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Last Updated: Apr 16, 2008 - 5:52:06 PM |
Guests
visiting the laboratory of Agricultural Research Service (ARS) chemist
Abdellatif Mohamed might be surprised by the smell of fresh-baked
bread, rather than chemicals.
The "nose knows," though, because
that's exactly what Mohamed is doing--baking soft white bread that
resembles any store-bought loaf, except for a key difference: its
beta-glucan content. Research suggests that, when ingested, this
soluble fiber helps the body regulate blood glucose and lower "bad"
cholesterol, diminishing the risk of coronary heart disease.
The
bread owes its 0.75 grams of beta-glucan per serving to C-TRIM, a
barley- and oat-bran-based powder that Mohamed used in studies at the
Cereal Products and Food Science Research Unit (CPFSRU), part of the
ARS National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria,
Ill.
He began researching beta-glucan bread in late 2005,
shortly after another CPFSRU researcher, chemist George Inglett,
presented C-TRIM at an American Chemical Society meeting in Washington,
DC. Inglett's ARS-patented product also cuts calories in food by
mimicking the properties of fats and complex carbohydrates.
Together
with Oklahoma State University professor Patricia Rayas-Duarte and
CPFSRU physical scientist Jingyuan Xu, Mohamed experimented with two
dough formulations containing flour from hard red spring wheat, gluten,
17 percent or 17.5 percent C-TRIM, and other breadmaking ingredients.
Adding
C-TRIM didn't significantly change the bread's taste, texture or
volume, Mohamed notes, although it did darken the bread slightly. Using
such evaluations as baseline information, his team will conduct
computer modeling studies to predict what changes are likely when, for
example, up to nine grams of beta-glucan are added. Of particular
interest is the biochemical interplay between starch and protein, which
can affect bread's volume and shelf life.
At current C-TRIM
levels, a consumer would have to eat four slices of C-TRIM bread per
day--equal to three grams of beta-glucan--in order to reap the fiber's
potential health benefits. But related applications of C-trim,
including in yoghurt and chocolate-dipped pretzels, could easily make
increased amounts of beta-glucan available to obtain those same
benefits.
ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.
______________________________
ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Jan Suszkiw, (301) 504-1630, jan.suszkiw@ars.usda.gov
November 30, 2007
--View this report online, plus photos and related stories, at www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr
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© 2004-2008 by foodconsumer.org unless otherwise specified
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