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Just two days of eating mostly oatmeal led to lasting improvements in cholesterol levels for people at high risk of metabolic disease.<\/p>\n
The work came from researchers at the University of Bonn<\/a>. The study focused on people with metabolic syndrome<\/a>. This condition is common and serious.<\/p>\n Metabolic syndrome usually includes extra body weight, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and unhealthy blood fat levels. Together, these problems raise the risk of heart disease<\/a> and type 2 diabetes.<\/p>\n Medications help, but food still matters. This research looked at what happens when diet becomes the main tool, even briefly.<\/p>\n Study co-author Marie-Christine Simon, a junior professor at the Institute of Nutritional and Food Science, pointed out that oats once played a bigger role in medicine.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, effective medications are available to treat patients with diabetes<\/a>,\u201d said Professor Simon. \u201cAs a result, this method has been almost completely overlooked in recent decades.\u201d<\/p>\n How the two-day oats diet worked<\/p>\n Participants in the study followed a strict plan. For two days, they ate almost nothing but oatmeal. Each person consumed 300 grams of oats per day, cooked in water. <\/p>\n The participants could add a small amount of fruit or vegetables, but nothing else. The diet also cut calories to about half of what they normally ate.<\/p>\n Thirty-two men and women completed this oat-based diet. Another group followed a calorie-reduced diet without oats. <\/p>\n Both groups saw some benefits, which makes sense when calories drop. But the oat group stood out. Their cholesterol levels improved more, and the changes lasted.<\/p>\n \u201cThe level of particularly harmful LDL cholesterol<\/a> fell by 10 percent for them \u2013 that is a substantial reduction, although not entirely comparable to the effect of modern medications,\u201d noted Professor Simon. <\/p>\n \u201cThey also lost two kilos in weight on average and their blood pressure fell slightly.\u201d<\/p>\n Why bad cholesterol matters<\/p>\n LDL cholesterol is often called the bad kind for a reason. When there is too much of it in the blood, it sticks to vessel walls. Over time, these fatty deposits narrow the vessels. That makes it harder for blood to flow.<\/p>\n The danger does not stop there. These deposits can break open, especially during stress, anger, or heavy physical effort. A blood clot can form and block the vessel completely. <\/p>\n Sometimes pieces break off and travel through the bloodstream. That is how heart attacks and strokes<\/a> can happen.<\/p>\n A 10 percent drop in LDL may sound modest. But at the population level, it can make a real difference. And in this case, it came from just two days of eating oats.<\/p>\n The gut-bacteria connection<\/p>\n The oats did not work alone. The real action seems to have happened in the gut. Oats changed the mix of bacteria living there, and those microbes produced substances that helped the body handle cholesterol better.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were able to identify that the consumption of oatmeal increased the number of certain bacteria in the gut,\u201d said Linda Kl\u00fcmpen, the study\u2019s lead author.<\/p>\n These bacteria break down parts of the oats and release by-products. Some of these substances travel through the bloodstream and affect how the body works.<\/p>\n \u201cFor instance, we were able to show that intestinal bacteria produce phenolic compounds by breaking down the oats,\u201d said Kl\u00fcmpen. <\/p>\n \u201cIt has already been shown in animal studies that one of them, ferulic acid, has a positive effect on the cholesterol metabolism. This also appears to be the case for some of the other bacterial metabolic products.\u201d<\/p>\n The bacteria also help in another way. They remove histidine, an amino acid that the body can turn into a molecule linked to insulin resistance. <\/p>\n Insulin resistance is a key step toward type 2 diabetes. By reducing this process, the oat diet may lower diabetes risk as well.<\/p>\n Comparing oat-based diets<\/p>\n The researchers also tested a slower approach. In a second trial, participants ate 80 grams of oats per day for six weeks without cutting calories. <\/p>\n The effects were much smaller. This suggests that the body responds differently to a short, intense change than to a mild, long-term one.<\/p>\n \u201cA short-term oat-based diet at regular intervals could be a well-tolerated way to keep the cholesterol level within the normal range and prevent diabetes,\u201d said Professor Simon. <\/p>\n The idea now is to test whether repeating this two-day diet every few weeks could lead to lasting protection.<\/p>\n Oats will not replace medications. The researchers are clear about that. But this study shows that even a very simple food, used in a focused way, can push the body toward better health. <\/p>\n Sometimes, small changes over a short time can leave a longer mark than expected.<\/p>\n The full study was published in the journal Nature Communications<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter<\/a> for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.\u00a0<\/p>\n Check us out on EarthSnap<\/a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls<\/a> and Earth.com.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oats have been sitting quietly on grocery store shelves for decades. They are cheap, familiar, and often ignored.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[18,135,19,17,3521],"class_list":{"0":"post-303660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-lifestyle"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115958612224452095","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}