alt Hacker NewsTwo days of oatmeal reduce cholesterol level
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It's well known that an oatmeal diet lowers cholesterol (the article itself cites a 1907 'oat cure' in its intro). The new finding here is insight into the exact mechanism- a short-term, high-dose oatmeal diet (300g/day for two days) had significantly greater LDL-lowering effect than a medium-term, moderate-dose oatmeal diet (80g/day for six weeks), and they associated the difference with increases in several plasma phenolic compounds triggered by specific changes in the gut microbiome.
I'm thinking of a menu;
Breakfast: overnight oats with milk (half and half) and a bit of yoghurt and a banana mashed in.
Lunch: Oatcakes with tahini/hummus and a salad??
Dinner: Skirlie with spinach and a couple of poached eggs on top. Along with some roast carrots/courgette/aubergine.
The eggs would be outside the OA diet I suppose. I think I might try this.
I prefer soybeans. They have more fiber (including more soluble fiber), and they have more protein.
I realized this when tracking micronutrients with an app (tracking every gram I put into my body), and realized my 600 calorie steel-cut-oats breakfast was often outdone by soybeans I'd eat later in the day. The soybeans had more fiber.
And I think they're easier to eat. It's pretty boring, but I microwave a bowl of frozen soybeans and then just eat them plain. They're clean, you could eat them with your fingers without causing a mess (I use a spoon though), and their cleanliness means I'm comfortable having a bowl next to me at the computer or wherever; if they spill I would just pick them up with my fingers and that's it.
300 grams of oatmeal a day, basically nothing else, and your LDL only goes down 10%.
I eat muesli every morning for breakfast. It's the best way to get oats (raw).
Oatmeal is amazing at stabilizing blood sugar levels. It's like adding inertia to the power grid.
If you are eating any kind of snack cracker or refined wheat product, I would suggest replacing with oats and then reporting back on results after one week.
I think the beneficial effects are strong enough to completely offset the impact of things like occasional bowl of ice cream and package of nerds gummy clusters. This is what gets me to power through. If there wasn't some kind of strong upside no one would be eating this stuff willingly.
My understanding is that:
1. When someone consumes fat, bile is released into the gut.
2. Oatmeal (and other soluble fibers like psyllium husk) capture this bile and it is excreted in stool.
3. In order to create the bile, the liver needs LDL. Because the LDL it used to create the bile was lost when it was captured, it exposes more LDL receptors and pulls LDL out of the bloodstream, thereby lowering LDL levels.
It seems to me that in order to maximize the effectiveness of this LDL-lowering approach, one must not simply consume psyllium or oatmeal, but rather consume them in conjunction with fat. Not saturated fat, obviously, which raises LDL, but perhaps unsaturated or polyunsaturated fats. My expectation is that this would trigger the bile secretion required in order to actually sequester it.
Been trying to get into overnight oats (home made) for breakfast but its been hard to hit protein numbers, even with protein powder.
" Sponsorship
The trial was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the German Diabetes Association (DDG), the German Research Foundation (DFG), the German Cereal Processing, Milling and Starch Industries’ Association (VGMS), and RASO Naturprodukte."
I'd be quite suspicious of this study for this reason alone.
"They also lost two kilos in weight on average and their blood pressure fell slightly."
Two kilos in two days?
Edit: Oatmeal is great. I have some most mornings, either as porridge or letting it soak for a bit in "viscous mesophilic fermented milk", as Wikipedia suggests it can be called in english. Lots of starch but it takes a while for it to sugar the blood, and some fiber and protein.
If switching to oatmeal, go with the unflavored raw oats. It's not bad once a person gets used to it. Substituting milk with water is also perfectly fine.
Eating a low sugar breakfast does feel pretty healthy.
Are we talking instant oat meal here? Or something more raw like rolled or even cut oats?
I tried to get into rolled or cut but the prep time was hard to keep up with.
Can't win.
That’s nothing. You should have seen me on my Halo Top ice cream only diet. One point of the ice cream, nothing else. Lost way more weight than these losers. Halo Top, guys, it’s the key.
I think the main thing is to understand why oatmeal works: soluble fiber and the gut bacteria feeding on the carbs.
That can be achieved within many other diets too. I wish they were more specific in saying what's special about oats, if anything.
I also get upset when I see a ton of junk options at the grocery store. They are talking about plain cut oats and whole fresh fruit, but based on the way shelves are stocked I imagine a majority of people get the kind with all the added sugar. You might as well be eating honey smacks at that point. Yogurt has the same problem at the store.
Aren’t Oats given to horses to fatten them up in winter? I might be wrong. Just asking . .
Oatmeal is food of the gods - BUT only if you don't pollute is with all sorts of add ons.
Oatmeal and milk, nothing more. No fruit no nuts no sugar no honey no sprinkles of whatever. Perfect.
I fixed my high cholesterol problem with oats... Months ago I replaced my daily dinner with a mix of oats + banana + protein powder + 1 tbsp olive oil + peanut butter + flaxseeds + oat milk - all mixed in a blender. My bad cholesterol (LDL levels) tanked from 160 mg/dL to 91 mg/dL. My daily dinners before that were not even that unhealthy. Dropping sat fat intake had nowhere near that much effect for me. For me and I assume for many others, lack soluble fibers are the root cause of high LDL levels.