Oats: healthy, nutritious and sustainable - and fit into a gluten-free diet

Luud Gilissen Impulse WUR 20 April 2016

Content

History Field and Feed Health and prevention of chronic diseases Gluten-free diet The Dutch Oat Chain Conclusions and tastings

Oat within the grass family

Wheat, rye and barley are the gluten-containing

cereals

History of cereal consumption

Fossil records: ● ~6 Mya: Early hominids diverged from apes due to specialized feeding on small

and hard grass (cereal) seeds (molar shape and thick enamel) (Straight, 1997; Sponheimer & Lee-Thorpe, 1999; Senut at al 2001)

● ~1.5 Mya: Homo sp increased the fraction of C4-based resources (= cereals) in the diet (Cerling et al 2013)

● 120.000 ya: meeting of Neanderthals and modern humans in the Levant (Iran/Iraq region) where wheat, barley and oat species are endemic (Kuhlwilm et al 2016)

● 50.000 ya: Neanderthals consumed cooked barley (Henry et al 2011)

● 32,600 ya: thermal pretreatment and grinding of oat seeds (Italy) (Lippi et al 2015)

● 10.000 ya: gradual start of agricultrure

Avena sativa history

10,000 y ago: domestication of wheat (einkorn, emmer), barley and pulses as ‘crops’ in Fertile Crescent; oat was a weed

Move of these crops with farmers to Asia and Europe

5000 y ago: Domestication of naked oat in East Asia (China)

4000 y ago: Domestication of hulled oat in NW-Europe

Hulled oat grows best in cool, moist, maritime climates

2000 y ago: Hexaploid oat (Avena sativa) is a major crop in Europe

Oat, current status

1850: Selections of spring and winter oat landraces

1960: Decline

2000: Increased attention (but no increase in cultivation): health issues

Cultivation area NL 2000: 2404 ha 2014: 1751 ha

The grain

Olie, vetzuren

Hull

Bran

Endosperm

Germ

‘whole grain’: ’Bran + Endosperm + Germ

Regain of interest: Oat brings health

Field Feed Food

Total health package

Field Advantages Robust and sustainable

● Low N need (~ equal yields on sand and clay)

● Low sensitivity to diseases ● Fits well in several crop rotations;

valuable breaker crop ● Positive effects on soil health

(combatting nematodes) ● Stimulation of mycophage nematodes

(control of pathogenic root fungi; may reduce use of soil fungicides)

● Performs well in organic agriculture

Challenge Yield and profit

Experimental yields

2009: 7.9 mt

2010: 8.2 mt

2011: 7.8 mt

2012: 9.7 mt

2013: 8.0 mt

2014: 8.2 mt

2015: 7.3 mt

Feed

Advantages Promoting intestinal health

Increasing immunity (reduction of antibiotics)

Rich in energy

Keeps animals quiet (satiety)

Weight control

Challenge Competition with other cereals

(maize, wheat) and soy

Context – Health care costs

Price-increases of health care costs (6%/y)

● Health care budget in NL: ~100 B€/year Price-increases of medicines (€/$) (some examples)

● Daraprim (antidepressivum): 1,- 13.50 750.- (1 capsule)

● Parnate (antidepressivum): 110.- 1,500,- (per month)

● Lemtrada (leukemia) multiple sclerosis): x 40

● Cycloserine (tuberculose): 500,- 10,800.- 1,050 (30 capsules)

Are all medicins necessary and healthy? ● Paroxetine (antidepressivum) is not effective but gives only strong and

harmful side-effects (including suicide) and is suspect (still: 600.000 users in NL over 14 years)

● Where does quackery start?

Context - Pharma

Strong interconnections: Pharma Health Insurance Comp Hospitals Government

Strong lobby: ● Pharma EU

How to reduce health care costs?

Context - Reducing Health Care Costs

Much more focus on prevention: Role of Wageningen UR Promotion of healthy food (and life style) as natural

medicines, e.g. whole-grain (bran containing) foods (Fardet 2010; Huang et al 2015; Wu et al 2015)

But:

Context - Our Food World today (the illusion of choice)

bran (outer layer of the grain)

vital wheat gluten

germs; flour fractions

native and modified starch

grain alcohol bioethanol

crystalline polyols liquid polyols glucose syrups

maltodextrins

starch milk

Context: Economics of wheat (and corn): starch

‘whole grain’?

milling and separation; sieving; mixing

Playing field for prevention

Help!

Food: nutritious and healthy

Starch Proteins Lipids Phenolics Fibre Vitamins Minerals

Human health: what are the issues? Chronic diseases:

● Cardiovascular diseases

● Diabetes

● Obesity

● Cancer

● Respiratory diseases

● Immune-related diseases

● Allergies

● Coeliac disease

Easy to prevent

Avoidance of tobacco Healthy diet Regular physical activity

Oats can contribute

Starch

Total starch: 60%

Unique small particle size

Small amylose chain length

Low solubility

Slow and complete digestibility

Low glycaemic index also due to high soluble fibre content

Helps in diabetes and obesitas

Proteins

Total protein : 15-20% (highest among cereals)

Globulins (80%), albumins, avenins

Digestibility: very high

Rich in essential amino acids ● Only lysine and threonine are 20% below

the FAO standard

● Lysine is relatively high as compared to other cereals

Fit in Gluten Free Diet

WHO: equal quality to meat, milk, egg protein

Lipids Total lipid content: 7% average (5.6 - 8.2%),

some (naked oat) varieties: 15%

Unique in cereal endosperm

Unsaturated fatty acids: ~80% %

● (C14:0) 2 (myristic acid)

● (C16:0) 18 (palmitic acid)

● (C18:0) 2 (stearic acid)

● (C18:1) 35 (oleic acid)

● (C18:2) 40 (linoleic acid)

● (C18:3) 2 (linolenic acid)

● (C20:1) 1 (eicosenoic acid)

Lipids may reduce sensory quality (heat processing required)

Reducing risk of heart and vascular diseases

Skin care

Phenolics

Avenanthramides are unique to oats

● Taken up into the blood stream

● Strong anti-oxidant activity

● Prophylactic against arteriosclerosis, cardiovascular diseases, certain cancers

● May reduce inflammation (applied as anti-allergic antihistamine drug)

Dietary fibres

Gut

Multiplex detection(IL, IG’s)

Flow sortingGC/MS

(metabolite volatiles)

MetagenomicsMetabolomics(body fluids)

Proteomics

‘Non-healthy’ Immune-system

‘Non-healthy’ Gut

Microflora

‘Healthy’Immune-system

‘Healthy’ Gut

Microflora

Food components (e.g. ß-glucans)

Immune biomarkers(e.g in bodyfluids)

Metabolic, genetic & ecophysiological

biomarkers

Proteomics(gut

permeability)

Physiological biomarkers

Role of beta-glucans in

intestinal health:

* Direct effect on immune system

* Indirect effects through gut microflora

• Maintenance of health status • Improving health in chronic diseases

Fibres: oat beta glucan

Total fibre ~8% of which ● 58% soluble fibre (mainly beta-glucans)

Formation of highly viscous gums

Retarding stomach emptying ● Improving digestion

● Decreasing postprandial glucose responses

May prolong satiety ● Decrease insulin secretion

● Keep cholecystokinin (CCK) level elevated

Binding cholesterol in intestine ● Reducing LDL-C in blood

● Official FDA and EFSA health claims

Cholesterol

Many cholesterol-lowering medicines have negative side effects

Oat beta-glucans have cholesterol-lowering and beneficial effects

‘The more oats, the greater the effect’ (max effect at 3-4 g beta-glucans per day)

Official EFSA health claims applicable to oats

Beta-glucans [3g/day] contribute to the maintenance of normal blood cholesterol levels (EU 432/2012)

Consumption of beta- glucans from oats or barley as part of a meal [4g/30gCarb] contributes to the reduction of the blood glucose rise after that meal (EU 432/2012)

Oat grain fibre contributes to an increase in faecal bulk (EU

432/2012)

Reducing consumption of saturated fat contributes to the maintenance of normal blood cholesterol levels (EU 432/2012)

Oat beta-glucan [3g/day] has been shown to actively lower/reduce blood cholesterol. High cholesterol is a risk factor in the development of coronary heart disease (EU 1160/2011).

Patent claims related to beta-glucan

Promoting cardiovascular health

Lowering cholesterol / treatment of hypercholesterolemia; prevention of hyperlipidaemia

Treatment of diabetes

Treatment of obesity / weight management

Promoting gastrointestinal health

Use as vaccine or immunostimulant

The beta-glucan patent landscape

Authorized USA health claims that oat products may utilize

Oat soluble fibre and the reduced risk of coronary heart disease

Whole-grain claims based on authoritative statements

● On risk of heart disease and certain cancers

Potential claim evidence for

● Oats and diabetes risk reduction and diabetes management

● Oats and satiety and weight loss effects

● Whole grains and weight management

● Oats and blood pressure effects

Volkoren: Haver in de schijf van vijf

Oats and coeliac disease (CD) (gluten intolerance)

Chronic inflammation of the small intestine

● Increased 4x during the last 50 years (current prevalence: 0.5-2%)

● Genetic predisposition (HLA-DQ2/8)

● Gluten (seed storage proteins) from wheat, rye and barley

Major symptoms of CD in children Chronic bowel ache and diarrhoea Growth retardation

Major symptoms of CD in adults Chronic fatigue, headache, bowel complaints Reduced fertility; miscarriage Dermatitis herpetiformis Osteoporosis Deafness Neuropathy Intestinal cancer (lymphoma)

Strict lifelong gluten free diet

Gluten digestion incomplete: Proline residues

Healthy small intestine Inflamed small intestine (flat mucosa)

Oats and Coeliac disease (CD)

• Oat is safe to >99% of people with CD (Pulido et al., 2009 [systematic review])

• Consumption of oats stimulates digestion in people with CD (Kaukinen et al., 2013; Gatti et al., 2013): “the more and the longer, the better”

• Intact coeliac-immunogenic gluten peptides of wheat, barley and rye are absent from oat avenins (Londono et al., 2014)

• 100 g/day oats consumption: no intestinal damage oats can safely be included in GFD (Hardy et al., 2015) [recent Australian position]

• In patients with recovered intestine, daily consumption of unlimited amounts of oats is safe (La Vieille et al 2015) [recent Canadian position]

T-cell stimulation (Koning et al., 2005)

Oats and coeliac disease

EC Regulation 828/2014, based on EC Regulation 41/2009:

Art. 7. Most people with intolerance to gluten can include oats in their diet without

adverse effect on their health. This is an issue of ongoing study and investigation by the

scientific community. However, a major concern is the contamination of oats with wheat,

rye or barley that can occur during grain harvesting, transport, storage and processing.

Therefore, the risk of gluten contamination in products containing oats should be taken

into consideration with regard to the relevant information provided on those food

products by food business operators.

B. Additional requirements for food containing oats Oats contained in a food

presented as gluten-free or very low gluten must have been specially produced, prepared

and/or processed in a way to avoid contamination by wheat, rye, barley, or their

crossbred varieties and the gluten content of such oats cannot exceed 20 mg/kg.

Oats and gluten-free

EC Regulation 828/2014: allows to label and to sell oats as ‘gluten-free’ provided a gluten contamination below 20 ppm

In The Nederlands we established The Dutch Oat Chain (De Nederlandse Haverketen)

Worldwide increased interest in ‘gluten-free’

The Dutch Oat Chain

Started in 2006 in the framework of the CDC

Partnership

● Seed company contract with oat growers

● Oat breeding company

● Gluten-free miller

● Breakfast cereal company (with gluten-free ‘daughter’ company)

● Gluten-free bakery

● Snacks and shakes producer

● (Gluten-free) microbrewer

● Wageningen UR

Strict rules for gluten free oat cultivation

● Farmer is certified for cultivation of cereals

● No use of organic manure allowed

● No wheat, rye or barley has been grown on the parcel in 8 preceding years

● Registration of the oat cultivation (location, variety, area [ha], yield, delivery)

● Cultivation is at least 3x inspected on occurrence of wheat, barley, rye seedlings

● Oat variety is in agreement with the customer

● Sowing-seed is guaranteed free from contamination and is certified as such

● Oat cultivation area is sufficiently separated (>75m)

● Machines for sowing and harvesting are carefully cleaned

● Delivered products to customer are fully traceable

● Registration of complaints on the product – measures to be taken for improvement

● Production of oat-based foods is only allowed in GF-certified companies

GF Oat Products on the NL market since 2011 Some examples

Batter-based oat bread: Mam’s Havermikske (FreeOf)

Kuit beer (traditional Dutch beer style with 50% malted oats)

Conclusions on Oats

Robust, complete, versatile, healthy

Fits well in a gluten-free diet

May significantly contribute to reduction of health care costs

Challenge for innovations in gluten free and general products and recipes

Dutch gluten-free oats are increasingly appreciated by (inter)national food companies

Thanks

Celiac Disease Consortium (2004-2013)

● Frits Koning

PRI – Wageningen UR

● Hetty van den Broeck Jan Cordewener Twan America Ingrid van der Meer Jan Schaart Elma Salentijn Diana Londono Aurelie Jouanin Ed Hendrix René Smulders

Micro-brewery Witte Klavervier

● Freek Ruis

EU-TraFooN

● Susanne Braun; Javier Casado

Refs:

Gilissen LJWJ, Van der Meer IM, Smulders MJM (2014) Reducing the incidence of allergy and intolerance to cereals. Journal of Cereal Science 59: 337-353

Londono DM (2014) Laying the foundations for dough-based oat bread. Thesis, Wageningen

Gilissen LJWJ, Van der Meer IM, Smulders MJM (2016) Strategies to reduce or prevent wheat coeliac-immunogenicity and wheat sensitivity through food. Proceedings of the 29th PWG Meeting, Tulln, pp 41 -54