Oatmeal is a great breakfast food. It's affordable, nutritious and filling. More importantly, oatmeal offers a wide range of health benefits. Regularly including oats in your diet has been scientifically proven to lower your cholesterol, helps in controlling your blood sugar levels and helps you to achieve a healthy weight. Moreover, oatmeal reduces the risk of heart attack, stroke and cancer as well.
Reduces High Cholesterol
Oatmeal is an important source of soluble dietary fiber. When regularly eaten, it reduces the amount of "bad" or LDL cholesterol that is absorbed into your bloodstream through your intestines, while maintaining "good" or HDL cholesterol. This, in turn, reduces the risk of getting a heart disease, heart attack or stroke. This is why the American Heart Association recommends daily consumption of at least 25 to 35 g of oatmeal and similar soluble-fiber foods, such as oat bran and wheat bran.
Weight Loss
Oatmeal is high in fiber and low in fat. As a result, it tends to stay longer in your digestive tract, which leaves you feeling with a longer lasting sensation of fullness. This, in turn, reduces your appetite and helps you lose weight. Maintaining a healthy weight already offers lots of health benefits on its own, all of which have been well-documented, such as improved energy and quality of life and the reduced risk of diabetes, heart disease and other diseases.
Blood Sugar
Regular consumption of oats helps control the rise of blood sugar, which is vital in preventing diabetes complications. Oatmeal contains beta-glucans, a soluble fiber that increases the viscosity of the stomach and small intestine. This slows down digestion and the rate at which blood glucose increases after eating a meal. It also lengthens the time it takes to absorb carbohydrates into the bloodstream. Therefore, dramatic spikes in blood sugar are prevented.
Reduce Cancer
The best diet for lowering the risk of cancer is one that includes a lot of whole grains, vegetables and fruits. While oatmeal is not a cure for cancer, its high-fiber content does help in fighting cancer. Whole oats keep your bowel movements regular and result in solid, bulky stools, which help to dilute carcinogens. Oatmeal also reduces the toxicity of bile acids, which would otherwise increase the risks of cancer.
Putting Oats Into Your Diet
Many products offer dietary fiber, but remember that what you're looking for is soluble fiber. You can get this by eating a small bowl of hot oatmeal once a day. If this gets monotonous, there are many oatmeal-based recipes available online to add variety to your diet. However, make sure to avoid most commercial oat products, such as muffins, waffles and chips. These contain very little real oatmeal or oat bran; what's worse, they also tend to have high amounts of sodium, trans fat and saturated fat.
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