Oatmeal

Is oatmeal a diet food?  Oatmeal has good properties, it is high in fiber.  Soluble fiber lowers cholesterol and oatmeal has that.  But oatmeal in single serving packages frequently has lots of sugar.  If you make old fashioned oatmeal you can sweeten your oatmeal with sugar free applesauce, raisins or sugar substitutes, all good choices. 

 However fiber is fiber.  You can get fiber from many foods.  So oatmeal has no other magic ingredient in it.   Some people lose weight from choosing oatmeal because their goal is only to eat oatmeal for breakfast.  Any meal eaten over and over again tends to cause weight loss.  My guess is that when you eat the same thing over and over again you don’t overeat because it just doesn’t taste that good.   Maybe it doesn’t taste badly, but not good enough to inhale a double portion.  No magic, just weight loss from repetition.   A little variety is important for good health and tastier.  So if you want to lower your cholesterol with a high fiber diet, you’ve made a great choice. Oatmeal fits into this category.  But you can pick any vegetable and fruit and that will help as well.  Five ½ cup servings a day is a good goal, ten ½ cup servings a day is a great goal.