Can Oats be the Solution to Eliminating PFAS in Your Body?

The Restored Lands Advocate

A 2022 map from the USGS depicting areas in the US with heightned PFAS levels in the water [Additional Images from WikiMedia and Adobe Stock]

Whether you live in the city drinking tap water from a filtration plant, on a rural farm collecting water from your well, or even walking around with your water bottle, chances are you just took another sip full of PFAS. And once in your body, it won’t be that easy to get rid of. 

PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are considered “forever chemicals” because they take decades to break down and can accumulate in water, soil, and even our bodies. It leaches into waterways from items like hygiene products, nonstick pans, or food wrappers. If consumed, these forever chemicals can increase risks of cancer, increase cholesterol, and weaken immune function. 

So if you can’t avoid it in your water, food, or household supplies, what can you do to get rid of it once it enters your body? 

To find the answer, we spoke to Jennifer Schlezinger, a leading molecular toxicologist and a professor of environmental health at Boston University. She is in the midst of studying fiber supplements such as oats as a means of eliminating PFAS from the body while also improving cholesterol. Alongside her colleagues, she found that taking fiber supplements at meal time can absorb PFAS and other forever chemicals and be expelled through waste. 

“We want to come up with something that is feasible and is accessible, and you can get every single fiber that I've tested at Walmart or on Amazon,” Schlezinger said. 

She said that by using foods like oats that are rich in a substance called beta-glucan, they were able to measure a 20% reduction in the PFAS circulating through our bodies at a given time. And she’s hoping that through more testing, they can even get that reduction to over 80%. But before we get there…

Why should you be concerned about PFAS in your body? 

PFAS is typically found in minute quantities in water, but their impact can be immense. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers related chemicals like PFOA and PFOS as having the potential to be carcinogens. It is also associated with a reduced antibody response to vaccines, bad cholesterol, and reduced bone density, according to Schlezinger.

“PFAS are even changing how liver cells behave, and this is causing liver toxicity,” Schlezinger said. 

The EPA says that nearly 99% of the U.S. population has some PFAS in their blood stream, with an average blood content of 7.15 parts per billion. While less than microplastics in our body, they persist a lot longer, hence the “forever” in the name.

With no pharmacological remedies on the market and only a few alternative interventions available, Schlezinger is out to find new “feasible and accessible” strategies to reduce PFAS in the body. She said in her paper that methods to curb PFAS focus on reducing exposure and contact, like filtering contaminated water, but that people should start to be aware before it becomes a problem to one’s health. “If you have a private well, you might want to think about having the water tested,” she said. 

So how do oats eliminate PFAs?

Like most experiments, Schlezinger started with a small test subject: rats. She imitated the average American’s PFAS intake by designing a diet for rodents based on data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. From there, she was able to use the rat model to illustrate the proteins that PFAS interacts with. 

When one takes a beta glucan fiber supplement, the fibers bind to PFAS molecules like they do with bile acids in the digestive tract and carry that out of the body through waste. As your body recognizes it needs to create more bile acid, it pulls bad cholesterol out of the blood in order to make more, making it a keen way to reduce cholesterol, according to Schlezinger

“Bile acids and PFAS are very similar chemically, and I said to myself, if it works for bile acids, I think it will work for PFAS,” she said. 

So far, they have collected enough evidence to say that they can increase the rate PFAS can leave the body by using fiber supplements, like oats, to capture PFAS in the gut and increase their content in our waste. “I know, it's not very elegant,” she said. 

Diagram illustrating how beta glucan works to rid PFAS from the body [Created using Google Gemini]

What’s next? Should you start incorporating oats in your diet? 

Schlezinger and her team said they have received a Toxic Exposures Research Program grant from the Department of Defense to continue their research and apply for a clinical study that helps them determine a workable formula. 

“We want to maximize efficacy while still making this something that people have access to,” she said. 

There continues to be pushback from the Trump administration on how PFAS will be included in rules moving forward, and scientists like Schlezinger are working to help people understand what they are being exposed to. 

By using beta glucan and other fiber supplements as a way to help communities with high PFAS exposure risk, she hopes will “empower physicians to give their patients options that don't require a prescription, and that they can afford.”

While Schlezinger advises to discuss adding a fiber supplement to your diet with a physician first, she said by taking beta glucan herself every day that she was able to wean off of her own medication and see the benefits of the intervention firsthand. 

“I went from really needing to take cholesterol medication to not needing it,  so it's really been very beneficial for me,” she said. 

Written by: Avril Silva

Edited by: Henry C. Passerini

Avril Silva is currently based in New York City, but is originally from Northern Virginia where they have some of the best hiking and parks in the country. Recently graduated from George Washington University with a degree in Journalism and International Affairs, she is currently pursuing her master's in Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting at New York University. She is interested in multimedia stories in the intersection of climate, public health, and policy. Off the byline, you can usually find her doing yoga or reading. Avril is excited to bring thoughtful and community-based perspectives to Restored Lands as an Investigative Intern!