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Micro wisdom delivered to your ears every morning in voice notes ranging from 3 to 15 minutes long. Wisdom on how to live a healthier and more fulfilling life. Every podcast will ground you in the present moment to ensure you know what's important, the here and now.
Good morning, everybody. So as we're on heart health week, I wanna cover a study done about OATS. So OATS and heart disease, what do we know? So there is weirdly a lot of information online now about how Oats are bad for you and, you know, a spike in your blood sugar is bad, all this type of stuff. And there's people saying, you know, oats are magic or there's something called or something like that.
Speaker 1:I can't even exactly remember. Someone was telling me this. So oats have got this kinda like, oh, it got this like a lot of information around it, but it's now starting to go the wrong way. So what does the science actually say about oats? You know?
Speaker 1:And if if you don't like oats, that's fine. It doesn't mean you're not gonna be healthy, but let's have a look at what the science actually says because misinformation is spreading. So a research team in Switzerland looked at three types of studies: experiments in which one group of participants consumed oats or a supplement made from oat fiber and a control group who ate an oat free diet, experiments with the same oats versus no oat structure but with both groups in an energy deficit, and experiments that compared oats to another food like rice or wheat. The review reinforced what previous reviews have found. Oats can help reduce both total and LDL cholesterol.
Speaker 1:It also found modest reductions in blood glucose, BMI, body weight, and waist weight circumference waist circumference amongst participants who consumed those compared to those who didn't. The average difference in weight between groups was zero point seven pounds, and in waist circumference, it was zero point four inches or one centimeter. So no massive, obviously calories were matched, so we don't expect to see statistical significance here when calories are matched or protein in most cases as well, because we know once protein and calories are matched, no diet is superior for weight loss, right, or fat loss more specifically. But what's the best type of oats they looked at? Are all oats created equal?
Speaker 1:So they did another test. They looked at the thin oats versus the thicker ones. So think just more processed versus kind of least processed. Think of the thicky flakes versus the small rolled kind of choppy up ones. Difference is not significant.
Speaker 1:Again, the the director of nutrition, one the studies says he's not convinced long term if matters what type of oats you go for, so it's better just to go for the oats you actually like. Some people will get more of a blood sugar spike from some oats, some people will get less. It also depends on the day, but the same oats can have a different effect, so it doesn't really matter. And if you start looking at blood sugar as the ultimate thing, you're gonna freak out about everything you eat because you're gonna be like, my god, that's just fridge caused you to spike. Yes, obviously.
Speaker 1:Not to a huge degree, obviously, because it's got fiber, but some people might see a spike and go, food's bad. You know, that's that's where that's where the industry is leading. Well, not the total industry, but that's where a lot of place people are going. So here's some of the stats of interest in. Right?
Speaker 1:Participants who reported eating some oats of any kind were fourteen percent less likely to have type two diabetes and twenty seven percent less likely to have cardiovascular disease compared to those who said they didn't eat any. When comparing those who reported the highest versus lowest oat intake, the risk of type two diabetes was twenty two percent less. And men who reported eating at least 20 grams of oats per day on average were 24 less likely to die of any cause. The mortality rate for women was twenty two percent lower. Obviously, this isn't a causation, it's only correlation.
Speaker 1:And what we can say from this is the people who tend to eat oats are on a health kick sometimes, right? So you'll notice a lot of fitness people promote overnight oats, which is they're lush, you know, you should try them. You know, it's part of the fitness kind of golden triage of foods. Right? So that's kind of why it's linked to that as opposed to oats as a magic food.
Speaker 1:You know, oats is high in fiber, it's actually got some protein in there, you can add some whey protein so you got a mega booster protein. So for example, can every night before bed you can mix some oats with some milk, with some whey protein. You can do one scoop, you can do two scoops, you can add some a fridge if you want. You can make it quite calorific really because you can add a lot of people add chia seeds and other fats, peanut butter and stuff, you know, you can end up with a six, seven, 800 gram 800 calorie bowl of oats. So you do wanna be careful with every every addition you add to it, but just, you know, get some oats in here, get some get some whey protein in, and you'll get a 30 to 40 gram protein boost, from something that tastes delicious as well, in my opinion anyway.
Speaker 1:So it's about understanding that and like obviously we want foods that are high in nutritional value. I was reading another study earlier as well and the researchers wanted to know is it better for people to be eating a higher nutrient diet or is it better to have people a higher adherence, which means just sticking to a calorie deficit. So like, what's better? Because, you know, there is a battleground essentially down there where it's saying, well, as long as you stick to your calories, fine if you lose weight. The other camp is saying, no.
Speaker 1:No. Calories don't tell you the nutritional quality of your diet, so forget calories and focus on nutrients and nutrient dense foods. So both camps have got valid points there, But again, the answer is in the middle. Right? So they looked at this and they had basically four, segments.
Speaker 1:So they had people who had a high quality diet and they were highly stick they they stuck to it. So they calorie controlled. You would have high quality then low, so they didn't really stick to a calorie intake but they just ate high quality foods only, and I mean that were nutrient dense. Then you had low quality, high low quality just whatever foods but they stuck to their calorie intake, then you had low quality foods and then low adherence to the targets. So obviously the groups that are high quality, high adherence did best because they had best of both worlds.
Speaker 1:They reduced their BMI by 2.5 points and they cut 900 calories out on average each day. So the worst result was obviously low quality, low low adherence, obviously. But here's the thing, the low quality, high adherence subgroup had the second best results across the board. So they cut 900 calories out 800 calories out of 900 calories. They reduced consumption of both fats and carbs, their BMI reduced, and improvements of blood pressure also surpassed the average of all participants.
Speaker 1:So they basically had all the benefits essentially of sticking to a high quality diet only as well. But what's interesting is did better than high quality low adherence. Okay? So I don't know if you're confused right now because it can be confusing, but low quality foods and it doesn't mean shit. Okay?
Speaker 1:That's not what this means. It just means they're not the pinnacle, the high quality foods you think about nutrient dense foods. They're just average foods, like sometimes could be a burger or whatever. But sticking to a calorie controlled deficit was important, so that kind of wins out slightly. Again, these numbers overall, if you say to me Scott, you know what though, if I focus on eating fruits and veggies and lean meats and oats and stuff like that, I do find it easier to stick to my calorie intake.
Speaker 1:I go down the path of best of both worlds anyway, but I know for a fact a lot of people are like, I'd rather just have a calorie and protein target and then I'll just try and make up my numbers. Okay? And that's fine as well. But, again, backed by research, that's more than fine. It is basically second best to having the perfect, combination.
Speaker 1:So I wanna finish this podcast there because, you know, there's a lot of information there, but I don't wanna think going off now and thinking if you are if you're not eating oats, then what's the point in this part? No. No. No. No.
Speaker 1:Oats was associated with those benefits because people started improving health. Right? It's considered a health food. Now you just want to look at potentially your meals and say, is my breakfast maybe high density, nutritional density? Is my lunch and is my dinner?
Speaker 1:And if the answer is I don't know sometimes, why not test out one breakfast or one lunch each day being like maybe the breakfast is a naught and the whey protein mixed with some milk and some extra fruit, know, like super high quality, calorie controlled breakfast or having it for lunch, doesn't matter. Like, I don't believe in this nonsense like, you can't have it for lunch, that's a breakfast food. Who told you that? Society, is it? Mister fucking Kellogg's, is it?
Speaker 1:No. I'll eat whatever foods I want at any time I want, and I don't care if people think it's weird, but I will. I've got no marriage to certain foods or certain meals. Anyway, think about one change you can make to a meal that you can make of a higher quality and then run the experiment. Does it make a difference to me?
Speaker 1:Does it make a difference to my satiety levels? Does it make a difference how I feel? And run it. Give it a run. Give it a run for this money and check out.
Speaker 1:But I thought I'd cover that because it is misinformation out there, but have a good day. Get your one big thing done, and I'll be seeing you back here tomorrow.