In most Western countries, health costs induced by inappropriate diets is increasing in an alarming way, coronary artery disease for example is the major cause of death in the US. To maintain the population healthy and to protect people from disease the provision of a health-promoting diet would be much less costly than the medical treatment. Our long-term vision is to improve oat as feed and food and to develop a Scandinavian oat with unique taste and qualities such as increased levels of soluble dietary fibres and ß-glucans with their well-documented serum cholesterol lowering effects and of natural phenolic antioxidants, which prevent the development of cardiovascular disease and certain cancers. A regular consumption of such oat would give a profitable and sound animal production, increase life quality of the individual human and reduce the rapidly rising health care costs for the society.