It's an excellent time of life for baking your favorite high-fiber cookies. It may seem like a gustatory contradiction. How can a cookie taste delicious and be nutritionally high in dietary fiber? High fiber foods and high fiber diets have become part of our everyday language as we become more proactive in our everyday health. Fiberlady wants you to discover the benefits of high fiber menus with desserts that are full of high fiber health...like an oat bran cookie.

More and more researchers are discovering the vital necessity of high fiber foods and their effectiveness in controlling high cholesterol levels. Oat bran offers you soluble fiber, specifically known as beta-glucan. Nutritional experts recommend 3 grams of beta-glucan daily for optimum health benefits. Research reveals 1/3 cup of dry oat bran contains 4 grams of fiber, and 1/3 cup of dry oatmeal has 2.7 grams. A couple of home-baked fiber-enriched cookies is a deliciously sweet way to help people who need to monitor their cholesterol.

A study conducted in Mexico had 66 men, ages 20 through 45, eat cookies made with oat bran, wheat bran or psyllium. The trial was to see which sample of fiber would be the most effective in lowering their "bad" cholesterol. These men were also advised to eat less red meat and were encouraged to reduce their daily fat intake.

Eight weeks later, it was evident that the men who ate the oat bran cookies reduced their LDL or "bad" cholesterol levels by 23 to 26 percent. The men who consumed the psyllium based cookies lowered their LDL levels by almost 23 percent. In the wheat bran group, there was only an 8 percent drop in their LDL levels. Other than fiber, their ways of eating had not significantly been altered. Obviously, high fiber cannot counteract the effects of high fat cheese enchiladas. Keeping fat consumption down is also an important key to lowering cholesterol levels. The findings were published in the December issue of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition(1998;17:601-608).

Research is a unique tool that brings awareness into people's lives. Now that you have some enlightenment about the positive effects of high fiber foods, you can feel more confident knowing there are high fiber snacks that taste good and heal good. Fiberlady found this delicious oat bran cookie recipe for you to enjoy. Now is the perfect time to sow your oats.

Oat Bran Oatmeal Cookies
yield: 28 cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 cup olive oil
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups oat bran
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
raisins (optional) or nuts (optional)

Preparations:

1. Beat together oil through vanilla.
2. Add oats through baking soda and beat well.
3. Add raisins or nuts, if desired.
4. Drop by tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets.
5. Bake 12 minutes at 350.
6. Cool on wire rack.

Fiber: 1.7 grams in 1 cookie