2-21 IAT Food Barley

Food barley. I talked to Kelly Olson, administrator for the Idaho Barley Commission. "It is an emerging class of production. We are pushing it very aggressively in Idaho, in southern Idaho for domestic market production and in northern Idaho for export. The appeal to food barley is that added fiber and unique kind of fiber that barley has that has been shown through numerous human and animal feeding studies to help lower bad cholesterol. It is a water-soluble fiber known as beta glucan, barley has a lot of it and it is very beneficial in the diet, besides the cholesterol benefit it has been shown to help with weight management through giving us a feeling of fullness so you cut back on calorie consumption. It has been shown to protect against colon cancer and other diseases like that and can certainly help in the management of type II diabetes because it is a low glycemic grain which means that the glucose sugar in barley is released very slowly into the bloodstream and that is very beneficial to people who suffer from type II diabetes. For a minute I didn't know whether I was talking to a nurse or to the administrator for the Idaho Barley Commission. While we have to know what we are talking about right?