Can Adding THIS To Your Oatmeal Reduce Its Health Benefits?

By Rachel Grumman Bender for YouBeauty.com

With summer coming to an end you may already be having visions of wrapping yourself in a cashmere blanket with a hot and hearty bowl of oatmeal in hand to fend off the morning chill.

And chances are, you’d give yourself a big pat on the back for choosing a healthy breakfast option like oatmeal rather than grabbing a fat-filled muffin or buttery bagel. After all, oatmeal has been on a health pedestal for years -- and for a good reason. Oatmeal is packed with soluble fiber, which reduces your low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the "bad" cholesterol. In fact, having 1 1/2 cups of cooked oatmeal provides six grams of fiber. It’s also good for diabetics since oatmeal takes a while to digest, preventing unwelcome spikes in blood sugar, and is often recommended by nutritionists for weight loss because it helps keep you feeling full.

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The problem is that some people don’t like the taste of oatmeal, but make themselves eat it because they know it’s good for them. And that can backfire. To make it more palatable, they often pile on sugar -- or worse, pick up oatmeal at fast food chains like McDonald’s even though they’re full of sugar and additives -- knocking the breakfast staple right off its health pedestal.

In one study, 1,000 people were asked to follow three small behavior changes, including eating oatmeal for breakfast, every day for three months. Surprisingly, the oatmeal eaters gained weight. So study author Brian Wansink, Ph.D., author of "Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think" wanted to find out why. Turns out, the oatmeal eaters put on extra pounds because they were loading their morning oatmeal with sugar, eating well beyond the recommended portion size of a half cup or were rewarding themselves with additional calories in the form of a mid-morning snack.

In other words, they managed to undo the health benefits of eating oatmeal faster than you can say “instant oatmeal.”

“Oatmeal has a health halo,” says Wansink. “As a result, people think it’s a lot healthier for them than it actually is. Eating it with too much sugar jacks up the calories. So does eating too much.” Wansink adds, “If you don’t really like the taste of oatmeal, it defeats the purpose of eating it because you’re going to find some other way to compensate, such as putting in a lot of brown sugar to make it a little more palatable. But you can also do that by varying the texture of oatmeal by putting good stuff in it.”

The solution: Transform boring oatmeal by adding a touch of sweetness or texture the healthy way—with a small handful of dried fruit, sliced almonds or walnuts, or with flavorful spices such as cinnamon.

Or skip it all together. There are plenty of other healthy breakfast options out there.

Comments

[aznurse]

11:26 PM on 10/25/2011

vanilla soy milk 1gm, frozen blueberries, cinammon and sometimes chopped almonds.

[lele23]

08:51 PM on 09/29/2011

My favorite bowl of oatmeal: gluten-free steel-cut oats (Bob's Red Mill), hemp milk, ground flax seed, a few raw walnuts, and whatever fruit is in season, like blueberries or apples. I like to cut apple into small pieces and cook for a few minutes with the oatmeal to soften. No additional sweetener needed.

[Matt Blanc]

11:15 AM on 09/26/2011

Cooked in skim milk or soy milk, oatmeal tastes a lot better than when cooked in water. And a teaspoon of maple syrup in it can't be all that bad for you, can it?

[H P]

08:49 PM on 09/04/2011

I add some honey, some vanilla, some cinnamon..
when I travel I take instant oatmeal with me.. even high end hotels where you have no microwave will have a coffee maker. some hot water.. ta da..

[GetAbike]

01:26 PM on 09/04/2011

Add fruit- dried or fresh for sweetness.
I like to add dried cranberries, nut butter (like almond butter), and nutritional yeast.

[vikingv]

02:36 AM on 09/04/2011

I add a good amount of cinnamon and mix it in with my oat meal. There is a sweet taste and a great aroma. I add more sweetness with Splenda granules from a large box dispenser purchased at the store. Splenda comes from a sweet grass and substitutes for sugar. Splenda has no calories and no insulin spikes.

Oatmeal is really good now. The cinnamon really gives it the morning smell of breakfast.

[DrP]

11:09 PM on 08/30/2011

Skip the oatmeal all together. Grains are NOT healthy.

[Mary Schumacher]

10:56 AM on 08/30/2011

I'd go with the bacon and eggs after reading Why We Get Fat.

[Elliot Klein]

08:33 PM on 08/29/2011

I eat oatmeal every day for breakfast but with yogurt, protein powder and a banana. Sweet enough without any sugar.

[HerrMonk]

06:08 PM on 08/29/2011

"And chances are, you’d give yourself a big pat on the back for choosing a healthy breakfast option like oatmeal rather than grabbing a fat-filled muffin or buttery bagel."

What planet is the author from where muffins are "fat filled"...

They're a carb source... just like the oatmeal you're pushing.

Oatmeal is great for athletes and people trying to gain weight or replenish glycogen stores.

For those who are overweight (fat) and/or relevantly sedentary a breakfast of eggs, yogurt and/or cottage cheese or the like is going to be much healthier.

[Euterpe360]

11:31 AM on 08/30/2011

Unless you're going keto you're going to need some carbs somewhere and oatmeal is probably the best option as long as it's not sugar laden.

[HerrMonk]

11:43 AM on 08/30/2011

Qualitatively it's not bad.

But again, if you're not an athlete, or someone burning through their glycogen reserves doing some high-intensity activity, you never need to be eating a meal centered around carbohydrates. 100g a day is more than enough for non-athletes. That's easily attainable, and will probably just happen with no effort, eating throughout the day. To get much below that, you need to be consciously avoiding carbs. The carbs in dairy, vegetables (even leafy greens) and fruits add up.

I don't think anyone but an athlete/someone trying to put on weight ever needs a carb-centric meal.

[DrP]

11:13 PM on 08/30/2011

You are basically correct, except in the case of overweight individuals, they are usually severely insulin-resistant and cottage cheese and yogurt will be to high in carbs for them. Also, I am quite athletically and I limit carbs to 20 grams a day. It is possible to be quite active on a ketogenic diet. In fact, my partner has recently "converted" to low-carb and after years of cycling finds he has much more strength and energy on a ketogenic diet - and he is almost 70 years old!

[HerrMonk]

11:13 AM on 08/31/2011

Well, there are many types of "active". People who need more carbs are people who engage in glycogen burning, anaerobic, activities. Not someone who does a five-mile run every morning, even though that is active, it's not very glycogen depleting.

[dblueII]

05:35 PM on 08/29/2011

Oh well, the only way I can get it down is with TONs of maple syrup, raisins and cinnamon. Otherwise, you may as well use the stuff to hang wallpaper. Yuk.

[DrP]

11:14 PM on 08/30/2011

Skip it altogether. It isn't all it's cracked up to be, so no point in eating something that tastes awful. Adding all that sugar makes it actually a nutritional bomb.

[Rebecca Harrach]

12:28 PM on 08/29/2011

If you have to dump sugar all over your oatmeal to make it taste good, the oatmeal is probably not very fresh or flavorful. This explains how to spot fresh oats: http://www.organicauthority.com/eco-chic-table/oatmeal-think-you-know-your-oats-these-secrets-may-surprise.html
I personally like some butter and a handful of berries or a sliced peach. Yum.

[amanda can]

11:33 AM on 08/29/2011

I love my 1/2 a cup of oatmeal soaked overnight in the fridge with 2 teaspoons of brown sugar, 1 cup of milk, a small handful of raisins & crushed almonds, a diced apple, and tons of cinnamon!

[lbcyclist]

10:50 AM on 08/29/2011

I like oatmeal, and I do not sweeten it except adding a few raisins and or a chopped date. I still gain weight when I eat it regularly.

[Connie Markley Boppre]

10:35 AM on 08/29/2011

oatmeal with ground flax seed, frozen blueberries ...yum