Corn bran supplementation of a low-fat controlled diet lowers serum lipids in men with hypercholesterolemia

The purpose of this study was to determine the lipid-lowering effects of dietary corn bran fed in moderate supplemental doses to men with hypercholesterolemia consuming a low-fat diet.

The 98-day study was divided into one 2-week preperiod and two 6-week experimental periods in a cross-over design.

The study was conducted in the metabolic diet kitchen of the Department of Home Economics and the Nutrition Research Laboratory of the Department of Agriculture at Illinois State University, Normal.

Twenty-nine sedentary men with hypercholesterolemia, aged 38 to 70 years, participated in the project. All of them completed the study.

After a 2-week adjustment period in which subjects consumed a low-fat controlled diet, subjects were assigned to one of two experimental treatments: low-fat controlled diet plus 20 g corn bran supplement or low-fat controlled diet plus 20 g wheat bran supplement.

Lipid measurements included total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), very-low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL-C), and triglyceride concentrations.

Differences in lipid parameters were analyzed using two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures (P < .05). A paired t test was used to assess differences between treatment periods for each subject.

The low-fat controlled diet significantly lowered all serum parameters analyzed except HDL-C. Corn fiber supplementation resulted in an additional lowering of serum total cholesterol, triglyceride, and VLDL-C concentrations. Serum LDL-C and HDL-C concentrations were not significantly altered by corn fiber or wheat fiber supplementation.

This study suggests that supplementing a low-fat diet with corn bran is affective in reducing serum lipid concentrations for men with hypercholesterolemia.