‘Breakfast is the most important meal of the day,’ you may have heard your parents say, and amazing things can happen to your body if your breakfast includes oatmeal. This one super grain is a healthy nutritional powerhouse that hides behind its dull appearance.
For over two thousand years, humans have learned to grow and harvest oats as a source of food and medicine. Medicinally, oatmeal was and is used for healing the skin, intestinal illness, nerve problems, and uterine complaints, among others.
Here’s What Happens to Your Body When You Eat Oatmeal Every Day
Certain health conditions, for example, gout, may not benefit from a diet of oatmeal every day. If you have current health concerns, speak with your health care professional before making a change to your diet.
Nutritional benefits of eating oatmeal every day
Oatmeal is a whole grain that gives you 13 grams of protein in one small half-cup serving. One tiny quarter-cup serving of oatmeal gives you almost 100% of your recommended daily manganese intake.
Oatmeal also has many antioxidants including vitamin E, tocotrieonols, selenium, phenolic acids, and phytic acid. Other nutrients provided by a daily helping of oatmeal include Vitamin B1, Biotin, Molybdenum, Phosphorus, Copper and Magnesium among many other phytonutrients.
Changes you can see in your body when you eat oatmeal every day
One of the best benefits of eating oatmeal daily is that doing so can help prevent obesity and weight gain. This is due to the feeling of satiety, or satisfaction of your hunger, that oatmeal gives you when you eat it.
Oatmeal makes you feel full longer and creates positive changes in your body in a couple of ways. First, oatmeal provides excellent low-level energy for a longer period of time. Secondly, oatmeal provides fiber to keep your stomach feeling full longer.
The low-glycemic impact (GI) of a bowl of oatmeal eaten in the morning provides a good source of energy throughout the morning hours, without a dramatic increase or drop in blood sugar. Maintaining lower blood sugar levels over a longer period of time helps the body regulate insulin usage.
The low GI of oatmeal helps you avoid cravings due to a drop in blood sugar. Without the low blood sugar cravings, we are less likely to reach for our favorite comfort food.
The daily caloric impact of an oatmeal breakfast is huge. Oatmeal could help you decrease your total daily calories by as much as 81%. In a study of high-GI breakfasts versus low-GI breakfast foods, oatmeal prevented people from over-consuming calories at later meals.
Most low calorie, low fat diet foods are not good at making us feel satisfied. Oatmeal is good for that happy, satisfied, not-hungry-at-all feeling, which also means you will eat less throughout the rest of the day. This daily decrease in your need for calories will result in wonderful weight loss and fat loss changes in your body.
Other health benefits of eating oatmeal every day
In addition to helping you slim down, lose body fat and prevent overeating, oatmeal provides significant health benefits. Other oatmeal benefits cited by much research to back up the claims are:
- Lower cholesterol
- Less risk of cardiovascular disease
- Lower risk of heart failure
- Improved immune response
- Stabilize blood sugar and reduce risk of type 2 diabetes
- Excellent source of fiber which protects against breast cancer
- Whole grains protect against childhood asthma
- Safe grain alternative for celiac disease sufferers or those who are avoiding gluten in their diets
- Extend life expectancy
What you need to know about oat processing
Whole oats are processed differently before they become a steamy bowl of sticky goodness at our breakfast table. Here’s what you need to know about oat processing:
- Oat groats: unflattened kernels that are good for use as a breakfast cereal or for stuffing
- Steel-cut oats: featuring a dense and chewy texture, they are produced by running the grain through steel blades that thinly slices them.
- Old-fashioned oats: have a flatter shape that is the result of their being steamed and then rolled.
- Quick-cooking oats: processed like old-fashioned oats, except they are cut finely before rolling
- Instant: produced by partially cooking the grains and then rolling them very thin.
- Oat bran: just the outer layer of the oat grain that resides under the hull.
Any of these choices can make a hearty meal, but as you know, less processing usually means a higher nutritional benefit with other food sources. Look for steel-cut oats as a starting point for your best-tasting daily bowl of oatmeal.
Final Thoughts on Eating Oatmeal Every Day
Look for creative ways to add this food to make you feel full longer. Try adding oats to a shake, smoothie or your favorite yogurt. Add some oats to your regular baking recipes, like muffins and cookies.
You can use oats as a grain replacement in any meal. Take a favorite quinoa recipe and substitute oatmeal as the grain. Enjoy the benefits of oatmeal, and you’ll love seeing your body transform in the mirror every morning.
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