The truth about your heart
THE famous quote, “The heart should be handled with care for the heart when broken is the hardest thing to repair”, holds true today.
Your heart is powerful and fragile at the same time. It moves 2,000 gallons of blood, and pumps 100,000 times every day, 35 million times a year and over 2.5 billion times in an average lifetime.
Your heart is the centre of everything and when working well, it pumps blood through the arteries, delivering oxygen and essential nutrients to every part of your body.
Despite aggressive health campaigns in the country, heart disease still ranks as the number one killer in Malaysia and across the globe, claiming millions of lives.
Contrary to what people think, heart disease is not a disease on its own; it is a group of conditions that affects the structure and function of the heart.
According to the Ministry of Health, one in six of all deaths in government hospitals is due to heart disease and two main causes of heart attack are hypertension and high blood cholesterol.
The good news is, the power to prevent heart disease is all in your hands.
By adding high-fibre, nutrient-dense foods such as oat bran, soybean and brown rice to your diet, you can improve heart health.
Oat bran, if consumed on a regular basis, is beneficial to the heart because oat bran contains beta-glucan, a soluble fibre that helps dispel some of the cholesterol in our digestive system from the body.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which evaluates the scientific evidence behind claims on foods, concluded that a cause and effect relationship has been established between the consumption of oat betaglucan and lowering of blood Ldl-cholesterol concentrations.
The panel also considers that, in order to bear the cholesterol-lowering claim, foods should provide at least 3g of oat beta-glucan per day.
Compared with other parts of the oat grain, oat bran which is the grain’s outermost layer contains the highest concentration of soluble fibre beta-glucan.
In order to produce significant cholesterollowering effect, a minimum of 3g beta-glucan should be consumed daily from oats.
However, to achieve that, you must eat the equivalent of three bowls (150g) of processed oats each day.
That is too much to consume in a day and how many of us will have the discipline to do so every day?
Oat BG22 is easily soluble in water, easily digested and absorbed by the body as it contains a higher concentration of soluble fibre beta-glucan in fine powder form.
With Oat BG22, all you need is 14g (two scoops) to get the full 3g of beta-glucan daily requirement. It saves you a lot of hassle with the common oatmeal or processed oat products.
Oat BG22 contains 22% beta-glucan, which is five to 10 times more than that of regular oatmeal.
This premium oat bran powder imported from Sweden is produced with high molecular weight, which ensures a higher efficacy in lowering Ldl-cholesterol.
Its high concentration and solubility allows the formation of a thick viscous gel in the intestines.
Studies have shown that high viscosity produced by beta-glucan in the intestines is important in the cholesterol-lowering effect and positive glycaemic response.
Beta-glucan in oat bran powder has received worldwide approval for its effectiveness in lowering cholesterol and regulating blood glucose levels. The Malaysian Ministry of Health has recognised beta-glucan’s significant role in lowering blood cholesterol and also blood glucose.
The US Food & Drug Administration also acknowledges that beta-glucan from oat bran may reduce the risk of heart disease if it is part of a low fat diet.
Oat BG22 provides the consumer with more than just the cholesterol-lowering effect of beta-glucan. It also contains magnesium and iron, is high in protein and can help regulate blood glucose levels which can aid in lowering diabetes risks.
It is also made up of 100% oat bran without added sugar, artificial additives or preservatives.
• This article is contributed by Summit Company (M) Sdn Bhd. For more product information, call 03-7956 2220.