Just two days of oatmeal cut bad cholesterol by 10% | Hacker News Reader

Just two days of oatmeal cut bad cholesterol by 10%

sciencedaily.com

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Fiber is the ultimate nutritional power tool.

Not only does fiber reduce cardiovascular mortality by 26% (by cutting cholesterol), surprisingly enough, fiber even reduces your risk of cancer by 22%: https://www.empirical.health/blog/dietary-fiber-reduces-all-...

(Oatmeal is high in fiber, among other things, which I think is part of what's going on here.)

Oatmeal is extra special because of it has high amounts of beta glucan, a soluble fiber.

I'd bet that oatmeal helps cancer due to increased elimination from the GI system, like any fibre

Wait, how does fiber cut cholesterol?

The article is a little densely worded.

iirc, from older articles, which differ from this nice result, bile acids contain cholesterol(s) and they're generally reabsorbed in the intestines, so the fiber is conjectured to bind with some before reabsorption, expelling the bound fraction of circulating cholesterol in feces.

this result in the paper is very interesting in the conjecture is that the gut microbiome is altered in a beneficial way, and that the effect (with the resulting lowering of cholesterol) persists for weeks after even 2 days of oats.

We know almost nothing about how digestion works, but fiber has the added benefit of lining your intestines, preventing the absorption of some nutrients. It also helps push things through, so they spend less time sitting around being absorbed.

Oh boy. Now we’re entering the fiber era. We’re just leaving the protein era. Before that it was the intermittent fasting era. Before that it was the keto era. The low fat era was probably a few before that.

I hear about fiber constantly all of the sudden. You might be right about it, but how do we know it’s different than. All the past nutrition tends?

It is funny how you can break diet/nutrition into generations like this.

I think the trends are a reflection of poor education. Fiber/protein/whatever being important components of a diet isn't new information. But the information is new to folks that never had nutrition explained to them.

I feel like we're due for something really ridiculous next. I've been paying attention to macros, fibre, salt, and having a reasonably varied diet for years; we've done salt, fat, carbs, protein, and now we're doing fibre.

"Eat a varied diet" seems boring but maybe those influencers selling pills made from 500 vegetables were ahead of the curve all along.

It would probably be better to just eat all those different vegetables as part of actual meals to get a varied diet, rather than in pill form.

I was under the impression that more protein and less salt/fat/carbs are still kinda the trend? If more fiber gets added to the mix I guess it is essentially telling people to eat more plants, thus leading to more varied diets overall.

> I was under the impression that more protein and less salt/fat/carbs are still kinda the trend?

kinda sorta. The low-carb, higher-protein diet is standard diet advice for T2D, and even more so if on a GLP-1 drug to reduce muscle loss.

Idk about cholesterol, fiber is well known to be very healthy. Same for protein.

Losing body fat will often have the biggest impact by far if one is overweight, though. It also stabilizes blood sugar and has a lot of benefits in general.

I'm in my 50s and I've been hearing about the benefits of fibre pretty much all my life. I doubt it's some sort of diet fad.

Heard about fiber all my life, but also went in school in Europe.

I heard about fiber for the last 30 years. But I'm also not American.

Because the trends are bullshit and nutrition is just not that complicated.

The trends are a strange type of nutrition entertainment for people to read and then ignore in practice. There is some kind of psychological comfort in the knowing you can switch to oatmeal next week while gorging yourself at the Cheesecake Factory.

Oatmeal is good for you. News at a 11. We have known this for at least that last 50 years.

Before manufactured insulin shots, the treatment for diabetes was a multi-day oatmeal fast. This has been around for many decades. The only thing that's changed is that you are finally hearing about it.

In related fashion, you might be interested in reading about the impact of soy protein.

Can you please elaborate and/or provide links?

I'll recommend starting here https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/soy/ (link of studies at the bottom of the page)

Takeways related to parent:

- "cardiovascular mortality ": > eating approximately 50 grams of soy protein a day (no small amount as this translates to 1½ pounds of tofu or eight 8-ounce glasses of soy milk!) in place of animal protein reduced harmful LDL cholesterol by 12.9 percent. [1] Such reductions, if sustained over time, could mean a greater than 20% lower risk of heart attack, stroke, or other forms of cardiovascular disease.

- "risk of cancer": many studies shows breast and prostate cancer reduction, but that is probably more related to isoflavones (Phytoestrogen) than fibers.

> in place of animal protein

makes it sound like this is unrelated to soy specifically and more about displacing less healthful things (like higher saturated fat and caloric animal sources)

That’s fair. Re-reading the citation: tofu and soy milk contains very low amount of fibers so it’s probably not a greet exemple to illustrate "soy protein" if the fibers are at play. Or they aren’t. A dive into the source seems reasonable.

Note that saturated fat is also present in plants based food like peanut butter, although that one also contains tons of fibers (absent in animal sources). Coconut oil on the other hand is a tasty evil.

Read further research, there are some meta reviews. Soy protein yields results that other plant proteins don't.

I wonder, do overnight oats wind up processing away a lot of the benefits? Do steel-cut oats have more of an effect on cholesterol than rolled?

> I wonder, do overnight oats wind up processing away a lot of the benefits?

Overnight oats are just normal oats left in liquid overnight to skip the cooking step.

What processing were you thinking of? If anything they are less processed than normal oats since they aren't cooked.

I routinely used to eat an oat based breakfast, and would then feel as though my blood pressure and energy levels were seesawing around for the rest of the morning. Turns out I have celiac disease with sensitivity to the protein in oats.

Dropping this here in case anyone else has a mysterious and unpleasant reaction to oats.

Wait, I don't understand. I thought oatmeal was gluten free, but because of where it's grown and processed, there's a lot of cross contamination with wheat. I buy gluten free oats because of this.

https://celiac.org/gluten-free-oats-whats-the-deal/

That's why I specified the protein found in oats, which is similar to but different from gluten. This paper adds some detail: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=oat+...

I'm somewhat gluten sensitive (tends to make my psoriasis flare up) but used to have gluten-free oats for breakfast. Then the porridge seemed to increase my uric acid levels, leading to gout attacks, so I've had to stop eating them (oats are usually classified as mid-level purine content and thus should be only eaten once or twice a week for those prone to gout).

I did this after it was first posted. My cholesterol is great, but it is a simple enough intervention, I mostly did it for the lols.

Not terribly difficult, you never feel hungry. The worst part was how sore my jaw felt from the excessive chewing of the bulk mass. Which is funny for something so mushy, but my instinct was to chew it a good amount. Also, it is a lot of fiber. Feel like the effect might just have to do with cleaning out every surface of my digestive tract.

I did it as well, 2 days of oatmeal (plus some chicken and toppings) and then oatmeal most days just one meal. Didn’t expect much…my cholesterol dropped 25% over a period of 3 months. One data point, will do another 2 days and see in another 3 months.

Steal-cut oatmeal made in Insta Pot is the best thing in the world. I do 2.5 to 1 ratio. It is important to not let the steam out. It takes about 30 minutes plus another 10 to cool. Set it and forget it. Add raisons and cinnamon at the end. Or, let freshly minced ginger steep with some orange zest.

I make it on the stove top. It also takes 30 minutes to cook and 10 to cool. My ratio of water to dry oatmeal is 3 to 1 by weight in grams and I mix in honey after it's done.

I microwave mine for 5 minutes (50% power) with a diced apple and some cinnamon. Ez Pz

I'm still looking for a good source of organic steel-cut oats, so I'm doing "regular" in an Instant Pot.

Life hack: put the measured water and oats inside a bowl, but put the bowl inside the Pot with half an inch of water. You're going to dirty the bowl anyway; no sense dirtying the Pot too. Just use gloves or a potholder to remove the bowl, unless you have very tough fingers.

Zero chance of the microwave under-cooking the oats or, worse, over-cooking and making a gawdawful mess in there.

I use either Bob's Red Mill Steel Cut Oats which are cheaper and organic or McCann's steel cut oats. I don't know if I could tell the difference in a blind taste test but I think McCann's are creamier and nuttier in flavor.

> no sense dirtying the Pot too

I cook all meals at home so I run the dishwasher machine every night and put it in. I might try the bowl trick with single serving of rice.

Interesting that oats suffer the same economics as yellow bulbs in stop lights where they are used much less meaning it costs more to switch them to led than the electricity costs saved. Genetically modified (GMO) oats are not commercially available because the cost of developing them doesn't meet the low demand.

I also sometimes fry and egg and put it on top the oatmeal with maple syrup. I know it sounds gross but I like it.

> I use either Bob's Red Mill Steel Cut Oats which are cheaper and organic or McCann's steel cut oats.

Oh, those aren't at all as overpriced as I was expecting. Thanks for the recommendation.

> I might try the bowl trick with single serving of rice.

Just about anything I have ever cooked in an IP at the single to double serving size I have been able to do using that trick. (Rice, pasta, even "baking" personal sized cakes.) I've lived for years at a time in homes with no dishwasher so optimizing for not relying on one has been worth the effort for me.

Rice is a no-brainer. If you don't end up preferring it I'll be shocked. :-)

> Genetically modified (GMO) oats are not commercially available because the cost of developing them doesn't meet the low demand.

Wow. I had no idea. Thank you part 2. This is very good news. Anything I can do to get the glyphosate out of my diet is most welcome.

> I also sometimes fry and egg and put it on top the oatmeal with maple syrup. I know it sounds gross but I like it.

It sounds like a breakfast of pancakes and fried eggs and I've run out of cinnamon sugar and that maple syrup is right there looking at me.

Oh, did I mention that you can make one big pancake in your IP in the same bowl, and if you have "regular" oatmeal (not the instant kind, nor the un-cooked steel cut kind either) on hand you can substitute half of the flour and have a big ol' breakfast in 40-50 minutes? The only thing besides the bowl and spoon I need to clean is the 1/4c measuring cup, now that I can easily estimate the amount of salt I need to shake in, etc.

Oatmeal reliably spikes my blood sugar. Not as much as many other carbs, but enough that I avoid it. Each time an insulin resistant person eats it, it causes a little more permanent damage.

Four out of ten US adults are insulin resistant.

I have no idea how to balance the blood sugar damage with the cholesterol damage.

I would think the type and preparation would play a significant role. There's steel cut (which can be made soft or "chewy"), firmer "old fashioned", and the quick dissolving mush that is one-minute.

Not all oatmeal has the same effect on blood sugar. Steel cut oats are absorbed more slowly than instant oats. Toppings on your oatmeal also affect blood glucose in non-linear ways, the same as any other combination of foods.

Try oat groats, this will have the lowest GI. You can cook them like rice, even in a rice cooker, using the same technique ... for a firmer result use less water and cook for less time. You can start off with roughly 1:1 ratio of oat groats to water. I do .75 cups oat groats to 1.25 cups water.

glycemic index of steel cut is low, whereas large-flake is medium-high, and instant oats are high. Though you have to account for load.

My approach is to have a modest amount and increase the nuts and chia mixed with it, alongside berries and yogurt.

Use thicker oats, obviously. Also, add some ceylon cinnamon powder to it. Additionally, if you can tolerate it, also add ground fenugreek powder to it to further offset the absorption.

psyllium husk. zero calorie fiber

Previously (30 days ago, 355 points, 268 comments):

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46819809

Oatmeal has become my favorite breakfast by far. It's delicious and never seems to never give me the "crash" that people describe with other carbs (probably due to it's low GI). Very easy to blend them into my protein shakes after a morning workout too.

I'd like to point out that not all oatmeal products have the same nutritional value. Quaker instant oats might as well be a box of crackers or other snacky food compared to original or steel cut variety.

> Participants followed a calorie restricted plan made up almost entirely of oatmeal for 48 hours.

Oatmeal is great, but a calorie restricted diet made practically entirely of oatmeal isn't exactly a useful determinant.

Is it the oatmeal itself or the glyphosate present in all oatmeal?

This is interesting and useful, but it's worth noting that this is ~1200 Calories a day, so that's a lot of what's going on outside the LDL effect.

Yeah it's a quite well known result you often see rapid improvements across several health markers from just a few days of calorie restriction.

I consume these so often for breakfast that I've calibrated the "core" meal many times. Personally I think the optimal amount is less than you would think, to make room for other ingredient pairings like berries, nuts and fermented dairy.

It's not the laziest method but I like soaking them overnight. Without being too fussed about phytic acid in a balanced diet, soaking still improves digestibility and nutrient absorption.

My doctor had me on statins because I tested with high cholesterol. I switched to oatmeal for breakfast. Stopped statins tested again. Totally normal.

How do you take your oatmeal?

Buttered

Savory: add a fried egg, soy sauce, and cottage cheese

Like stirred in? Or as sides?

I think that was a joke, all those things increase cholesterol. Egg yolks high in bad cholesterol, soy sauce has tons of sodium, and cottage cheese high in fat.

IIRC the relationship between cholesterol and diet is more complicated than eating cholesterol == more cholesterol. Especially in this case you're eating cholesterol with a high-fiber meal which prevents a significant amount of the absorption of it.

Cottage cheese is quite low in fat for cheese. The one at my local supermarket is 11.3g protein, 2.4g fat, 6.3g carbs, and it's not a diet version.

It's still very salty and most of the carbs are in the form of the sugar lactose, I'm not really recommending it as a health food, it's just comparatively low in fat.

Haha sorry never meant to imply it was a cholesterol friendly meal, it’s just how I make my oatmeal.

Good: Oat flakes. I like Bob's Red Mill in North America and Karavansay in Colombia. Boil them a short time, drain part or all of the water, and eat them with a little bit of honey or a fruit such as blueberries.

Bad: Oatly

I usually eat mine like cereal, uncooked old-fashioned in cold milk, with a bit of honey or brown sugar for flavor. Apparently this is normal overseas.

Steel cut is just a different thing altogether. I like mine a bit on the firm side, with butter, brown sugar. On top, some plain yogurt pair nicely. Cranberries and walnuts are pretty great too.

I think one-minute/instant oatmeal is terrible, no matter how it's prepared, which is unfortunately most people's first experience with oatmeal.

Honey is good, but there is never a reason to add any sugar even if brown. Oatmeal can be sweetened with practically any fruit. Berries work really well, whether dried or fresh. I add wild blueberries.

> Berries work really well, whether dried or fresh.

Frozen berries work really well too and they are much cheaper than fresh. Just have to leave them out for an hour (or overnight in the fridge) to thaw

I soak mine overnight with nuts, in water and a tsp of yogurt, then drain/rinse off in the morning. Steel-cut if I'm cooking it stove-top, large-flake if I'm just microwaving the oats. Serve with the nuts, alongside berries and whatever else.

Years ago I'd sometimes go over-the-top with homemade kefir, cocoa nibs, lemon zest. I stopped the kefir habit not so much because of the hassle but because I didn't want to consume that much volume of dairy every day. I get enough lactic acid from kimchi, and protein from other sources.

Overnight oats have been my go to lunch and pre workout meal for a couple years now.

75g 0% Greek Yogurt, 75g Almond Milk, 10g Maple Syrup, 8g ISOpure unflavored protein powder, 8g PBfit powdered peanut butter, Salt to taste. Whisk everything else together in one bowl. Pour over 85g of old fashioned oats and stir.

511 calories, 79g carbs, 30g protein, 9g fat. Easy to tune the recipe to macro targets.

Cholesterol numbers are great.

I like a splash of maple syrup, oat milk, and maybe half a packet of sweetener if I'm feeling cheeky. Cocoa nibs and dried fruits are excellent too.

I use minute oats. Drop in boiling water, toss in a Half handful of raisins or crasins.

Peanut butter, chia seed and banana slices.

If you make plain oatmeal with less water so that it is thick rather than runny, it can be treated like a side dish like mashed potatoes or polenta in a savory meal. It can be a bit odd at first for people who are used to thinking of oatmeal as a sweetened food but it's something one can get accustomed to quickly and avoids the downside of consuming extra sugar.

In my opinion oatmeal is better as a spicy-savory rather than a sweet dish. You could add black pepper and a bit of salt to it and maybe a hot sauce for even more flavor. Montreal steak spice also works well.

Could take it to the next level with green peas, diced carrots and other things.

In fact once you go savory, you'll never go back. Sweet oatmeal grosses me out.

look up upma, a semolina based indian breakfast dish that can be adapted to oats pretty easily.

I add 1-2 tbsp of soy milk powder (not to be confused with soy protein powder) which adds bulk. In the end I add wild blueberries to sweeten it. Sometimes I add chia seeds, especially if I can leave it soaked overnight.

We heat up unskimmed milk, add oatmeal, let them soak for at least 10 minutes. Then serve them and pour a little bit of cold milk over the cooked oatmeal. Plain, or add some fresh fruit, nuts, berries to taste.

Mmm oatmeal. Breakfast of champions. I usually do it for about 330 days a year. Take a month off every once in a while..

What do you have for breakfast before that if I may ask?

Used to have a single egg, slice of peperjack cheese draped over it and some fruit. sometimes + meat of some sort. Nothing I thought of as overly unhealthy.

All of those things (other than the fruit) have cholesterol. Cheese and meat can also be quite a bit of saturated fat.

Dietary cholesterol has very little causation with blood cholesterol

From what LDL-C or AboB level to what?

I've eaten oatmeal for breakfast, have a heart healthy diet, and exercise regularly. My total cholesterol and especially LdL are always massively high.

My body hates me.

I have high cholesterol, have had for more than a decade. Was on a statin, they didnt help. Doubled them, they didnt help. Changed my diet radically, lost 25 lbs (I was a little overweight, but not bad), ate full medeteranian diet and did everything I could, my numbers didnt budge. Changed to a stronger one and within two weeks my numbers were perfect.

I believe for some of us its purely genetic.

"Changed to a stronger one"

Changed to a stronger one what?

I assumed they meant a stronger statin.

yes, changed to a stronger statin.

There are some people who just have high cholesterol but none of the other risk factors. I'm one of them. I did a calcium score on my heart, and it came back clean. The cardiologist basically said my cholesterol is just part of who I am, and it's not causing problems.

If you're similar to me, you might want to get a second opinion. There are different kinds of LdL cholesterol, and the small, dense particles are the ones that cause blockages. Big puffy ones don't. I have mostly big puffy ones, but classifying them is a different test that has to be special-ordered.

I also have a very low resting heart rate, exercise regularly, have a high VO2Max, and have a healthy diet. So the claim that I was at major risk of a cardiac episode just didn't pass the smell test. If it wasn't for those things, I probably wouldn't have asked questions when my doctor said I should go on a statin.

unfortunately im not in the same situation. I have a high incidence in my family, my calcium score wasn't clean (especially for someone my age) and my vo2max isnt the best either. Though my many stress tests have always been fine.

I don't think im in terrible shape right now, but looking ahead 10 to 20 years, without medical intervention I probably would be.

What does “Changed to a stronger one” mean?

yes, changed to a stronger statin.

My LDL is stuck between 145 and 155 permanently. Same for my mom and aunts. Oatmeal, exercise, etc. doesn't help.

I'm still young so my doctor isn't terribly concerned, but in 10 years I'll probably have to be on statins.

You should question this and advocate for yourself. The important number is total lifetime exposure to LDL (actually apoB, but doctors aren't routinely testing that yet). The arterial damage is cumulative. You shouldn't wait until you are at high risk of cardiac events to take action. The time to slow down the progression is now.

I'm just replying based on taking your comment at face value. LDL of 150 is very high and living with that for many years is very damaging. Obviously it's something between you and your doctor, I'm just encouraging you to consider and get reasoning from your doctor about whether this approach is really best for your health.

It's a borderline kinda thing. He said if it was consistently in the 160s he would probably recommend them. My previous doctor was basically in the same camp but had me taking blood tests every 3 months for a year to see if it was stuck there.

What do you mean by heart healthy diet?

Egg whites, lean meats, etc? Strict whole food plant based?

Mediterranean but also I like a good beef dish occasionally, so mostly Mediterranean with the occasional filet or tacos de lingua or something.

The Mediterranean diet is something of a myth, some Mediterranean countries fair quite well on the life expectancy, CHD, and CVD figures, some not so much.

Additionally the data used are considered suspicious in the case of at least Italy to my recollection.

i eat an apple with a teaspoon of pistachio butter (sometimes two) for breakfast. If I am still hungry, I eat 150g of blueberries with some vegan organic protein powder (2 teaspoons) and cottage cheese.

How can I tell if oatmeal would have more fiber?

I also eat basically an entire romaine earth at lunch and cooked veggies at dinner.

Fiber is definitely the only things that makes me full without making me fat.

This has been widely known in bodybuilding and powerlifting circles, people abusing performance enhancing drugs eat things like oats to mitigate the harmful effects of the drugs on their cholesterol, and regularly do blood work to monitor it and see that it is working.

Supposedly, eating food with vitamin c before eating oatmeal improves iron absorption from the oatmeal.

Honestly? It's advertising, not biology.

All starchy foods make cholesterol go up, while all animal proteins make it go down, since digesting them consumes LDL. People only campaign against this scientific evidence because there are so many of us in the world, too many, and there isn't enough animal protein for everyone, especially if you focus on economically profitable production instead of distributed subsistence production wherever possible.

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