Robert has recently heard about oatmeal. He also heard that oatmeal could have a good effect on health. So, Robert thought of taking this diet. But now he is thinking about if there are any adverse effects too.
Nowadays, people are being conscious of having a healthy lifestyle. It’s very crucial to maintain a healthy lifestyle to lead a quality life. There are many kinds of diet available. Among them, oatmeal is also common. Now the question is whether oatmeal is good for you or bad?
Here we have come with an answer to this question. Let’s check out whether it is good or bad for you.
What is Oatmeal?
At first, we will talk about what oatmeal is. Oatmeal is also known as oat porridge. It is made of hulled oat grains that can be either ground (white oats) or steel-cut (pinhead oats/ coarse oatmeal), or rolled oats.
Oats can be sliced, steamed, or flattened in many ways. Based on the cooking time, rolled oats are of three types. These are- ‘old-fashioned’, ‘quick’ and ‘instant’ oats.
Better classification of oatmeal:
There are varieties of oatmeal available in the market. The types of oatmeal are-
- Instant oats :oat groats being steamed and flaked
- Rolled oats :oat groats being steamed and rolled into flakes, they are thicker than instant oats and take longer time to cook
- Steel-cut oats :getting the whole oat kernel, cut up, also known as Irish oats
- Scottish oats :they are the ground oats
- Oat groats :without being cut, flaked, or ground
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uJLXIdvs40
Why is oatmeal good for you?
Oatmeal can help you in many ways. They have so many health benefits. They are nutritious, maintain blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol levels, and reduce heart diseases. Moreover, they can also promote weight loss, prevent constipation, asthma, etc.
Now let’s describe why oatmeal is good for you-
-
For a well-balanced nutrition
Do you want to get a well-balanced diet or nutrition? Then oatmeal can help you a lot. They have a well-balanced composition of nutrients.
You can get plenty of carbohydrates and fiber by having oatmeal. Besides these, they also contain a sufficient amount of fat, protein, vitamins, minerals, etc.
In 100 g of oats, you will get 66.27 g carbs, 16.89 g protein, 6.90 g fat (lipid), 10.6 g fiber, and 8.22 g water. In minerals, they contain calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, zinc, copper, manganese, etc.
So, you can easily maintain a well nutritious diet by having oatmeal.
-
For lowering cholesterol levels and protecting the heart
Nowadays, heart diseases are very common. And cholesterol has a great impact on the heart. High blood cholesterol can lead to severe heart diseases.
Are you tensed about your blood cholesterol level? Don’t worry. Oats can help you lower your blood cholesterol. They contain an important fiber, beta-glucan. This fiber plays an important role in lowering LDL cholesterol, as well as the total cholesterol level.
Now the question is, how do they do this? Beta-glucan can increase bile secretion that is rich in cholesterol. In this way, they lower the level of cholesterol circulating in the blood.
Oats also contain vitamin C and antioxidants. Both of them can prevent the oxidation of LDL. Simultaneously, they reduce the risk of strokes and heart attacks.
-
For promoting weight loss
You can lose your weight quickly by eating this delicious food. Oats help your stomach stay full for a long time. Beta-glucan, included in the oats, reduce your hunger by releasing the hormone “cholecystokinin. They also increase the release of a gut hormone, peptide YY. It helps to promote lower intakes of calories.
Thus they reduce the amount of your calorie intake. So, you can maintain a good weight and also stay free from obesity.
- For controlling blood sugar
Increase the level of blood sugar leads to diabetes. It occurs when the body system can’t produce a sufficient amount of insulin. Nowadays, this thing is very common. But oats can help you control your blood sugar.
Oats have both soluble and insoluble fibers in it. Among them, soluble fibers, especially beta-glucan, form a thick viscous gel. It delays the emptying of the stomach. As a result, glucose absorption in the blood also hinders.
In this way, the blood sugar level remains in control.
-
For enjoying the benefits of antioxidants
Oats are highly rich in antioxidants. They also include a unique antioxidant named Avenanthramides. Ferulic acid is also present profoundly in oats. These antioxidants can perform a lot of beneficial activities in the body. Such as-
They have anti-inflammatory and anti-itching effects and prevent skin irritation. They can also protect you from colon cancers or heart diseases. Besides, they can increase the production of nitric oxide. Thus they can help lower your blood pressure levels.
-
For staying energetic
Oats can help you a lot stay fully energetic. By eating 100 g of oats, you will get 16.9 g of proteins and 1628 KJ energy. As a result, your stomach remains full for a more extended period and keeps you energetic at the same time.
-
For improving the functioning of the respiratory system
Asthma is actually a very common disease that is an inflammatory disorder of the airways. We have already known that oats perform anti-inflammatory activities.
Through their anti-inflammatory effects, oats can prevent the swelling and flare-up of the nose, throat, and airways. That can help you breathe better and improve the functions of the respiratory system.
Besides, studies have found that providing oats to children at a very young age can reduce asthma and other allergic diseases.
-
For maintaining a healthy pregnancy state
The pregnancy state is a very important stage of every woman’s life. And maintaining a healthy diet during the pregnancy period is important for both the mother and baby.
In this case, oatmeal can easily help pregnant women maintain a healthy diet. They can provide a sufficient amount of carbohydrates and calories to pregnant women. In this way, oatmeal can help them stay energetic throughout the day.
Besides, they can add different flavors to diet and satisfy pregnancy cravings. Thus they also help ensure the normal growth of the babies.
-
For preventing constipation
Difficulties in bowel movements and constipation are common among older people. As a result, they need to take laxatives to treat constipation. But frequent use of laxatives can negatively affect their health like they can cause weight loss.
We all know that fibers can prevent constipation. As oats are a great source of fibers, they can also help prevent constipation in older people. So, they don’t need to take laxatives anymore.
-
For promoting healthy bacteria in the gut
Oatmeal include fermentable fiber, which the friendly bacteria in your gut can eat. They help those healthy bacteria to grow and multiply. As a result, the bad bacteria become crowd out.
In this way, oatmeal help you digest and absorb more nutrients from the food you eat. Besides, oatmeal can also help keep your gut well healthy.
-
For boosting your immune system
Oatmeal play an important role in boosting immunity. They are highly rich in beta-glucan. Beta-glucans are very beneficial for the health of neutrophils.
Thus they help neutrophils fight against diseases and infections caused by viruses, bacteria, and other microbes. Ultimately, they keep you safe and protected.
-
For preventing cancers
Another great benefit of oatmeal is they can prevent cancers. They contain enterolactin, which is rich in phytochemicals. They can help expel the free radicals from the body. Thus they prevent the accumulation of free radicals and protect you from cancers.
A study reveals that an additional daily serving of whole grains can reduce the risk of death. The risk of overall death can decrease by up to 5 percent. And the risk of death caused by heart disease can decrease by up to 9 percent.
So, we can say, oatmeal can have a significant impact on a healthy lifestyle.
Can oatmeal be bad for you?
Now we will discuss if there are any harmful effects of having oatmeal. We certainly can’t deny the beneficial effects of oatmeal. But we should also check whether it can cause any side effects.
Let’s see how oatmeal can harm you-
-
Adding different toppings
Sometimes, people don’t like the taste of oatmeal. They find it bland if only oatmeal is served. So, to remove the boredness, they add extra toppings to it. As a result, oatmeal becomes very sweeter or more savory. So, it can also lose its nutritional value.
-
Adding extra calories
People often add extra sugar, choco chips, or cocoa powder to add taste to oatmeal. In this way, they also add extra calories to them. The amount of sugar, carbs, fats also increase in it.
Ultimately oatmeal lose the nutritional value of it and cause an intake of extra calories.
- Eating too much
By adding extra sweeteners or sugar, people increase the taste of oatmeal. As a result, people find it tasty. Thus they tend to eat more oatmeal than the needed portion.
-
Gaining weight is oatmeal good for you
Adding extra toppings or sugar in the oatmeal causes intake of more calories. As a result, it can cause weight gaining. Moreover, they can also increase the sugar level in the blood and cause diabetes.
-
Choosing the wrong toppings is oatmeal good for you
To increase the taste of oatmeal, people often add wrong toppings to it. You can add a handful of almonds, cinnamon, or fresh fruits to it. It will not destroy the nutritional value of oatmeal.
But instead of doing this, people add sweeteners like Nutella, chocolates, choco chips, cacao powder, etc. As a result, they make it too much sweet and savory.
-
Ordering is oatmeal good for you from fast-food chains
People often buy or order oatmeal from the roadside or fast-food chain. Most of the time, these oatmeal don’t maintain the exact nutritive pattern. So, they don’t be that healthful they need to be.
-
Allergic reactions is oatmeal good for you
Some people may have allergies to oatmeal. So, it may cause allergic reactions.
In these ways, oatmeal can have harmful effects on the body. But you can avoid these effects by taking some precautions.
Precautions need to be taken to avoid side effects is oatmeal good for you
- Before taking oatmeal, you should know whether you are allergic to oats or not. You can conduct a brief patch test to determine this.
- Always consult the physician before adding something to your diet or lifestyle.
- Don’t add extra sugar or toppings too much to add taste, not even dried fruits.
- Instead, you can use almonds or fresh fruits as toppings.
- Don’t overeat. Try to eat the limited portions that you need for your body.
- Always check the nutrients and ingredients level before buying oatmeal.
- Try to avoid roadside oatmeal or ordering it from the fast-food chain.
By following these things, you can easily avoid the harmful effects of oatmeal.
Thus we have described almost everything about this. Their types, benefits, side effects, and precautions are all well described above. So, you might have already known that is good for you or not. In fact, they offer you an easy way to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
When people search for ideal foods, they find oatmeal very common. You will find nothing that totally won’t have any side effects. So, oatmeal may also have some. But the plus point is you can easily avoid them by taking some precautions. Otherwise, oatmeal can undoubtedly become an ideal diet with great nutritional value.
