Two days of oatmeal can reduce cholesterol level

Medical Xpress / University of Bonn / Nature Communications ^ | Jan. 23, 2025 | Johannes Seiler / Linda Klümpen et al

[ConservativeMind]

A short-term oat-based diet appears to be surprisingly effective at reducing the cholesterol level. This is indicated by a trial. The participants suffered from a metabolic syndrome—a combination of high body weight, high blood pressure, and elevated blood glucose and blood lipid levels. They consumed a calorie-reduced diet, consisting almost exclusively of oatmeal, for two days. Their cholesterol levels then improved significantly compared to a control group. Even after six weeks, this effect remained stable. The diet apparently influenced the composition of microorganisms in the gut.

Although the test subjects in the current trial were not diabetic, they suffered from a metabolic syndrome associated with an increased risk of diabetes. The characteristics include excess body weight, high blood pressure, an elevated blood sugar level, and lipid metabolism disorders.

The participants were asked to exclusively eat oatmeal, which they had previously boiled in water, three times a day. They were only allowed to add some fruit or vegetables to their meals. A total of 32 women and men completed this oat-based diet. They ate 300 grams of oatmeal on each of the two days and only consumed around half of their normal calories. A control group was also put on a calorie-reduced diet, although this did not consist of oats.

Both groups benefited from the change in diet. However, the effect was much more pronounced for the participants who followed the oat-based diet. "The level of particularly harmful LDL cholesterol fell by 10 percent for them—that is a substantial reduction, although not entirely comparable to the effect of modern medications," stresses Simon. "They also lost two kilos in weight on average and their blood pressure fell slightly."

A six-week diet, in which the participants consumed 80 grams of oats per day, without any other restrictions, achieved small effects.

[Veto!]

“Filling” isnot my problem. I weigh 112 and often forget to eat. Food just doesn’t interest me and I don’t like to cook. My dad did though. He was so poor when he was a little boy, there wasn’t anything to eat now and then. He loved food,loved cooking, and was super at it. Good because my mother was a lousy cook.

We would have starved except for Mitzi, our live-in maid from Austria. Early poverty taught my dad to work hard and get ahead. Why don’t the ghetto dwellers have that kind of thought process. Anyone can go to work at a restaurant to make enough money to feed the family. Waitresses, dishwashers, all kinds of easy jobs out there.

[trebb]

Just a normal diet - oatmeal and a banana for breakfast about twice a week, then it’s a tossup between a protein bar and and a protein shake or a Jimmy Dean English muffin with sausage/egg/cheese. I can’t advise you what to do - but if you made 89 and are still a little bit active, I have trouble seeing you worrying about your diet or cholesterol unless something’s getting so clogged up a stent would be advised if you were younger and able to do the operation (and even then, I doubt statins could fix anything) ...if nothing’s that bad, if I reach 89, I’m not going to worry about anything...if my eyes open in the morning, it will be a great day.

[metmom]

God bless you.

The way pharmceuticals are pushed on older adults is disgusting.

If you’ve gotten this far without them, then what’s the need? What’s it going to do? Buy you a couple more days? It’s not worth the side effects.

[metmom]

Plain oatmeal is boring.

Adding something for flavor helps.

Organic oatmeal is far better quality than Quaker Oats or store brands.

I’ve tried them all since oatmeal comprises a huge part of my diet (not by choice), and my cholesterol numbers are great and I’m not diabetic yet (contrary to the claim upthread that eating oats will give someone diabetes).

[metmom]

Oatmeal doesn’t cause it like so many other carbs.

It’s a whole grain and that regulates entry into the bloodstream.

[Ancesthntr]

It depends on what kind of oats are used, and the article in question did not mention which type of oats were used. I would agree a little bit more with you if it was steel cut oats, as opposed to the rolled oats or “fast“ oats that people typically consume (at least in the U.S.). There was also no mention made at all of whether or not anything was added to the oats. I’m assuming there was no sugar or other sweetener added, but if there were some fats added such as butter or coconut oil, that would slow absorption of any kind of oats, and thus result in a lesser blood sugar spike. The truth is that “it depends“ is the answer here. We don’t have enough information about exactly how this study was conducted. In limited circumstances, you are correct. However, based upon what American consumers typically have (which can be pretty fairly judged by looking at how much shelf space is taken up by the different types of oats in a grocery store), you would likely not be correct. That is part of the reason why I tend to be skeptical of articles that summarize studies, because they tend to go for the easy headline, and the average person doesn’t know enough about nutrition to be able to fairly evaluate those results. Like anything else, some studies are well done, and others are less so.

[Jamestown1630]

Steel cut oats are whole oats with the husk removed and then chopped up. They don’t look anything like the rolled oats we mostly see, and are far less processed.

[Veto!]

It’s 12:30 here and my oatmeal fromAMZ just arrived. Since I’m never hungry, it’s still breakfast time. will see how I like oatmeal now.

[Menes]

I would like to wish you all the best for many years to come. Being healthy is the greatest blessing I can think of 😀

[Veto!]

Just made organic oatmeal, eating it now but it requires a serious BARF ALERT even with almond milk in it. Going to pour some maple syrup in it because I don’t have sugar in the house;

[matthew fuller]

Interesting thread, with some great sounding replies.

[ConservativeMind]

You missed post #39:

https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4363992/posts?page=39#39

[Ancesthntr]

Here, here! The whole “cholesterol is bad” religion got its start from the fraudster, Dr. Ancel Keyes and his cherry-picked 7 nation study - the problem with which was that he actually got data from more than 7 nations, but tossed the data that didn’t agree with his agenda.

[Mr Rogers]

Posting something from someone selling oatmeal isn't helpful.

"In fact, healthy carbs like quinoa, sweet potatoes, and oats are essential for your body’s everyday functions. When you aren’t taking in enough healthy carbs, your body starts to break down fats and proteins for energy instead, which aren’t used efficiently."

That is a garbage statement. Carbs are NOT "essential" and Americans eats tons of carbs anyways.

And why the total focus on "reduce cholesterol"? First, anything with a result in TWO DAYS is almost certainly temporary. But why is "reduce cholesterol" considered a great thing to do?

The sweet spot for longevity isn't "LDL below 100" or "Total cholesterol below 200". It is around 190-260:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6367420/

[Ancesthntr]

Thanks for the information. However, I am still not going to have very much at all in the way of oats, much less 300 g for two days in a row in order to reduce my cholesterol. As I’ve said elsewhere on this thread, cholesterol is not the problem. It is a coincident indicator, because cholesterol is a significant component of arterial plaque. The purpose of arterial plaque is to effectively act like an internal Band-Aid, covering up inflamed portions of your arteries so that they can heal. Cholesterol is not the problem, inflammation that causes injury to our arteries is. That inflammation is exacerbated by a number of things, such as cigarette smoking, drinking alcohol, consumption of highly processed seed oilsand excess consumption of carbohydrates. I absolutely do not buy into the claim that statins have reduced heart disease. Oh, maybe to a very minor extent, I’ll concede that (because one of the benefits of low-dose statins is that they can reduce inflammation somewhat. But the drop in heart disease over the last 30 years has much more to do with the substantial reduction in both smoking and heavy drinking.

I have no problem with the results of this study, in the sense that I believe that their measurements are accurate. Oatmeal probably does reduce cholesterol, because it has soluble fiber that attaches to cholesterol molecules and tends to shunt it out of the body. My question/problem is with the premise, that reducing cholesterol actually improves one’s health. In some cases, it probably does. However, it does not apply to the great mass of people. There is no reason for 35% of the adult population of this country to be on statin drugs, other than to increase the bottom line of pharmaceutical companies which want anything but customers who are cured of disease. Instead, they want people who are sick for years or decades, so they can keep supplying us with expensive drugs.

[miniTAX]

“There’s not a single post on this thread ‘demonizing’ meat, eggs, etc.”

---

What are you even talking about??? The subject of this thread itself is about “lowering cholesterol” and the whole obsession of lowering cholesterol is based on demonising animal based food like red meat, saturated fats and eggs.

You didn’t address a single of my arguments and for once that you do, you are just telling porkies.
You should stick to what you do best: being offended and answering with passive aggressive ad hominem and deflection.

[Jamestown1630]

‘demonising’?

‘Telling porkies’?

[miniTAX]

“Oatmeal probably does reduce cholesterol, because it has soluble fiber that attaches to cholesterol molecules and tends to shunt it out of the body.”

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That’s the theory put out by promoters of fibers but that makes no sense. Fiber MAY attach to cholesterol but only to dietary cholesterol in the intestinal tract, not to blood cholesterol since fibers never enter the bloodstream and can’t possibly “shunt cholesterol out of the body”. But dietary cholesterol is nearly non-existent, especially in a vegan diet, the most you can find is in eggs but at just around 1% by weight (and virtually 0% in meat), so it has no direct influence on serum cholesterol.

Moreover, dietary cholesterol has no relation with serum cholesterol since the former is completely decomposed and reprocessed before reaching the bloodstream so it can’t change the level of the latter, never ever, there has not a single physiological evidence that shows it. Serum level of cholesterol in a healthy body is like pH or temperature, it is homeostatic (regulated tighly). What you eat can change it only in very long term and only via indirect mechanism like metabolic health, blood pressure, age...

Yeah, the nutrition field is chock full of misconceptions or outright lies like this (”whole grains have fibers, fibers are healthy food, fibers reduce cholesterol”). No wonder why all those who swallow them line, hook and sinker freak out with the new upside down food pyramid.

[miniTAX]

“Am I the only one here that knows cholesterol is our primary food for our brains? “

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Cholesterol is a major *component* of our brain (see above), not “food”.