Rye and Health

Abstract

Rye (Secale cereale) is an important food grain, especially in Northern and Eastern Europe, where rye bread is often used daily. Other food products made of rye include mixed-flour breads, crisp bread, flakes, porridge, muesli, and biscuits, as well as pasta and other specific dishes. Rye grain is very rich in dietary fiber, which is concentrated in the outer grain layers but also present at rather high quantities in starchy endosperm. Rye is traditionally used as whole-grain bread, bringing all the grain constituents into the human food; in addition to nutrients, it contains many phenolic compounds such as lignans, phenolic acids, and alkylresorcinols, as well as micronutrients (minerals and vitamins), and sterols.

The chemical composition, process-induced changes, bioavailability, and physiological responses of rye foods have been extensively studied, especially in the Nordic countries in the past 20 years. The Nordic collaborative studies have built an active research network that is already being passed on to the next generation of scientists. The research has produced many doctoral dissertations and has created an array of scientific data about various aspects of rye consumption from the perspective of health. This vast database serves as a basis for the current book. Lately, epidemiological studies have further completed the understanding of the significance of rye, as part of a healthy Nordic diet, in disease prevention. Recently, the metabolomics approach has further opened a window into the numerous metabolites potentially involved in mediating the health outcome.

The interest in the health effects of rye foods originated from their high dietary fiber content and use as whole grain. Rye’s beneficial effects on postprandial glucose metabolism created the concept “rye bread factor” to describe the decreased insulin demand and its role in control of glucose. This led to a general interest in the significance of rye consumption in reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart diseases. The interest in the role of rye intake in breast and prostate cancer originates in the studies of rye lignans and their conversion to corresponding mammalian metabolites, enterolignans. Rye foods have also been a topic for studies on satiety and weight management.

We are very grateful to our Nordic colleagues for a vivid, long, fruitful, and still continuing collaboration around rye foods, their nutrition physiology, and health effects. We hope that the book serves as a good manual for those interested in food uses of cereal grains and inspires more researchers to join the ongoing journey to reveal the pathways and mechanisms underlying the physiological processes by which rye foods may help to protect health. In the best case, it also will motivate food producers to create new culinary adventures based on rye grain and thus assist more people to have rye as an element in their healthy diet.

Published in

Publisher: Elsevier Inc.

SLU Editors

• Åman, Per

  • Department of Molecular Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Nutrition and Dietetics
Food Science

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/C2015-0-06192-5
• ISBN: 9781891127816

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/130386