Modern consumers are increasingly interested in natural foods and the health benefits of all food products. They have begun to look beyond the basic nutritional benefits and towards foods that provide potential disease prevention and larger health advantages. We fully support this trend and believe our main product is one of the best choices in natural healthy foods available today.
O’Rice is partially de-branned “Naked Oat” groat, based on a new processing technique developed by AAFC through a 15-year research and breeding project. The raw material, hulless oat AC Gehl (“Naked Oat”), is a new hulless and hairless oat variety.
Processed through innovative technologies, O’Rice cooks and tastes like rice, but has a wider nutritional profile. O’Rice is a great source of vitamins and dietary fiber, and is a healthy alternative to rice and other grain products. O’Rice is perfect for people on a diet. The nutrients in our products contribute to a healthy lifestyle.
O’Rice Health Benefits
- Reduces cholesterol levels
- Lowers the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD)
- Decreases postprandial glycemic response (lowers blood sugar levels after eating it)
- A healthy source of protein
These health benefits address many primary health needs for people living with diabetes or hypertension. O’Rice is naturally low in cholesterol, has 32g of protean per cup and is high in iron and fiber. Oat’s fiber is healthy for the heart as well as your cardiovascular and digestive systems.
Oats can modulate the metabolism of foods and will absorb bile in the digestive tract, which creates more bile acids that use up the bodies cholesterol storage. The thickened bile liquid also absorbs sugars and pre-metabolic sugars such as starch. This allows the body to produce sugars over a longer time period, resulting in lower blood sugar levels.
The Science behind O’Rice
Clinical studies with oat-glucan extracts Slower absorption of carbohydrate and attenuated blood glucose levels with associated lower insulin, have health benefits for type 2 diabetic people, and is associated with reduced risk of developing the disease and insulin insensitivity.
The Program in Food Safety, Nutrition and Regulatory Affairs (PFSNRA) of the University of Toronto that spanned the literature published from 1995 to 2006. In the PFSNRA review, 36 human studies were identified which investigated oat beta-glucan fiber and its cholesterol lowering properties. LDL-cholesterol and total cholesterol were the endpoints measured in the reviewed studies. These are recognized risk factors for heart disease and are considered relevant for supporting a claim concerning a reduction in the risk of heart disease.
Based on information provided in the petition to the US FDA (1995), regression analyses of a dose-response study suggested that about 3 grams of beta-glucan oat fiber would result in total and LDL-cholesterol reductions of about 5% and 8%, respectively. Overall, in the PFSNRA literature review (2006), an intake of 3 grams of beta-glucan resulted in a physiologically meaningful LDL-cholesterol reduction that was nevertheless quite variable (ranging from 0.15% to 4% LDL-cholesterol reduction on a per gram of beta-glucan basis).
Most of the studies were carried out with moderately to highly hypercholesterolemic subjects. The PFSNRA review did not provide any evidence contrary to the previous findings upon which FDA based its final health claim rule on beta-glucan oat fiber and reduced risk of coronary heart disease (by lowering blood cholesterol).
Health Canada has concluded that scientific evidence exists in support of the claim linking the consumption of beta-glucan oat fiber to a reduction of blood cholesterol. The claim is relevant and generally applicable to the Canadian population given that a high proportion of the population (44 to 69%) is hyperlipidemic and that adults with normal or mildly elevated blood cholesterol concentrations could also benefit from increased oat intake.