Breakfast Cereal Lowers Lab Rats' Cancer Risk
Agricultural Research Service, USDA, August 24, 1998

Wheat bran heated and shaped into short, crispy strips for a commercial breakfast cereal was more effective than raw wheat bran in reducing an indicator of colon cancer in laboratory rats, a new study shows. Bran is the thin, fiber-rich outer layer of the wheat kernel.

Scientists with the Agricultural Research Service and the University of California at Davis conducted the 6-1/2 month study. It apparently is the first to show that processing may improve wheat bran's effectiveness in reducing the occurrence of aberrant crypt foci (ACF), which are an indicator of colon cancer in rats.

The scientists fed 120 white lab rats a diet that included either raw wheat bran or wheat bran processed in an extruder. Those fed processed wheat bran had 33% fewer ACF in their colons than rats fed raw wheat bran. The animals had been injected with a chemical that stimulates formation of ACF. Scientists have known for more than a decade that feeding raw wheat bran to lab animals reduces the occurrence of ACF.

Colorectal cancer is the second deadliest cancer in the U.S., killing nearly 55,000 Americans every year. Kellogg Co., Battle Creek, MI, funded part of the study.

ARS News Service contact: Marcia Wood, (510) 559-6070, mwood@asrr.arsusda.gov

Scientific contact: Wallace H. Yokoyama, Ph.D., ARS Western Regional Research Center, 800 Buchanan St., Albany, CA 94710, phone (510) 559-5695,fax (510) 559-5777, e-mail wally@pw.usda.gov.