Oatmeal: Good for You on the Inside and Out

Oatmeal Has Widespread Health Benefits

When Oprah went on and on last year about the wonderful steel-cut oatmeal she’s come to love, and her guest Dr. Mehmet Oz explained how the whole grains of steel cut oatmeal drag all the unhealthy stuff out of your intestines, I couldn’t help but be intrigued. Is oatmeal really a miracle food for your digestive system? And does it really have benefits beyond its digestional refuse goodies? 

Health Benefits
According to the Harvard School of Public Health, fiber – which oatmeal is rich in – can help ward off a number of conditions. 

Long heralded as part of a healthy diet, fiber appears to reduce the risk of developing various conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, diverticular disease, and constipation. Despite what many people may think, however, fiber probably has little, if any effect on colon cancer risk. For years, Americans have been told to consume a high-fiber diet to lower the risk of colon cancer - mainly on the basis of results from relatively small studies. Larger and better-designed studies have failed to show a link between fiber and colon cancer. One of these - a Harvard study that followed over 80,000 female nurses for 16 years - found that dietary fiber was not strongly associated with a reduced risk for either colon cancer or polyps (a precursor to colon cancer).Regular consumption of oatmeal has been shown to have positive effects for weight as well, some studies have shown. An Iowa State University Nutritionist Ruth Litchfield said that foods high in fiber are lower in fat and calories and make a person feel fuller, helping people to eat less.