Can You Eat Oats and Oatmeal If You Have Diabetes?

Oatmeal is a healthy breakfast choice and a great way to start your day.

It's low in calories and full of fiber, which can make it the perfect food for people who are trying to control their weight.

However, oatmeal also contains a lot of carbs. For this reason, people with diabetes may wonder if it's a good choice for them.

This article takes a closer look at oatmeal and explores whether it's a healthy choice for people with diabetes. The answer may surprise you.

Oatmeal Is Highly Nutritious

Oatmeal, sometimes called porridge, is a food made with oat groats. These are oat kernels that have had their hard outer husks removed.

There are three main types of oatmeal, including steel-cut, whole (also called rolled) and instant oatmeal. They differ in the way they're processed, as steel-cut oats are cut rather than rolled like whole and instant varieties.

Most people eat their oatmeal hot. They make it by mixing their oats with either boiling water or milk. You can also reduce prep time by making oatmeal without heat, soaking it in milk or water overnight and eating it cold in the morning.

However you prepare it, oatmeal is a good source of carbs and fiber, particularly soluble fiber. It also contains a range of vitamins and minerals.

For most people, it's a balanced and highly nutritious food choice. 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of dry oats provides the following nutrients (1):

• Calories: 389
• Carbs: 66 grams
• Protein: 17 grams
• Fiber: 11 grams
• Fat: 7 grams
• Manganese: 246% of the RDI
• Phosphorus: 52% of the RDI
• Vitamin B1 (thiamine): 51% of the RDI
• Magnesium: 44% of the RDI
• Copper: 31% of the RDI
• Iron: 26% of the RDI
• Zinc: 26% of the RDI
• Folate: 14% of the RDI
• Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid): 13% of the RDI

As you can see, oats are low in calories and high in nutrients.

However, they also contain a lot of carbs. And if you make your oatmeal with milk, this will increase its carb content even more.

For example, each 1/2 cup of whole milk you add to your oats will add around 13 grams of carbs and 73 calories (2).

Read more

Steel cut oats

Steel cut oats could be considered a "power food" because they are an excellent source of protein, soluble and insoluble fiber and select vitamins and minerals. The benefits of steel cut oats exceed the benefits of rolled oats because of the way they are processed. Steel cut oats are dense and chewy as a result of being passed through sharp, steel blades that cut them into thin slices that helps retain more fiber and protein. Steel cut oats, just as any whole oats, make a healthy addition to your regular diet.

Steel Cut vs. Rolled Oats

Steel-cut oats come from the same plant as rolled or instant oats and other oat products. The difference between steel-cut and rolled oats is in their processing. Steel-cut oats are never cooked and start from the whole grain that is then passed through slender blades that cut the oat kernel into thin slices. Rolled or quick oats, prepared the old-fashioned way, are steamed and then rolled. Rolling the oat helps it to cook faster. Steel-cut oats take 15 to 20 minutes to cook.

Fiber

Steel cut oats have 5 g fiber per 1/4 cup dry oats, including 2 g insoluble fiber. The insoluble fiber in steel oats includes d-beta-glucan which is associated with improved blood sugar levels in diabetes and improved cholesterol levels. Specifically in diabetes, as little as 3 g beta-glucan daily is suggested to slow gastric emptying thus lowering glycemic response to a meal. Its role in lowering the glycemic load of a meal also helps improve cardiac health, based on a 2004 article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Protein

Steel-cut oats are a good source of protein providing 7 g protein per 1/4 cup serving. The protein in steel-cut oats is complete, containing trace amounts of all the essential amino acids. It is relatively high in glutamic acid and aspartic acid, and low in tryptophan.

Iron

Steel-cut oats are a whole grain product and as such are naturally good sources of B vitamins and iron. Like most whole grains, you can get 10 percent of the recommended daily allowance for iron in 1/4 cup dry steel-cut oats. Adults consuming the equivalent of 1/2 cup dry oats obtain 20 percent of their iron in this amount. As with other whole grains, steel cut oats are also a good source of B vitamins, providing at least 10 percent of the recommended daily allowance for thiamin, niacin, riboflavin and niacin.

Read more

Porridge better than statins?

Meanwhile, a 14-year study from Harvard University, published in the medical journal JAMA in 2015, that looked at the health of 100,000 people found that those who ate the most wholegrains, such as porridge, seemed to be protected from many illnesses, including heart disease.

The researchers went so far as to say that regularly eating wholegrains could extend life expectancy. Dr Grimble agrees: ‘I think if everyone ate porridge we would certainly significantly cut rates of heart disease and possibly also bowel cancer.’

Despite its complex benefits, porridge is a simple food. The oats are made simply by stripping the outer husk of the oat grass, leaving the wholegrain oat. With so much going for it, it’s hard to see why porridge fell out of favour. The problem was people have struggled to find the time to stir away at the stove over bubbling oats. A properly cooked porridge can take around half an hour to make, says Jenny Stringer, deputy managing director of Leiths School of Food and Wine.

Yet speedy porridge — ready-to-eat pots and sachets — has helped transform that. Porridge is hip again, with cafes dedicated to the cereal; a Mintel survey from 2013 found that almost a fifth of British adults named porridge their favourite breakfast, with sales doubling since 2008.

It’s not just standard flavours that are popular — Pret a Manger’s ready-to-eat coconut porridge now accounts for one in five of its UK porridge sales. But are the newer takes on porridge as virtuous as you might think?

Certainly they are still essentially oats, although the instant porridge you get in sachet form are made by milling the oats more, so that they swell faster when mixed with fluid. And the catch with this, says Professor Peter Wilde, a food research scientist at Quadram Institute of Bioscience in Norwich, is that instant porridge is likely to have a higher glycaemic index (GI).

One of the advantages of traditional porridge oats is their low GI, meaning the energy is released slowly into the bloodstream, leading to a small release of insulin and avoiding spikes in blood sugar.

Read more

Paleo Diet and Metabolic Syndrome

How a Paleo Diet Can Reverse Metabolic Syndrome by Chris Kresser Metabolic syndrome is widespread, affecting 34 percent of all U.S. adults and half of those over 60. (1) Instead of a distinct disease, metabolic syndrome is a cluster of symptoms. One is diagnosed if at least three of the following five markers are present: (2) large waist circumference high blood pressure elevated fasting glucose elevated triglycerides low HDL (“good”) cholesterol Metabolic syndrome is a red flag, warning you that your body isn’t healthy. In fact, each of the symptoms listed above is a separate risk factor for diabetes and/or cardiovascular disease, two leading causes of death in the United States. (3, 4, 5) Fortunately, adopting a Paleo diet can reverse the markers of metabolic syndrome and even help those who have already developed insulin resistance, as I will discuss in this article. Metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, and heart disease – what do they all have in common? Metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, and heart disease are all considered “modern” diseases because they weren’t prevalent until the 1900s after the Industrial Revolution. Drastic changes in U.S. dietary habits have occurred only in the last century or so, including increased consumption of hydrogenated oils (trans fats), vegetable oils, processed foods, and refined sugars. Even grain consumption wasn’t common until the Agricultural Revolution around 10,000 years ago, which is actually only around 5 percent of the human species’s existence. Many tribal cultures today that maintain traditional hunter–gatherer diets are virtually free from metabolic syndrome, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. For example, the Kitavan, Masai, Machiguenga, and !Kung tribes consume very little, if any, refined grains or processed sugars, though the specific contents of their diets vary widely. (6, 7, 8, 9) Insulin resistance and inflammation together are believed to be the underlying causes of metabolic syndrome. (10, 11) Our modern diets contain huge contributors to both: (12, 13) Industrial seed oils have been shown to have a pro-inflammatory effect in some studies. (14) Processed grains and refined carbs cause both inflammation and metabolic dysfunction in mice, perhaps by disrupting the gut microbiota. (15) Excessive refined sugar intake, particularly high-fructose corn syrup, is correlated with insulin resistance and inflammation. (16, 17, 18) Our modern diets are so detrimental to our health that when tribal cultures “Westernize” their diets, they quickly develop modern metabolic diseases. (19, 20, 21) They might be even more susceptible to modern diseases than those of European descent, who have thousands of years more evolutionary adaptation under their belts to accommodate grain consumption. Now, on the flip side, let’s see what happens when Western dieters revert to a Paleo, traditional diet. Paleo diets outperform other “healthy” diets Paleo diets are finally appearing in randomized, controlled trials, to be compared to what are considered “healthy” or “heart-healthy” modern diets. Instead of focusing on macronutrients as most contemporary diet studies do, (22, 23, 24) these studies focused on avoiding or consuming different groups of foods all together, and the results are extremely promising. In the studies reviewed below, a Paleo diet was devoid of refined sugar, processed foods, vegetable oils, and grains, while also usually avoiding dairy and legumes. Favored foods included lean meats, vegetables, fish, eggs, fruit, and nuts. Tweet this: Emerging research shows the Paleo diet outperforms “heart-healthy” diets. Paleo diet is beneficial for people with type 2 diabetes In a short, 14-day diet study, the Paleo diet was compared to the diet recommended by the American Diabetes Association in people with type 2 diabetes. (25) While both groups showed equivalent positive changes in weight and insulin sensitivity, only the Paleo group had beneficial changes in fasting glucose, total cholesterol, and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. In a longer, six-month crossover trial, the Paleo diet also outperformed the recommended diabetic diet. (26) In this sort of trial, half the participants started with the Paleo diet, and then switched to the Diabetic diet halfway through the study. The remaining participants did the the opposite. The Paleo diet showed greater improvements in triglycerides, HDL (“good”) cholesterol, diastolic blood pressure, body weight, and waist circumference. In people with both insulin resistance and heart disease, a 12-week study showed that the Paleo diet resulted in more advantageous effects on both waist circumference and two-hour glucose measures than the popular Mediterranean diet. (27) Paleo diet is beneficial for people with metabolic syndrome In people who already had metabolic syndrome, the Paleo diet after only 14 days lowered blood pressure, cholesterol, and triglycerides, and raised HDL cholesterol better than the diet recommended by the Dutch Health Council. (28) In fact, the number of metabolic syndrome symptoms experienced by the Paleo group actually decreased over this short pilot study. Over four months, people with hypercholesterolemia first followed the diet recommended by the American Heart Association and then followed with a Paleo diet. (29) The Paleo diet resulted in greater benefits for total cholesterol, LDL and HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides. Two longer studies lasting two years compared the Paleo diet to modern “healthy” diets. In both cases, the Paleo diet outperformed the control diet at six months, but at the two-year mark, the diets showed mostly similar benefits. (30, 31) Paleo diet is beneficial for healthy people In otherwise healthy individuals, a Paleo diet improved body weight, waist circumference, and systolic blood pressure in three weeks. (32) Likewise, in non-obese yet sedentary people, a Paleo diet showed benefits for blood pressure, plasma insulin, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides. (33) This growing collection of literature shows that reverting to a Paleo diet, even for as few as 14 days, can start to improve lipid markers and measures of metabolic syndrome. Research is finally catching up with what many people, myself included, have been advocating for a while: eat real, nutrient-dense foods, and you get healthier! Why does the Paleo diet get such a bad rep? U.S. News and World Report again ranked the Paleo diet near last, at 36 out of 38 diets in their “Best Diets Overall” rankings. Why might this be, especially since recent evidence highlights its health benefits? Paleo dieters in controlled studies often consumed fewer calories ad libitum than dieters in the control groups, sometimes up to 35 percent fewer. (32) When Paleo groups show better health outcomes, critics ask, “Is it the Paleo diet itself or the fewer calories that is advantageous?” First, I fail to see how this can be considered a “negative” attribute of the Paleo diet. Spontaneous calorie restriction while feeling fuller calorie for calorie (34) sounds like the long-awaited solution to the current overeating epidemic. Second, many studies accounted for this extra weight loss. Boers et al., 2014, offered approved snacks to Paleo dieters. (28) At the end of the study, they still managed to lose more weight than the control group, but the researchers accounted for this in their statistical model and found the advantageous results remained, despite weight differences. Two other studies confirmed that the Paleo diet benefits remained after adjusting for weight loss or decreased waist circumference in the Paleo group. (27, 29) Dieticians and nutritionists are also concerned with reduced calcium intake present in most Paleo diets. (26, 28, 32, 35) However, two studies reviewed above showed that while calcium intake was lower, calcium excretion was also lower, indicating that calcium absorption may be increased in Paleo dieters and/or that calcium/magnesium balance is probably not disrupted. (25, 28) Last, the Paleo diet is ranked so low because it is considered hard to follow, with too many food restrictions. Yes, a Paleo diet is a commitment, but it is more than just a diet. Going Paleo is a lifestyle that should focus on many other aspects of health, including stress management, exercise, sleep, and reducing toxin exposure. Adopt a Paleo lifestyle, transform your health The Paleo diet has a lot to offer, whether you already have metabolic syndrome or if you are a healthy weight and have normal blood work. The research is finally in support of going Paleo, and hopefully more studies will follow with larger group sizes and longer follow-ups. If you are ready to transform your health, consider trying my 14Four program, which emphasizes four pillars of the Paleo lifestyle: movement, diet, stress, and sleep. The 14Four program is perfect for beginners and for those who are already Paleo and just want a reset. With you every step of the way, this program eases you into the Paleo lifestyle with tailored meal plans and exercise routines, while tracking your results and offering community support

Are oats paleo?

Oats are marketed as a health food as they are high in soluble fibre and complex carbohydrates. For a cereal, oats also have a reasonably high amount of protein (here’s a full nutritional breakdown).

However, we avoid oats on the paleo diet because (like other grains and legumes) they contain antinutrients which contribute to leaky gut, cause inflammation, weaken the immune system, and trigger autoimmune disease. Oats are also often contaminated with gluten from contact with other crops.

why you should avoid grains and legumes.

Gluten

While oats are technically gluten-free, they can be cross-contaminated by other gluten containing grains (e.g. wheat, barley or rye) during processing. They can also be contaminated in the field, for instance if they are grown next to a field of wheat.

Carbohydrates and insulin

Aside from the antinutrients, oats are quite high in carbohydrates, and although the high fibre content lowers the glycemic index of oats, they can still cause a high insulin spike in your blood. Regular consumption of insulin spiking foods can insulin resistance and diabetes. We are all for healthy amounts of carbohydrates in the diet but it’s something to keep in mind.

Are there any ‘maybe’ caveats?

Many people love a comforting bowl of oatmeal and find it hard to give it up when switching to a paleo lifestyle. If you really can’t foresee a life without oats, there are a few things you can do when preparing your oats to reduce the impact.

Firstly, make sure you buy gluten-free oats. Secondly, reduce the phytic acid content. As oats contain very little phytase (which breaks down phytate), soaking oats is not enough to reduce the phytic acid content significantly. However, there are a couple of techniques you can try:

• Sprout and soak: malt (sprout) the oats for five days at 11ºC/52ºF, then soak for 17 hours at 49ºC/120ºF. This removes 98 percent of phytates. Try this method.
• Soak with a complimentary grain: add a small amount of ground wheat, spelt, rye, or buckwheat. The phytase in these grains is shown to reduce the phytic acid in the oats. Try this recipe.
• Soak and ferment: soak the oats with a complimentary grain (as above) in an acidic medium like whey, kefir or yogurt. Try this recipe.

Paleo Oatmeal and Porridge Alternatives

If you find that you can’t tolerate oats, or you can’t be bothered to soak, ferment and cook them, don’t worry – check out these delicious no-oat oatmeal and porridge alternatives.

Top 15 Paleo Oatmeal & Porridge Alternatives

Paleo Porridge

Paleo porridge

Eat Real Food

Summary: Eat real food

Hopefully this research has helped convince you that food quality trumps quantity. Here are a few of the main takeaways:

1. Macronutrient composition is important, but the quality of those macronutrients and the context they are found in are likely far more important. Our ancestors ranged from an intake of as little as 8 percent of calories from carbohydrate to as high as 70 percent calories from carbohydrate with few health problems. Only when they introduce refined Western foods do they develop metabolic disease.
2. Low-carb diets are somewhat effective at achieving weight loss because they tend to reduce acellular carbohydrates, but if an individual is still eating enough to produce an inflammatory microbiota, he or she may stall in weight loss.
3. Even small amounts of sugar or refined grains could lead to an inflammatory microbiota and leptin resistance. Ancestral peoples’ health tends to be very sensitive to even small influences of Western foods (23, 24). This means that the popularized 80-20 rule may not work for many people if that 20 percent is carbohydrate-dense enough to cause dysbiosis.
4. Eat real food. Focus on fresh, whole foods that are minimally processed and have their carbohydrates encased in cellular compartments. These foods will not only have a lower carbohydrate density but will also likely be accompanied by a wide variety of micronutrients.

Read more