If you’re trying to lower cholesterol, barley should take a respective part of your diet. According to a new study, the barley grain contains soluble fiber also found in a variety of fruit and vegetables and this soluble fiber can significantly help to lower cholesterol. Beside the soluble fiber found in barley, the potency of whole grains such as oats, to help lower cholesterol have been studies for years. All as part of the general effort to find natural ways to reduce cholesterol since high cholesterol can lead to dangerous conditions such as atherosclerosis (the narrowing and hardening of the arteries), heart disease, heart attacks and strokes.

Barley is in fact a whole grain that comes in the form of either flour or flakes. The best advice when looking for a good source of barley is to look at the food label. When examining the food label make sure the product contain the whole grain of the barley in its purest form. Barley flour or enriched barley is often the barley grain that has been stripped off its pulp and the pulp and the whole grain I the real source of potency when it comes to lowering cholesterol.

As small study in which 25 people with mild cholesterol levels had participated (ranging between 200-240mg/dl where the recommended overall cholesterol level should be below 200mg/dl) had proven the significant potency of Barley in lowering cholesterol. The participants stepped into a diet rich in beta-glucan from barley flakes or flour and after as little as six months the participants had lowered their overall cholesterol levels by 10 percent (which was close to the recommended total cholesterol level of 200mg/dl). The LDL cholesterol (Low Density Lipoprotein also known as the bad cholesterol that build up within artery walls and promotes atherosclerosis) was dropped by 17 percent among the people who consumed beta-glucan from barley for the same period.

Whole grains should be the first thing you should look for when adding products rich in beta-glucan to your diet. Only whole grain barley (when the grain is in tact) has the powerful properties of lowering cholesterol. Artificial products containing either refined, enriched or synthetically supplemented barley will not have the same properties as whole grain barley has in reducing cholesterol.

Other studies also suggest that many whole grains beside barley such as oats can also help lower cholesterol naturally if you add them in their purest whole form to your diet.