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June 03, 2024
The Best Cholesterol-Lowering Food is Definitely Not Oatmeal
Dr Livingood
Oatmeal is not good for your cholesterol levels for several reasons.
If you really want to make an impact on your cholesterol, you have to understand that cholesterol itself is not the problem inside of your body.
It only becomes a problem when the cholesterol becomes oxidized by free radicals.
If you want to know if you have a cholesterol problem, you can get your CRP (C-reactive protein) levels tested.
In this blog, I’m going to talk about why you should not be eating oatmeal to lower your cholesterol if you do have a cholesterol issue, and what you should eat instead.
Problems With Oatmeal
Genetically Modified Organisms
Oats are oftentimes genetically modified. How they’re created can add levels of chemical toxicity to the body.
The more chemical toxicity that is in your system, the more cholesterol gets oxidized in your body.
Glyphosate
Oats are often sprayed with herbicides such as glyphosate that then end up in your system when you eat them.
This damages your gut, which creates inflammation inside of the system that will then oxidize cholesterol.
Sugar
Oatmeal scores above average on the glycemic index that measures how much a food increases blood glucose levels, which means it will greatly impact your blood sugar levels.
One of the main culprits causing oxidized cholesterol is sugar.
The more sugar we put in our body, the harder your liver has to work.
This creates more triglycerides, which leads to more oxidation of cholesterol.
Regular steel-cut oats are the purest form you can get, and have a score of 58 out of 100 on the glycemic index.
If you’re eating instant oatmeal, that number can go to 75, or even as high as 83.
Oatmeal turns to sugar within four seconds of you eating it, which raises blood sugar levels quickly.
Alternatives To Oatmeal
Now, oatmeal is a good source of fiber, both soluble and insoluble, which helps prevent the absorption of dietary cholesterol.
It does this through an ingredient called beta glucan.
Beta glucan meets cholesterol in the digestive system where your liver produces bile salts to break down food.
This results in lower LDL (‘bad’) cholesterol levels and increases your immune health.
This process forces the body to pull cholesterol from other areas to create more bile salts, leading to less cholesterol in the system.
That’s why beta glucan is one of the best ways to naturally get some of it out of your body.
There are a lot of foods that can give you beta glucan without the toxicity or oxidation oatmeal can cause.
Mushrooms
Turkey tail mushrooms have 20 times the amount of beta glucan found in oatmeal.
Reishi and shiitake mushrooms are also very high in beta glucan.
Kelp
Kelp is a seaweed-based product, and usually comes in the form of a chip.
You want to make sure that there are no extra chemicals involved if you do buy this.
Baker’s Yeast
Baker’s yeast (also called brewer’s yeast) contains high amounts of beta glucan, and has almost the same amount that oatmeal does.
Beans
Black beans are the richest source of soluble fiber.
Each cup provides nearly five grams of the potent cholesterol-lowering agent.
A half-cup of cooked black beans has nearly twice the amount of soluble fiber that oats do.
Walnuts
Research out of Harvard found that adding walnuts to your daily diet, even for a short period of time, creates dramatic drops in cholesterol.
Study participants averaged a 10-point drop in total cholesterol, and a 9-point drop in LDL cholesterol.
Walnuts don’t spike insulin, provide lots of good nutrients, and lower cholesterol.
Fruit
Many reports have come out about the polyphenols and antioxidants that are found in apples.
These may help inhibit the oxidation of LDL cholesterol, which is what’s causing a lot of cholesterol problems.
The problem is that your body is producing 75% of the LDL cholesterol in your body.
As long as it isn’t oxidized, then it’s not a problem, but if it gets oxidized, it can lead to plaquing in the arteries.
One apple has one gram of soluble fiber, and if you don’t like apples, there are a lot of other fruits that can give you soluble fiber.
Half of a grapefruit, half of a pear, a couple of prunes or figs, or a cup of strawberries all have the same amount of soluble fiber.
These will block the absorption of dietary cholesterol and give you antioxidants that prevent LDL cholesterol from oxidizing.
Flaxseed
In just one tablespoon of ground flax, there are 16 grams of omega-3s, which bolster your HDL (‘good’) cholesterol.
One recent report suggested that the cholesterol-lowering abilities of flaxseed are higher in men, lowering cholesterol levels by nearly 10%.
For women, there’s a lot of research that shows that flax seeds are good for preventing certain illnesses.
Flaxseed can also help reduce constipation.
Fish Oil
The Western Human Nutrition Research Center found that HDL levels shot up 10% when volunteers ate salmon-rich diets for 20 days.
Another study found that by supplementing with fish oil on a regular basis, men with high triglyceride levels can lower blood fat, which is the vehicle that transports fat to the cells, by 24%.
Olive Oil
Mediterranean diet studies show that olive oil contains a powerful mixture of antioxidants that can lower your LDL cholesterol.
Summary
If you’re measuring your cholesterol, don’t just look at your total cholesterol levels. There are way better numbers that you can use to measure your cholesterol risk by.
I made a video training on how to understand your cholesterol numbers.
As you start incorporating cholesterol-lowering foods, you should pay attention to your numbers.
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