Oatmeal, serving suggestions

[KiotiKowboy]

As my cholesterol began to climb, I invested myself in trying to gain control through lifestyle changes. I made major modifications to my diet, rode my bike at least 20 miles per week and hit the gym at least 3 days per week. My numbers did drop - about 20 points - but it was almost impossible to maintain.

I know some people who could eat Crisco and have great cholesterol numbers. Others simply can't make a dent in the problem. This is why they invented Crestor

 

[Looking4new]

Just this morning I had oatmeal with maple syrup and whole milk. 2 out of 3 naturals aint bad compared to bacon and eggs with biscuits, grits and sausage gravy.

 

[Ed of all trades]

I like to add Quinoa, very healthy and tastes good to if cooked right. Just add about 1/3 cup to a big bowl and add fruit and enjoy Ed

 

[Bird]

We have a new Aldi grocery store that opened in this neighborhood 6 days ago. So this morning I tried a free sample of "Strawberries & Cream Flavor" Millville brand oatmeal. It says "artificially flavored" and the microwave instructions are to add "up to a half cup of water" to microwave it. I used a half cup of whole milk instead of water and it was pretty good. Tomorrow I'll try their "Maple & Brown Sugar" flavor.

 

[OldMcDonald]

I should have thought most of us were too old to worry about cholesterol. 25 years ago when I moved to Inverness (THE Inverness) I was talking to a doctor and he reckoned thery had given up testing people for cholesterol because it was "a waste of time".

If you want to eat porage, or porridge if you prefer, then cook oatmeal either in milk or water. The ratio of each is a personal preference, as is the style of the oatmeal. The standard Scottish oatmeal is pinhead, which is a very descriptive way of explaining the consistency of the meal. It is milled to produce tiny fragments of the oat grain. I prefer rolled oats, which has already been mentioned. Never, ever add sugar, that is an English affliction. If you must sweeten it, then honey, or a few dried fruits are far better. I do not add salt, although that again is standard Scottish cuisine.

After your porage have some bacon and eggs. It is many years since a long term Harvard test was published showing that an egg a day (yes 7 a week) had no adverse effects on cholesterol levels. Eat well and enjoy life.

 

[Garycw]

I like to mix mine up myself. 1 min type. No pre processed conglomeration. Cinnamon is a must. Peaches or the old stand by raisins. A few walnuts are good too.
Ps.. Steel cut oats are like eating wood shavings.

 

[MarkF48]

Besides oatmeal mixed up with almost any kind of fruit and/or nuts for cholesterol, I've been taking Amazon.com: Twinlab: Niacin (B-3) 500mg, 100 caps: Health & Personal Care as a daily supplement for better than 15 years and my cholesterol levels have stayed within the guidelines. This particular niacin releases into the blood quickly and can cause flushing. Check with your doc to see if he's OK with niacin before trying it. I had tried statins, but the muscle aches I was getting slowed me down from my normal activities and the doc said the niacin seemed to be keeping things in check, so stay with that for the time being.

Niacin can boost 'good' cholesterol - Mayo Clinic
Niacin's Effects on Cholesterol | Berkeley Wellness

 

[JimRB]

I use Bob's Red Mill Extra Thick Rolled Oats. A cup of water, a little salt, a half cup of oats. I let it boil a half minute and turn off the heat. I have an electric smooth top stove so the heat keeps working while I take the dogs for a pee break. Some whole milk, honey or maple syrup is the basic mix. Well actuallly I almost always add raisons and walnuts to the boiling mix. Strawberries are sliced in if they are in the fridge.

I am not a fan of the texture of the quick 1 minute instant oats. I did not like the steel cut oats either. I ended up dumping a little of the steel cut into my regular oats over a month or more to get rid of the bag.

 

[txdon]

After your porage have some bacon and eggs. It is many years since a long term Harvard test was published showing that an egg a day (yes 7 a week) had no adverse effects on cholesterol levels. Eat well and enjoy life.

Absolutely wrong. The Harvard Physicians Health Study suggests that those eating an egg a day live shorter lives and raises cholesterol 10%.

Those who had oatmeal extended their lives.

Is One Egg a Day Too Much? | NutritionFacts.org

Bad Egg | NutritionFacts.org

"The point the researchers were trying to make in their review is that it's not the rise in cholesterol that accompanies the consumption of dietary cholesterol that is the primary problem. They note that you'd only expect a bump of 10% in our cholesterol level eating eggs. It's the oxidative, pro-inflammatory effects on the endothelium (the "life jacket" lining of our arteries) that is the primary reason we need to try to avoid eating cholesterol. Unfortunately these effects are more difficult to accurately measure." - Dr. Michael Greger

 

[OldMcDonald]

Eggs and your health - Harvard Health

Eggs and Heart Disease | The Nutrition Source | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

The entire egg | Harvard Gazette

............. and many, many more from sources other than Harvard. Who are we to believe? I prefer research by well known Universities etc. rather than someone paid by an anit-animal, anti-farming organisation. These types of people generally want everyone to become vegan or at least vegetarian.

 

[Ed of all trades]

A lot of the people who are now saying vegan are from well known universities and medical centers. Watch Forks over Knives, It will make you think. Ed

 

[txdon]

............. and many, many more from sources other than Harvard. Who are we to believe? I prefer research by well known Universities etc. rather than someone paid by an anit-animal, anti-farming organisation. These types of people generally want everyone to become vegan or at least vegetarian.

It is dangerous to believe what you want to hear because you like the food.
Where do I start? Yep, I thought like you also, healthy, running, eating in moderation, maybe a bit healthier, but then a Heart attack and then long quest to find out what went wrong. I've spoken personally with many Doctors and Cardiologist that get paid by no one but their patients. I myself am in a 5 year study and in year 2 the heart disease is finally stopping and actually reversing as seen in my 2nd PET scan of this heart study. I could go on and on but when I post a source I do so because I personally have spoken to that person or have reviewed the studies myself. My sources are not anti farming they are whole food plant based, they are not anti animal just don't contain animals. The Drs are mostly WFPB because they have seen the results in the studies and their patients.

If you want you can have Joanne Ivy, CEO of the AEB (The governments American Egg Board) speak about eggs for your health, or you can believe the Doctors who have patients to deal with. Oh wait, Joanne has resigned after emails showed corruption.

I'm going with Dr. Kim Williams, President of the American College of Cardiology, after hearing him speak at the heart conference in Chicago.

 

[Garycw]

And what's Dr Williams say?
Personally I don't think eggs are that bad for you cholesterol wise. My wife just eats the whites of boiled eggs... Yuck! Then try's to push the extra yokes off on me. Not gonna do it. I like my eggs with the proper white/ yellow ratio. Occasional dbl yoke is fine though. She does eat the yoke when over easy though. The eggs we eat are real free range. They graze the yard & pasture all the time. Eggs are eaten within a day or two of being laid.
Not sure what your getting in the cheapest discount eggs at grocery or when they were laid.
That being said, I love a good bowl of oatmeal, cream of wheat etc. but occasionally like eggs, sausage, country ham, bacon or even more rare biscuits & Gravy... Yummm!

 

[Ed of all trades]

It is dangerous to believe what you want to hear because you like the food.
Where do I start? Yep, I thought like you also, healthy, running, eating in moderation, maybe a bit healthier, but then a Heart attack and then long quest to find out what went wrong. I've spoken personally with many Doctors and Cardiologist that get paid by no one but their patients. I myself am in a 5 year study and in year 2 the heart disease is finally stopping and actually reversing as seen in my 2nd PET scan of this heart study. I could go on and on but when I post a source I do so because I personally have spoken to that person or have reviewed the studies myself. My sources are not anti farming they are whole food plant based, they are not anti animal just don't contain animals. The Drs are mostly WFPB because they have seen the results in the studies and their patients.

If you want you can have Joanne Ivy, CEO of the AEB (The governments American Egg Board) speak about eggs for your health, or you can believe the Doctors who have patients to deal with. Oh wait, Joanne has resigned after emails showed corruption.

I'm going with Dr. Kim Williams, President of the American College of Cardiology, after hearing him speak at the heart conference in Chicago.

I am on the same diet or I should say lifestyle. I have seen my shortness of breath improve a lot and I am off of my BP meds. My 90 yr old mom went on it and saw her blood sugar go from 135 to 80, and that was eating a diet where 75% of her food was starch. She also had twisted hands from arthor and they went back to streight in about 6 mts. Again watch Forks over Knives. It will make you think. Ed

 

[OldMcDonald]

I will stick to my porridge in the morning and (occasional) decent drop of Whisky before bed, with a reasonable amount of meat or fish (about 8ozs total) for lunch and dinner. I usually have four eggs about twice a week at lunch instead of meat or fish, but up to about 6 ozs of meat still at dinner. I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables because I eat a lot. I have also had a bottle of table wine a day since 1979. I have a small amount of Port with my cheese and buttered biscuits after my dinner's main course, then Moscatel de Setúbal (a slightly fortified dessert liquer) with my roasted unsalted almonds. We do not use any salt in cooking.

I have been picking olives for a minimum six hours a day for the last three weeks - there is other work to be done such as sorting and cleaning etc to make up the rest of the day. I am 5'10" and have been 198/200 pounds for almost 50 years. I am now 71. Apart from a small kidney stone in each kidney I have had no need to see a doctor for several decades. Why should I change? I have no idea what my blood pressure or cholesterol status is. I do not want to know. No doubt I will die of something at some stage, but not for a while yet I think.

 

[txdon]

And what's Dr Williams say?
Personally I don't think eggs are that bad for you cholesterol wise.

When a government advisory committee recommended lifting restrictions on cholesterol in the diet, saying it is “not a nutrient of concern for overconsumption,” in its regular five-year review of dietary guidelines. Dr. Williams who was on the committee strongly opposed it but he went on to say that the committee was very restrictive in the studies they looked at. They only looked at studies that had only 500 people or more with hard outcomes. He said A lot of good studies were eliminated. Personally I think the meat and egg industry had their lobby hands involved and knew exactly which studies they did not want the committee to include and made the stipulations to leave them out. And now seeing how the AEB operates I believe I'm right.

"Kim Williams, M.D. the incoming president of the American College of Cardiology has just announced that he has gone vegan! In addition, he is now recommending a vegan diet to all his patients.
As you know, the American College of Cardiology is one of the most conservative medical organizations in the world. Their focus is the treatment of heart disease with pharmaceuticals, angioplasties, and bypass surgeries.
Dr. Kim changed his diet because of an experience with a patient. He had read a nuclear scan on a patient with very high risk findings – it showed a three vessel disease pattern of reversible blood flow in the patient’s heart arteries.
Six months later, the patient came back to Dr. Kim and the nuclear testing facility. The patient had been following Dean Ornish M.D.’s program for “reversing heart disease” which is based on a plant*based diet, exercise and meditation. The patient told Dr. Kim that their chest pain had resolved in six weeks after starting this program, and the nuclear scan was then repeated. and it had become essentially normal!
This forced Dr. Kim to study the details of the plant based diet in Dr. Ornish’s many publications. Dr. Ornish has shown reversal of plaque in both one and five year studies using nuclear scans." complete article - Big Announcement By the Incoming President of the American College of Cardiology | Dr. Soram's Integrative Medicine

His patient had the same results as I did, so I can truly say "Personally I know WFPB works". Because I had progressive heart disease when eating foods with cholesterol I will never advise people who are at a risk for heart disease, like the OP of this thread, to eat food with cholesterol or say there is no harm in it.

Edit: There are excellent studies by Ornish and Esselstyn and others that show almost 100% stoppage or reversal. These studies had under 200 people in them so they could have good control over the diet of the subjects - but excluded from the committee because of the 500 threshold. Not a lot of people can do the WFPB diet or have the encouragement and incentive. The study I'm in "The Century Study" is having 1000 people in it and should be concluded in another 5-6 years.

 

[Paul Thornton]

I like mine with raisins, shaped like cookies.

 

[Looking4new]

I have done mine with yogurt and strawberries in as well.

When it comes to porridge, I will leave the pot to cool and then eat it right out of the pot for a bedtime snack. Stone cold. Maybe a little maple syrup on for flavour but that is it.

 

[OldMcDonald]

It is dangerous to believe what you want to hear

I concur.

At the same time I am pleased that what you are doing works for you. I am certain that there are people who would become ill, and possibly die if they followed my lifestyle. It works for me, yours works for you, and that is all that matters.

Looking4new - A bedtime snack is an ancient way of eating porridge. It is a very long time since I heard of anybody who eats it that way. It was often a lunch also. I do not know if you follow this, but porridge might be made once a week, very thick and solid, and put into a drawer of a kitchen cabinet or sideboard, and lumps cut off each morning for the workers of the house to take out into the field as their repast. I have heard varying tales of what accompanied it by way of quenching a thirst, but not particularly reliable.

Oats, of course, could be grown on a small scale by anybody with a wee bit of land in northern Europe, and it became a more or less staple food in Scotland.

Have any of you ever had real Scottish oatcakes? If not they are a very thin flat biscuit type of cake that can perhaps best be described as dried porridge in a biscuit form. We might have a problem there - biscuit in USA is not the same as biscuit in Europe.

 

[DrRod]

You guys have convinced me that I should get back to eating oatmeal and the like. I always like it but just got out of the habit. And you gave so many good suggestions. Today I was in a Mennonite country store that specializes in selling bulk food that they break down into sealed bags -- very cheap. So I got some baby oats, quinoa, dried peaches, black walnuts, dried cranberries, and cream of wheat. I'm really looking forward to exploring this stuff and maybe even looking and feeling better. Can't hurt. Thanks for bringing to the table [pun intended].