Diet Debate: Are Porridge Oats Healthy? This is a question that I get asked all the time, so I thought it was about time I wrote a quick post on it. Although the conventional wisdom holds all wholegrains in high esteem, most people seem to acknowledge that wheat might not be the health food it’s cracked up to be (in fact, perhaps more people are choosing to avoid it than is really necessary). It’s also now fairly well accepted that most breakfast cereals are little more than junk food in disguise. A breakfast of porridge oats, however, has become synonymous with a healthy diet. Promises of “slow release energy”, “heart healthy oats”, “breakfast of champions” and the like have become ingrained the conventional wisdom surrounding diet. Is there any justification for this belief however?
As we have seen in many of these diet debates, often much of what we believe regarding nutrition has no actual basis in fact! A Closer Look at Porridge Oats. In order to try and answer the question of “Is porridge healthy”, I’m going to take look at it under the criteria I outlined in my article on Making Decisions on the suitability of foods. Energy. Porridge oats are renowned as an excellent source of slow release energy, which will keep you going throughout the day. I would have to agree, that porridge is a good source of energy. Whether this is a good thing or not however, all depends upon your individual needs. If you are highly active, have low body fat, and/or are looking to gain weight, getting sufficient energy should be a high priority, and oats can be a cheap, convenient, relatively sustainable, and tasty way to supply it. If however, you are largely sedentary, and are happy with your current body fat levels, or would actually like to reduce them, eating high energy foods may not be the best solution, no matter what rate it is released at! Perhaps switching to another plant food with a lower energy density might be a better option? Raw Materials. Much of porridge’s good reputation has to do with its high soluble fibre content. Soluble fibre has been shown to reduce levels of bad ldl cholesterol. While there is much controversy over the whole cholesterol debate, I think there is probably some truth in the benefits of soluble fibre, most likely due to its probiotic effect. Fibre is not an essential nutrient, however, so what about porridge as a source of raw materials? Check out the nutrition data for porridge oats on nutritiondata. At first glance, porridge looks like a pretty nutritious food, with a broad range of vitamins and minerals, fairly decent protein score, and plenty of fibre. However. Phytates are found in many plant foods, as they are the principal form of storage of phosphorous in plant tissues, particularly in grains, legumes and seeds. Phytates are indigestible to humans and other non- ruminant animals however, and therefore are not a dietary source of phosphorous. Read the latest Cardiology news, opinion, conference coverage, thought leader perspectives, medical journal articles and more from theheart.org and Medscape. Further to this, phytates chelate to other minerals in food such as zinc, iron, calcium and magnesium, thus preventing them from being absorbed via digestion! The potential negative effects of high phytate foods such as oats are highlighted in this article by Stephan Guyenet: Reversing Tooth Decay. In the article, Guyenet reviews research from the 1. Guyenet writes: In group 1, oatmeal prevented healing and encouraged new cavities, presumably due to its ability to prevent mineral absorption. ![]() In group 2, simply adding vitamin D to the diet caused most cavities to heal and fewer to form. The most striking effect was in group 3, the group eating a grain- free diet plus vitamin D, in which nearly all cavities healed and very few new cavities developed. Grains are the main source of phytic acid in the modern diet, although we can’t rule out the possibility that grains were promoting tooth decay through another mechanism as well. To reiterate – adding oats to the diet of children significantly increased their rates of tooth decay! Removing oats and other grains, and adding vitamin D, not only prevented new cavities, but actually caused existing cavities to heal. Though sugar and starch are generally labelled the culprit for tooth decay, this study points to the contrary, as the tooth healing diet still contained foods such as jam, sugar and potatoes.(One caveat – the study appears to lack a control, or at least it is not shown in the graph published on Whole Health Source, so there are some serious problems with the data. What effect would Oats + Vitamin D have had? Or removal of grains without Vit. D? How did the diet plus extra oats compare to the standard diet etc)If Dr Mellanby’s theory is correct, that tooth decay is a problem of mineral availability and utilisation, it is equally likely that bone health is also at risk from the same factors. In short, oat porridge is potentially bad news for your bones and teeth! The good news is however, that soaking and fermenting can significantly reduce the pyhtate content of grains, and thereby increase the mineral and nutrient bio- availability. ![]() Pleasure. I really like porridge, and always have done. What I really like is porridge with dried fruit, bananas and honey. Not so much, and I’m sure that’s true for most people. Is Porridge for You? Whether porridge is a suitable food for you depends largely upon your goals. If your goal is weight loss, or weight maintenance and health, it is probably best to keep porridge oat consumption to a minimum. Porridge may be filling, but if you consider that 1. Spinach (approx 2. This increased food volume, and the higher protein content will fill you up just as long, if not longer than the porridge with fewer calories, and also provide much more essential nutrition, in a more easily digestible form. Alternatively if eggs and spinach aren’t your thing, how about 2. Natural Full Fat Yoghurt (approx 1. Fresh Strawberries (approx 7. Again around 1/2kg of food but with just a little over half the calories, and packed with bio- available nutrients.(All kcal values based on information from http: //nutritiondata. If you want the increased energy density, because you are highly active and/or want to gain weight, porridge can be a good choice, but it is probably worth ensuring you soak the grain overnight first, ideally in some live dairy (think natural yoghurt or buttermilk), and some buckwheat which is high in the enzyme phytase, which helps break down phytic acid (thanks to this recipe on paleohacks for this tip).(Exactly how effective this technique is I can’t really say, but it takes little effort and significantly improves the taste, so there are no drawbacks from doing it). Once the phytates are broken down, oats are a relatively “safe starch”, they do contain a gluten like substance, avenin, but it seems much less problematic, and it is low in fructans, the indigestible carbohydrates in wheat which often cause digestive distress in I. B. S. I like to add a splash of creamy full fat raw milk too, mmm. You’ll never want to eat un- soaked oats again, trust me! Image courtesy of Grant Cochrane / Free. My cat ate Science diet dry food for the first several years of his life, at the recommendation of his vet (IDigital. Photos. net. Improved zinc and iron absorption from breakfast meals containing malted oats with reduced phytate content. Larsson M, Rossander- Hulth. Sandberg AS. Thanks for reading, I hope you found this post of interest. Our job doesn't end there – we manufacture all Complete Series. This is very rarely seen within the supplement industry, with most companies hiding behind proprietary blends. Proprietary blends consist of multiple ingredients, but don't list the amounts of each individual ingredient that are actually present. This enables unscrupulous companies to add just tiny amounts of ingredients to a product, purely so theycan be named on the label. In contrast, Complete Series. We let you know exactly what goes in to each one, and in what amount. You deserve to know exactly what you are putting in to your body – so we make sure you do. The six DIET MISTAKES that are making us. By ANNA MAGEE Published. BST, 1. 7 February 2. They found the reward centres in the brains of breakfast- skippers lit up when they saw higher- calorie foods such as pizza, cake and chocolate, making them less likely to resist junk food than those who opted for an early morning meal. What you should do Research at Pennington Biomedical Research Centre in the US found that those who started their day with two boiled eggs felt less hungry and ate less come lunchtime. Any form of protein in the morning – plain yoghurt and berries, mackerel or smoked salmon, an omelette or raw muesli with nuts – makes for a breakfast of (thin) kings. When All You Want Is To Be Slim. As carbohydrates are first stored as glucose and water, this won’t be fat – yet – but will turn into fat if it isn’t worked off, so you’ll need to do extra exercise during the week. Insidiously, weekend blowouts keep you feeling deprived psychologically, says Sarah Flower, author of The Healthy Lifestyle Diet Cookbook. If you feel compelled to overeat every weekend, it suggests the way you’re eating most of the time isn’t satisfying you,’ says Dr Briffa. But the healthy eating should be making you feel better, not be your penance.’ What you should do To avoid the temptation to binge, pepper your working week with small amounts of what you fancy, such as a small glass of wine, some cheese or a few squares of good quality chocolate. The damage will only be done when you start mind games such as, “Oh, I have been bad now, so I might as well continue all weekend,”’ he says. Another study that followed diet drinkers over a ten- year period found their waists grew a staggering 7. Sweeteners have also been shown to have a similar effect to real sugar on blood glucose and insulin levels. One study also found that a high intake of diet drinks could increase the risk of developing type- 2 diabetes by 6. What you should do Drink sparkling or still water with fresh lime or lemon juice, suggests Dr Briffa. If you want something sweet, coconut water with nothing added is a natural, healthy choice. DIET DRINKS - another diet mistake. Such foods can act as triggers for those with a tendency to overeat. Sarah Flower also says some foods produced by weight- loss programmes can be high in sugar, artificial sweeteners and refined carbohydrates, which increase appetite. FAT PHOBIAMyth Avoid fat if you want to lose weight. Fact Successful dieters get 3. Studies show that the tiny ten per cent of people who lose weight and keep it off (see panel opposite) eat moderate amounts of fat. When dieters avoid fat, they are hungry all the time. Dieters’ obsession with low- fat products merely fuels a craving for fatty foods, and that’s why they end up bingeing on cakes, biscuits and ice cream – all sources of the fat their bodies need,’ she explains. Low- fat food is pointless for people wanting to lose weight because when real fat is removed, something needs to be added to retain taste and texture – . Make sure you eat plenty of good fats, such as omega- 3 fatty acids (there is some evidence that these help the body burn fat) found in oily fish, coconut oil, walnuts and flax seeds – try them crushed on your morning porridge. Ninety per cent of people who go on diets regain the weight within a year. DIETS, full stop. Myth Diets work for long- term weight loss. Fact Ninety per cent of yo- yo dieters don’t keep the weight off . That is how crash dieters gain more and more weight over time. Last October, a University of Melbourne study of 5. The study found that participants’ levels of ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates appetite, was 2. The bottom line: dieting was making them hungrier. GI is a number rating out of 1. Low GI is considered 5. HOW SUCCESSFUL DIETERS KEEP WEIGHT OFFNinety per cent of people who go on diets regain the weight within a year. The US National Weight Control Registry studied the habits of the ten per cent of people who did keep off anything from 3. Here’s what they did: 7. TV a week. 9. 0 per cent exercised moderately for an hour every day (most chose walking).
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