What You Put In Your Breakfast Bowl May Likely Help Lower Your Cholesterol
Sunday, June 5th, 2011It is becoming increasingly more common for people to obtain the news from their doctor that their cholesterol level is high. It is unfortunate, but with our recent diets and routines, high cholesterol is almost inescapable. And so, now that you have the bad news you will want to learn about how to reduce bad cholesterol. Unless you’ve got extremely high levels, a highly effective and straightforward method to decrease your cholesterol promptly is by changing the foods you eat. One of the best changes you can make is dependant on what you put in your breakfast bowl.
Oatmeal, be it steel cut oats or perhaps instant oatmeal, is a whole grain. The nutrients and vitamins you get in whole grains are removed when the grain is milled or processed. These nutrients, including a form of soluble fiber called beta-glucan, are very significant in relation to lowering your bad cholesterol.
The question is then, how can oatmeal reduce cholesterol? Beta-glucan basically acts as a sponge and soaks up bile acid and eliminates it as waste matter. This is great news because your body can then start working and will start creating more bile acids. One of the building blocks of bile acid is LDL cholesterol (the ‘bad’ cholesterol). So, as the body makes increasingly more bile acid to make up for what was passed as waste, LDL cholesterol is used up and your cholesterol level falls.
To see considerable advantages of consuming oatmeal the FDA recommends that you ingest a minimum of three grams of beta-glucan every day. This can be achieved with simply one portion of steel cut oats or two servings of quick-cooking oatmeal. If you don’t have the time to prepare steel cut oats each morning (preparation usually takes as much as 30 minutes), it is possible to take in two packets of instant oatmeal with a little oat bran to get your three grams of beta-glucan.
How much can your cholesterol level drop by just consuming oatmeal? A recent study at the University of California found a decline in LDL cholesterol of 17% spanning a six week period. For individuals who just have moderately high cholesterol levels this may be adequate to get them back to a reasonable level. Accordingly, by just changing what you put in your breakfast bowl every day there’s a chance you’re able to control your high cholesterol levels.
Though there are numerous foods that have been discovered to help manage cholesterol, oatmeal definitely seems to be the best option. For reasonable serving sizes you can drop the amount of LDL to a healthy level. If you’re not accustomed to the taste of oatmeal, you are able to improve the flavor by adding a number of various toppings. A handful of these toppings include honey, almonds, strawberries, and peanut butter.