WHAT IS OAT BRAN?<br >Contrary to popular belief， oat bran has been around for a long time.<br >It is not something new. The by-product of milling oats， oat bran is the<br >outer husk or covering found on oat seeds. For many years， this husk<br >has been removed as oats were processed for human consumption.<br >For the most part， this "leftover" part of the oat has been put into pet<br >food as a filler agent and has not been part of most people s daily diet.<br > All this began to change when， in 1977， a metabolic research team at<br >the Veterans Administration hospital in Lexington， Kentucky. began<br >its research. They were studying the effect of high fiber diets on dia-<br >betics， concentrating on whether a high fiber diet (one containing mix-<br >ture of soluble and insoluble fibers) would help in controlling blood<br >sugar and the need for insulins. Through these studies it was dis-<br > covered that increasing fiber in the diet was effective in controlling<br > blood glucose levels， as well as serum cholesterol levels.<br >