Is oatmeal healthful to eat?!
Is oatmeal healthful to eat?
Answers:
Yes!
Here's why:
1. Insoluble fiber's cancer-fighting properties are due to the fact that it attacks certain bile acids, reducing their toxicity.
2. Soluble fiber may reduce LDL cholesterol without lowering HDL cholesterol. LDL is bad; HDL is good.
3. Soluble fiber slows down the digestion of starch. This may be beneficial to diabetics because, when you slow down the digestion of starch, you avoid the sharp rises in your blood sugar level that usually occur following a meal.
4. It has been found that those who eat more oats are less likely to develop heart disease, a disease that is currently widespread in the United States.
5. The phytochemicals in oat may also have cancer-fighting properties.
6. Oats are a good source of many nutrients including vitamin E, zinc, selenium, copper, iron, manganese and magnesium. Oats are also a good source of protein.
Weight Control: Low in fat, and a "stick to your ribs food", oatmeal, a complex carbohydrate has a low glycemic index.This means it is turned into a simple sugar very slowly. What does this do? It raises our blood sugar slowly by staying in the stomach longer, which decreases our hunger and cravings created by those other simple carbohydrate foods (we all know which foods I'm referring to). End result: more sustained energy, and less junk food cravings. Don't forget that our brain gets fed from this complex carb food too! Oatmeal is also a great carbohydrate for diabetics.
Fortified oatmeal contains all of the B vitamins including the heart healthy Folate which lowers homocysteine levels (another heart disease risk factor).