Feeling Your Oats

Feeling Your Oats

I’m sure you’ve seen those commercials where average folks talk about how they lowered their cholesterol levels after eating oatmeal for a few weeks.

They’re probably not aware that the oatmeal may be providing benefits far more significant than shaving a few points off their total cholesterol. But if you want to enjoy those benefits yourself, you should know that not just any oatmeal will do.

Beta test

Beta-glucan is a complex sugar found in the cell walls of cereal fibers such as oats and barley. In a 2005 Health e-Tips e-letter, Amanda Ross (Managing Editor of Dr. Jonathan V. Wright’s Nutrition & Healing newsletter) detailed a 19-week study in which 25 subjects with mildly elevated cholesterol levels followed diets that contained low, medium, and high amounts of beta-glucan. Those in the high beta-glucan group lowered their LDL cholesterol by 17 percent.

Based on the successes of studies like this one, scientists at two mid-western research clinics conducted a study to test the effects of beta-glucan from oats on two other heart health measures: blood pressure and insulin levels.

STUDY ABSTRACT

Researchers recruited nearly 100 male and female subjects (average age: 60) who had either high blood pressure or moderately high blood pressure

• The subjects’ average body mass index (BMI) was 32.4 (a BMI of 30 or above indicates obesity)
• Subjects were randomly assigned two diets (one fortified with oat beta-glucan) for 12 weeks
• Results showed that peak insulin levels dropped significantly in the beta-glucan group, while remaining mostly unchanged in the other group
• Overall, blood pressure didn’t change significantly, but among subjects in the beta-glucan group with a BMI greater than 31.5, average systolic and diastolic blood pressure readings were lowered
• This study confirms the results of previous research indicating that beta-glucan lowers blood pressure among subjects with elevated insulin levels.

Crunch or mush?

I should note that this study was funded by the Quaker Oats Company – the same company that makes those cholesterol advertisements I mentioned above. But before you add “Quaker Oats” to you grocery list, you should know that the type of oatmeal you choose can make a big difference.

Here’s how William Campbell Douglass, II, M.D., describes two different oatmeal products in his Daily Dose e-letter: “Processed food is junk food that robs you of nutrients – not to mention the pleasure of eating real, good-tasting food. Oatmeal is an excellent example of where you can see the difference between processed and unprocessed for yourself. Purchase a container of Quaker Oats (‘Old Fashioned – 100% natural’) and a can of McCann’s steel-cut, Irish oatmeal (made in Ireland). Open the lids and compare. They don’t even look like the same grain! And the taste difference is remarkable – Quakers is mushy, McCann’s is crunchy. Once you go natural, you will never turn back.”

But differences in appearance, texture, and taste just begin to tell the story. Dr. Douglass goes on to describe a study in which adolescents ate either instant oatmeal or unprocessed oatmeal for breakfast. Researchers found that kids in the instant oatmeal group consumed more food later in the day than the unprocessed group. The reason: The instant oatmeal (with a higher glycemic index) was digested more rapidly, so hunger returned sooner.

The hunger issue is important because the kids ended up consuming more calories. But just as important is the lower glycemic index of the unprocessed oatmeal – a factor that, over time, will help prevent insulin insensitivity.

You can find more information about the importance of consuming foods with a low glycemic index in the e-Alert “So Five Minutes Ago” (2/23/04), which you can find at this link: http://www.hsionline.com/ealerts/ea200402/ea20040223.html