Oats Fight Cholesterol


You can hear a lot of jokes about noble English gentlemen eating oatmeal for breakfast, lunch and dinner…and if there is a meal in England with no oatmeal, then it is substituted by cakes…oat cakes.

This may be just a joke, but it is true that Englishmen love oatmeal, and incidentally this makes them the people with the healthiest hearts, because oats are known to be great at lowering the unhealthy lipoprotein cholesterol level (LPL) in blood, ultimately reducing the risk of heart disease.

Cholesterol is the substance produced by the liver and its main purpose is to produce some important hormones, eliminating the fat from our bodies. This sounds like a good thing that we should not be worried about, but the problem is we get cholesterol from our food as well: primarily from meats – beef, pork, etc. This causes an excess of the substance, and therefore instead of doing a good job, this “bad” cholesterol damages and clogs the arteries.

The studies on cholesterol and oats’ effect on it started 45 years ago and brought unexpectedly wonderful results. A group of scientists led by A.P. De Groot decided to feed their laboratory animals with rolled oats instead of wheat starch. The results were published in the Lancet magazine in 1967, which told about the great influence the oats made on the cholesterol level lowering.

Many other studies on both animals and humans have been held since then, proving the same point. The secret of the “magic” oats is a special substance called beta-glucan which has unique qualities on the molecular level which help it to absorb cholesterol from the blood.

In 1997 the United States Food and Drug Administration announced that beta-glucan in oat products is high enough to reduce both the cholesterol level and the risk of heart disease. In order to be worthy of a claim like this, a product should contain more than 0.75 grams of beta-glucan in one serving; and oat products (oatmeal, oat flour, rolled oats, etc.) fit this qualification.

If you plan to work on the LPL in your blood it is not enough just to have an oatmeal cookie a day, rather a whole meal should be presented by some kind of oat product. It is quite simple to have something like this at breakfast time: many people like to have a bowl of steaming hot oatmeal on a cold winter morning before going to work. It may sound unbelievable, but this kind of breakfast contains 3 grams of beta-glucan which is enough to reduce the cholesterol level by 8 to 23 percent if it is eaten every day.

The idea of having oatmeal breakfast for the rest of your life may not sound too appealing, and that is understandable, as all of us like changes and variations in food. If you get tired of porridge, try these alternatives:

• Use oats or oat flour when you make bread or muffins. There are also many oatmeal cookie recipes in cookbooks that are easy to make and each has its own unique taste.
• Oat cereal is a good substitute for oatmeal and works against cholesterol in the same great way.
• In recent years, various companies have started making oat bars which are not only good for breakfast, but can be used during your day as a snack or even as a quick lunch at work.
• Oat bran can be sprinkled over salads, adding a distinct flavor, making them even healthier for your body.
• Oat cakes and oat crackers can also become good friends while you are watching your favorite TV show and need a snack.
• Believe it or not, oat milk is better than cow’s milk, not merely because it doesn’t have cholesterol in it, but because it also works against cholesterol in the same way other oat products do.

Katie Jackson

Preventing Hair Loss

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Posted on January 15, 2009 
Filed Under Cholesterol lowering products and medication

Comments

One Response to “Oats Fight Cholesterol”

  1. Tony Allaway on September 26th, 2009 1:37 am

    I spice my daily porridge up with honey which is very yummy and guess what? Honey is another cholesterol-buster!

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