If you follow my fat burning foods tweets on Twitter, then you might have seen me drop the one liner: “one person’s cardboard is another person’s caviar!” But what on earth was I talking about? Oatmeal of course!
To be honest, I’d go as far as to say that the majority of people don’t actually like oatmeal. Either because it is a plain food, or because they cook it wrong and resembles something that comes out of your nose when you’ve got a cold. Nice!
Hmm, that doesn’t sound very nice does it? But stick around because I’m going to show you how it gets a lot better in just a moment.
But unlike most people I love to eat oatmeal. So let’s get started and I’ll show you some of the reasons why.
Unlike most “white carbohydrates” (white bread, pasta and rice), oatmeal is extremely nutritious. And this nutrition makes loads of fat burning processes inside your body possible. Not surprising then that it walks into my list of fat burning foods.
Soluble and Insoluble Fiber
Soluble and insoluble fibre both have some pretty interesting and important benefits inside the body. You might have heard that our body can’t properly digest fiber, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t doing us any good.
Insoluble fiber is known to help reduce the risk of certain cancers. By attacking bile acids in your intestines, it regulates PH level and prevents toxins from forming cancerous substances. Pretty neat, eh?
It also helps to remove toxins from your digestive system in double quick time. And it helps promote regular, healthy bowel movement.
As I mentioned before, insoluble fibre has been linked to a reduction in cancer risk. Research has shown that this applies most to colon and bowel cancer, but it also reduces the risk of piles and the more common disorder, constipation.
You might be interested to know that the risk of these disorders is highest amongst people whose diet includes a lot of processed, refined and fast foods.
Soluble fibre is an extremely useful tool in your fight against the fat. One of its major benefits is that it helps to slow down the digestion of starches (carbohydrates) and its conversion into sugars.
As you probably already know, spikes in blood sugar levels stimulates the production of insulin. Increased insulin production tells the body to store more fat, so we’re looking to avoid this insulin response as much as we can. So soluble fiber is helping us out by preventing the blood sugar spike in the first place. Cool.
Not only that, but soluble fibre also prolongs the emptying of our stomach, leaving us feeling full for longer and helping us to regulate our appetite. Vital for successful weight loss.
Recent studies have also found that soluble fibre can reduce levels of the bad LDL cholesterol, without reducing levels of the good HDL cholesterol.
As it happens, oatmeal is a better source of soluble fiber than the more “traditional” sources like whole wheat, corn and brown rice. It is also rich in beta-glucan, the type of fibre that makes most of the benefits listed above a reality.
Vitamins, Minerals And Antioxidants
You guessed it, oatmeal is also abundant in vitamins, mineral and antioxidants.
Not many people know this but oatmeal is also a great source of protein. And protein is one of our best weapons in the fight against the flab. 1 cup of oatmeal contains around 15% RDA of fiber and 10% RDA of protein.
You’ll also be getting a good source of vitamin E, selenium, copper, iron, manganese, magnesium and some very clever antioxidants.
According to The Journal of Nutrition, antioxidants unique to oatmeal known as avenanthramides help to prevent free radicals from damaging LDL cholesterol, helping to improve your cholesterol ratio.
So Many Options
So now I’ve shown you how cool oatmeal can be, what about getting you to enjoy eating it? Well there is no reason to call this stuff boring because there are just so many serving options.
You can add fresh or frozen fruit, ground or chopped raw nuts, natural yogurt, raw milk, stevvia, enjoy it as part of a post workout shake and so much more.
With so much variety, there really is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to enjoy oatmeal as part of your fat burning diet too!
WARNING: Stay well clear of the instant, flavored and sweetened varieties you find at the grocery store. These things are loaded with processed sugars and other rubbish that reverse most of the good work oatmeal does for you.
I hope I’ve shown you how healthy oatmeal is. If you’re serious about wanting to lose belly fat head over to my Fat Burning Foods website. It’s full of useful weight loss tips and a full List Of Fat Burning Foods.