
Functional Foods Research, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana
State University, Baton Rouge, LA carried out studies to assess the effects of
defatted rice bran and rice bran oil in diet on blood lipids in moderately
hypercholesterolemic persons. Twenty-six healthy volunteers consumed a diet with
13–22g dietary fibre/day for 3 weeks and then 13 of the volunteers were switched
to a diet with defatted rice bran to double the fiber intake for 5 weeks. Study
2 was a randomized, crossover, 10-week feeding study performed on 14 volunteers
who consumed a diet with rice bran oil (1/3 of the total dietary fat)
substituted for an oil blend that had a fatty acid composition similar to that
of the rice bran oil. Serum lipids and factor VII were measured in both studies.
Defatted rice bran did not lower lipid concentrations. In study 2, total
cholesterol was significantly lowered with consumption of the diet containing
rice bran oil than with consumption of the control diet. Moreover, with
consumption of the rice bran oil diet, LDL cholesterol decreased by 7% (P <
0.0004), whereas HDL cholesterol was unchanged. Rice bran oil, not fiber, lowers
cholesterol in healthy, moderately hypercholesterolemic adults. There were no
substantial differences in the fatty acid composition of the diets; therefore,
the reduction of cholesterol was due to other components present in the rice
bran oil, such as unsaponifiable compounds [Most
Marlene M, Tulley Richard, Morales Silvia and Lefevre Michael, Rice bran oil,
not fiber, lowers cholesterol in humans, Am J Clin Nutr, 2005, 81(1),
64-68]. |
