By Joanne Marie Updated November 19, 2018
Your health depends on many factors, including eating a healthy, nutritious diet. Choosing whole-grain foods helps ensure you consume abundant fiber as well as many of the vitamins and minerals your cells need. Old-fashioned oatmeal that contains all parts of the oat grain is an especially good choice. It helps keep your digestive system functioning well and helps you avoid several potentially serious diseases.
Oatmeal
Freshly harvested whole oats have a fiber-rich, protective outer coat called bran. Beneath the bran, an oat kernel contains a starchy endosperm, which surrounds a tiny, vitamin- and mineral-rich reproductive structure called the germ. For some foods, the bran and germ are stripped from the oat grains, leaving just the starchy endosperm that is often pulverized before use. In old-fashioned oatmeal, however, the entire oat grain is flattened with rollers, producing rolled oats. As a result, old-fashioned oatmeal is a whole-grain food that contains oat bran along with the oat germ and endosperm.
Nutrition and Digestive Health
Old-fashioned oatmeal provides many nutrients, including carbohydrate, protein and a small amount of natural fat. Because it contains the oat germ, it is rich in minerals, such as calcium, iron, phosphorus, potassium and zinc. The germ also provides many vitamins, including thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folate and vitamin E. Old-fashioned oatmeal also contains oat bran, a rich source of soluble fiber. Soluble fiber becomes a gel when mixed with fluid in your stomach. This gel slows passage of food through your digestive tract, allowing your cells to derive maximum benefit from its nutrients. Soluble fiber also helps make stool soft, keeping you regular and preventing constipation.
Cardiovascular Health
The soluble fiber in oatmeal helps lower levels of total blood cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, which is the bad cholesterol. When blood LDL is too high, cholesterol tends to build up in arteries, where it contributes to formation of deposits called plaque. As plaque accumulates on artery walls, it narrows the vessels and stiffens them, tending to raise blood pressure and increasing your risk for coronary artery disease and stroke. According to experts at the Mayo Clinic, consuming between 5 and 10 grams of soluble fiber daily decreases both total cholesterol and LDL. A single, 1 1/2-cup serving of cooked oatmeal provides about 6 grams of fiber.
Other Benefits
Consuming whole-grain foods such as old-fashioned oatmeal also reduces your risk of other diseases, including Type 2 diabetes, according to the Harvard School of Public Health, which also reports that women who consume two to three servings of whole grains daily have a 30 percent reduction in their risk of developing diabetes. Harvard experts also indicate that eating whole grains may lower your risk for colorectal cancer. In addition, in a 17-year study of over 25,000 women, published in the "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition" in 2007, researchers found that those who consumed two or more daily servings of whole-grain foods were 30 percent less likely to die from conditions related to inflammation.
