Increasing role of whole grains in healthy diets

Evidence from observational studies indicates that diets rich in whole grain reduce risk of obesity and other diseases related to the metabolic syndrome

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THE health benefits of cereal fibre, in particular in the prevention of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer, are today generally recognised. Authoritative dietetic associations all around the world recommend consumption of cereal-based products containing bran and fibre over products prepared from refined cereals.

It is still important, however, for the food industry to understand and to demonstrate the health benefits of foods, so that consumers can be offered foods with scientifically proven health benefits. This needs effective collaborations across the food chain, from growers to processors to food production, and further to the researchers who study the physiological responses and clinical outcome.

New research and technological developments are revealing new uses for cereal-derived dietary fibre and fractions:

Arabinoxylan, the major dietary fibre component of both wheat and rye, offers many possibilities for new ingredient manufacture.

Wheat aleurone shows health potential of as part of ready-to-eat cereals and bread.

Rye and barley products facilitate blood glucose and appetite regulation

Engineering arabinoxylan for new applications

Arabinoxylan, the major dietary fibre component of wheat bran, is important both from the technological and nutritional point of view. New enzymatic technologies were developed in the HEALTHGRAIN project to partly and selectively degrade arabinoxylan. The results offer potential for a new soluble fibre ingredient based on wheat bran.

Xylanase enzymes offer an efficient and specific tool to solubilise arabinoxylan polymers, and further to produce short-chain arabinoxylan oligosaccharides (AXOs). New xylanase enzymes were identified and characterised to have specific activities, and also to operate in the high temperature conditions during baking. One approach was to enzymatically solubilise AXOs in situ during the bread making process. An enzymatic process for AXOs production has already been developed by Fugeia, a Belgian company (www.fugeia.be) that develops proprietary products and technologies targeted for a broad range of market segments in the field of health and nutrition. Furthermore, extensive ball milling was shown to degrade arabinoxylans, offering tentative new possibilities for AXOs design.


A major feature of AXOs is that, in the colon, they are fermented to short chain fatty acids in general and butyric acid in particular. Butyric acid is important for the large intestinal mucosa cells. Arabinoxylan and AXOs are also known to be bifidogenic, i.e. they promote the growth of Bifidobacterium in the gut. The potential antioxidant power of AXOS deserves further studies, as it offers many possibilities for new ingredient manufacture.

Evidence links aleurone to reduced heart risk

Wheat aleurone is a novel wheat grain fraction with high levels of potentially health-promoting compounds. New clinical trials with ready-to-eat cereals and bread containing wheat aleurone have been performed, and showed increased blood concentrations of tentatively beneficial compounds such as betaine, and decreased homocysteine and LDL-cholesterol which are both associated with heart disease risk.

It is important for the food industry to understand and to demonstrate the health benefits of foods, so that consumers can be offered foods with scientifically proven health benefits. This needs effective collaborations across the food chain, from growers to processoNike KD