Posted on 01/25/2026 9:05:10 PM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
Eating 80 grams of oatmeal every day for six weeks, along with normal food, had just a small benefit. They believe this is from gut bacteria changes the two-day exclusive diet caused.
I’d call this quantifiable horses**t.
“Two days of oatmeal can reduce cholesterol level”
...and send you on a straight-line path to getting diabetes.
Like you - no thanks!
Don’t like oatmeal, don’t need tolose weight, LDL is under control but I have to take a pill for that.. So maybe I’ll try to like oatmeal.
A little brown sugar? A few blueberries? A sot of vodka?
Whatever makesit taste good.
How does oatmeal give you diabetes?
I eat oatmeal regularly; you don’t need sugar to make it taste good, blueberries are good way to enhance the flavor, I prefer bananas, but other fruits would work as well.
Instead of boiling the oatmeal in water, use milk, 2% or low-fat milk are options, so is Almond milk if you prefer.
The other things I’ve used to enhance the taste of oatmeal while also being healthy options are using cinnamon and vanilla flavoring...
I’ve also used various types of nuts, pecans, almonds, etc.
I’ve also used oatmeal to make my own granola using healthy choices...
I’ve also made pancakes out of oatmeal, 3 ingredients, two overripe bananas mashed up, 2 eggs, 1.5 cups of oatmeal blended into a type of oatmeal flour, add in cinnamon or vanilla for extra flavoring, makes 4-5 pancakes which are very tasty and healthy.
That was a question I wanted to ask as well, I don’t get the correlation between the two.
Oatmeal will make you a man. I’ve eaten the stuff dry laddy, and it’ll put some hair on yer balls an fire in your arse. There’s an old Scottish proverb that says fuck you, eat your oats.
People will think “Oatmeal — oh yeah, those instant, ‘heart healthy’ packets of instant oatmeal.” Bad, bad choice. Those instant oatmeals loaded with added sugar and the oats are heavily processed, flattened so they get digested quickly. That causes a big glucose spike and all the metabolic problems that causes. Then, by 10 am, you are hungry again and snacking.
Instead, eat steel-cut oats and pair with protein or healthy fat. That slows down absorption and blunts the glucose spikes.
Eating lots of oatmeal all the time can reduce cholesterol significantly.
I know........
It’s not.
Trust me on this one.
The bigger benefit may actually be coming from the calorie restricted diet than the oatmeal itself.
Oatmeal doesn’t give you diabetes.
Other than the bananas, everything you list sounds good. I buy 2% milk and occasionally almond milk, so I’ll try those. Do you chop nuts into tiny pieces and cook them with the oats?
No, the control group had the same calories.
Oh, OK.
I don’t think well at this time of night. Back to bed.
For almond milk I prefer the Almond Breeze brand, it is much closer to regular milk than the others IMO.
Yes, I do generally chop up the nuts if they aren’t already chopped up when I buy them, this week sliced almonds were on sale at my local grocery store and I bought 3 bags. If you want to experiment, chop up the nuts, put them on a pan with parchment paper, pop them in the oven at 300 degrees for 5-6 minutes, toasting the nuts brings out the flavor.
If you want to go for a higher protein content, think about putting a spoonful of peanut butter in the oatmeal.
My method of making oatmeal is to make up all the dry ingredients plus the milk and let it cold soak overnight, the next day I heat it up in the microwave, you can skip using the stove top.
Like I said, they’re plenty of ways to add flavor to oatmeal besides adding sugar and still have a healthy breakfast.
Just double checking to see if I understand this correctly.
Two days in a row of 3 meals/bowls of oatmeal each day. Repeat every 6 weeks.
That is effectively how to take it, yes.
More details in the actual study, which is at the link below the write up at Medical Xpress.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.