Sunday, April 06, 2008
Research
FDA Approves Health Claim on Barley for Heart Disease
By Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS,
May 23, 2006,
abstracted from FDA Finalizes Health Claim Associating Consumption
of Barley Products with Reduction of Risk of Coronary Heart Disease
posted May 19, 2006 on the FDA Website.
As it is now clear that diet contributes in substantial ways to the development of diseases and that modification of diet can contribute to their prevention,1 the Food and Drug Administration has started to intensify its involvement in the role of food in disease prevention by placing "Qualified Health Claims" (QHC) on such foods. Qualified Health Claims for foods gained attention in November 2003 when the FDA issued a health claim for omega-3 fatty acids for heart disease.2 The next QHC was for calcium in the treatment and prevention of high blood pressure in the fall of 2005.3 Now the FDA has added another food to the list in the prevention of heart disease: barley.
Barley has been cultivated for thousands of years and was a staple cereal of ancient Egypt and Greece. It was cultivated in over 100 countries in 20054 and is second only to wheat as the most popular grain in the world.
In a press release,5 the FDA said that foods containing barley may now include a claim that they reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. Specifically, whole grain barley and dry milled barley products such as flakes, grits, flour, and pearled barley, which provide at least 0.75 grams of soluble fiber per serving, may bear the following claim:
"Soluble fiber from foods such as (name of food), as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease. A serving of (name of food) supplies (x) grams of the soluble fiber necessary per day to have this effect." According to the American Heart Association, heart disease caused 479,305 deaths in 2003 and is expected to cause heart attacks in 1.2 million Americans this year. Even though the death rate from coronary heart disease declined 30.2 percent from 1993-2003, it still remains one of the number one causes of death among Americans. 6
Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Danville, CA. You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at mailto:ChiroDocPSUalum