Trying to stay healthy. Can seem like up full-time job. Sometimes especially during a pandemic, but I'm here to make that goal a little easier. Welcome to the nutrition facts podcast. I'm your host. Dr. Michael Greger today, the mighty power of Oats. Now, I don't recommend you wear a feedback around your neck, but I will say that oats are very versatile. Grain. Here's my first story.
Feinberg continues to be singled out as a nutrient of Public Health concern. There is a fiber Gap in America. We're only getting about half the minimum considered a public health concern for all Americans. Well, not all Americans less than 3%, meet the recommended minimum, meaning, less than three percent of all Americans. Eat enough plant-based Foods. The only place fiber is found though. A nominal 0.1 is thrown in for the
Meat category in case someone needs a corn dog or nibbles on the garnish.
If even half of the adult population, 83 more grams a day, like a quarter cup of beans or a bowl of oatmeal, we could save billions in medical costs and that's just for constipation the consumption of plant Foods. The consumption of fiber containing foods, reduce risk for diabetes, heart disease, stroke cancer and obesity as well. The first to make this link between fiber intake and killer disease was probably dr. Hugh trowel many decades ago.
He spent 30 years, practicing in Africa, and suspected. It was their High consumption of corn. Millet, sweet, potatoes, greens and beans that protected them from chronic disease. This kind of got Twisted into the so-called fiber hypothesis, but he didn't think it was the fiber itself. But the high fiber foods that were so protective, there are hundreds of different things in whole grains. Besides, fiber, that may have beneficial effects. For example, yes, the fiber and oatmeal can lower our blood.
Blood cholesterol level. So let's get stuck in Our arteries, but there are anti-inflammatory and antioxidant phytonutrients denotes that can help prevent atherosclerosis build up and then help maintain arterial function Visionaries like trowel. We're not in trapped by the reductionist. Simple minded focus on dietary fiber and insisted that the whole plant foods should receive the emphasis fiber intake was just kind of a marker for plant food intake, those with highest fiber.
In take the lowest cholesterol were those who ate exclusively plant-based diets.
Risk factors like cholesterol are one thing, but can these individual Foods actually affect the progression of heart disease. We didn't know until this study was published hundreds of older. Women were subjected to coronary angiograms where you can inject dye into the coronary arteries, to the heart, to see how wide open. They are. They got an angiogram of the beginning of the study, then one a few years later all while analyzing their diets. This is what they found the arteries of
Women eating less than a serving of whole grains a day significantly, narrowed. Where's the arteries of women, who ate just a single serving, our more also significantly narrowed, but they narrowed less. These were all women with heart disease, eating the standard American diet. So their arteries were progressively clogging, shut heart disease, the number one, killer of American women, but there was significantly less clogging in the women eating more whole grain significantly less.
Ian of their atherosclerosis, in fact, almost as much slowing of their diseases. When might get to taking cholesterol-lowering, statin drugs, statins can also slow the rate at which Our arteries close, but do we want to just slow the rate at which we die from heart disease or not die from heart disease at all.
A whole food plant-based diet has been shown to reverse the progression of heart disease Opening. Our arteries back up whole grains, like the drug, can help counter the artery-clogging effects of the rest of the diet and having oatmeal with bacon and eggs is better than just eating bacon and eggs, but better perhaps to stop eating an artery clogging, diet altogether,
and our next story oats are put to the test against certain chemo. Side. Effects to see, just how soothing and
Lima, Tory, they can be
oatmeal, has been used for centuries as a topical. Soothing agent on the skin to relieve itching irritation in dermatology. Of course, this is coming from Johnson & Johnson, that sells a brand of Oatmeal Lotion, but look, if it helps with dry skin or a bug bite. I can imagine having some soothing quality, but this study shocked, me there's a classic chemo drugs like cetuximab that causes an awful rash.
I mean, it's bad enough. You have some horrible cancer, but then to have some painful itchy rash on top of it. Various treatments have been tried and failed. There's no clear preventive or Curative treatment for this eruption or is there the researchers have heard about this study in which human skin fragments from plastic surgery, were subjected to an inflammatory chemical and adding an oatmeal extract appeared to help. So, hey, what do you have to lose of the 10 patients with chemo rashes? They were able to
Access to try some Oatmeal Lotion, 6 had a complete response and for a partial response, giving an overall oatmeal response rate of 100% doctors wrote In from around the world significant Improvement. In all patients seemed rather too good to be true, but I've desperation they tried it and got the same astonishing result. Oatmeal simple topical agent producing such spectacular benefit where more complex therapies have failed.
You know, in an age, when ever more expensive treatments, are consistently being championed to be a great pity of this inexpensive natural approach to relieving distressing symptoms were to be overlooked. Ironically a to, to the cancer cell lines found resistant in vitro to this kind of chemotherapy were found to be sensitive to heaven and through mods, which are unique Fido nutrients found in oats
suggesting that people should apply oatmeal to their insides as well.
Finally, today is whole grain consumption, just a marker for healthier behaviors, or do whole grains. Have direct health
benefits.
If oatmeal is so powerful that it can clear up some of the ravages of chemotherapy, just applied to the skin. What might it do if we actually ate it? The pharmacology of oatmeal. Oats are important to possess very drug, like activities, like lowering blood, cholesterol and blood sugar, boosting our immune system. Anti-cancer antioxidant anti-aging thorough sclerosis in addition to being a topical anti-inflammatory. It may also be useful in controlling childhood. Asthma body weight. It's
Whole grain intake, in general, is associated with lower risk of type 2, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and weight gain. All the cohort. Studies on type 2 diabetes and heart disease show. Whole grain intake is associated with lower risk. They absorb the same for obesity, consistently less weight gain. For those who consumed a few servings of whole grains every day.
Yes, all the forward-looking population studies demonstrated that higher intake of whole grains is associated with lower body, mass index, and body weight gain. However, these results do not clarify whether whole grain consumption is simply a marker of a healthier lifestyle or a factor, favoring per se, lower body weight. For example, High whole grain consumers, those who eat whole wheat and brown rice and have oatmeal for breakfast, tend to be more physically, active smokeless and consume more fruits.
Vegetables. And dietary fiber to those that instead reach for Fruit Loops. Statistically, one can control these factors. Effectively comparing only non smokers and non-smokers with similar exercise and diet. As most of the studies did, and they still found whole grains to be protective via a variety of mechanisms. So for example, in helping with weight control, the soluble fiber of oatmeal forms, a gel in the stomach delaying.
Stomach emptying, making one feel full for a longer period which helps with weight loss. And then there are other effects in the small and large intestine. So it all seems plausible that whole grain intake doesn't eat offer direct benefits. However, only results from randomized, controlled intervention. Studies can provide the evidence of cause and effect. In other words. The evidence is clear that oatmeal consumers have lower rates of disease, but that's not the same as proving that if we start to eat more open.
Our risk will drop to know that we need an Interventional trial on. Ideally, a blinded study, where you give half the people oatmeal and the other half fake Placebo oatmeal. That looks and tastes like oatmeal. To see if it actually works. As you can imagine. This has not been done until now, double blinded randomized, trial of overweight, and obese, men, and women and almost 90% of the real oatmeal. Treated subjects had reduced body weight.
Compared to no weight loss on the control group, a Slimmer waist, on average, a 20 point, drop in cholesterol and an improvement in liver function. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, meaning a fatty liver caused by excess food, rather than excess. Drink is now the most common cause of liver disease in the United States found on autopsy in up to ninety percent of obese, individuals, and can lead in rare cases to cirrhosis of the liver cancer.
Of the liver and death. Theoretically, whole grains, could help prevent and treat fatty liver disease, but this is the first time, it had actually been put to the test, like, this follow-up study in 2014 confirmed. These findings of a protective role of whole grains, but refined grains, were associated with increased risk, so, when would not expect to get such wonderful results with Wonder
Bread?
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