Can Oatmeal Reduce Cholesterol Levels?
One of the things that people advice others when they find out that they are suffering from high cholesterol levels is to eat oatmeal. This has been a common piece of advice people get and makes one wonder, can oatmeal reduce cholesterol levels? Oatmeal is one of the breakfast foods that contains a lot of fiber and is said to be a excellent method for you to lose weight with but how can it help reduce the cholesterol levels in your system?
When you try and ask scientists and researchers “how can oatmeal reduce cholesterol levels in a person’s system”, you will probably get an explanation that says exactly how this is done. Basically, when an individual ingests oatmeal, the oat fibers then mix with the cholesterol that is found in the person’s small intestine. This cholesterol is then carried out of the body the natural way and is not absorbed into the body or the blood. This is said to be more effective on bad cholesterol or LDL and helps with the lowering of this kind of cholesterol which then keeps a person away from heart diseases and other similar ailments.
When you ask, “can oatmeal reduce cholesterol levels”, you should also wonder at how much oatmeal is needed to substantially lower your cholesterol levels to an acceptable point. Studies have shown that the more oatmeal you take in, the lower your cholesterol levels will go however people who eat an average of one bowl per day have seen that their cholesterol levels have dropped 10% from its original level before they started eating oatmeal. This therefore proves that oatmeal does help with the lowering of cholesterol levels in a person’s body.
You should take care however that you do not add certain ingredients in your oatmeal to make it ineffective when it comes to lowering cholesterol levels. Some people do not like the taste of oatmeal so they add certain ingredients to it to mask the flavor, not realizing that these additions actually defeat the purpose of eating it in the first place. Some of the additions that people make to their daily bowl of oatmeal which then makes it a rather ineffective cholesterol lowering agent include chocolate, sugar, butter, whole milk and cheeses. These ingredients actually add the cholesterol you are avoiding into the oatmeal instead of keeping it out and therefore make the eating of oatmeal for lowering cholesterol with rather pointless.
You should always learn to look for ways to keep oatmeal healthy while trying to change how it tastes. For example, instead of adding chocolate or cheese to your porridge, why not add some fruits to it instead to make it taste better. If you want to add milk to it, try using soy milk since this also has cholesterol lowering effects and can make your oatmeal work a whole lot better at lowering your cholesterol levels. You can also add sweeteners that are not sugar based like honey or artificial sweeteners to your oatmeal to help retain its cholesterol lowering effects.
Kenn Fong is a health niche writer. He recommends The Cholesterol Scoop for more information on cholesterol too low and what is cholesterol.
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Oat bran is rich in soluble fibre, a substance that binds with cholesterol in the intestine and ushers it out of the body. Dr Rothenberg recommends eating ¾ of a cup of cooked oat bran cereal a day: this, she says, can lower cholesterol by 10 per cent.