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How Does Oatmeal Reduce Cholesterol?

It is extremely common for patients newly diagnosed with high cholesterol levels to be told by their doctors to start eating lots of oatmeal. It is one of the ways to get rid of some of the cholesterol. Yet, how exactly does oatmeal reduce cholesterol in the body?

Cholesterol is involved in the production of bile. We need bile because it helps us to digest fat by emulsifying it in our intestines into smaller globules so that fat digesting enzymes can work on it. The majority of cholesterol in bile is reabsorbed back into the bloodstream and the rest lost in bowel motions.

Therefore regular bowel movement can help to excrete some cholesterol. And bowel movement function can be improved with fiber and regular intake of water. Fiber is a non-digestable carbohydrate that comes from plants. There are soluble and insoluble fiber.

Oats are a great source of soluble fiber and is known to be able to lower cholsterol. Oatmeal usually contains insoluble fiber as well. As the fiber rich oatmeal is processed through your body it will start to collect liquid and get larger and larger. The larger it grows the more it will scrape across the walls of the digestive tract, soaking up lots of bile acids.

Instead of getting into your bloodstream and making its way up to your arteries, the cholesterol is then washed out of your system with the oatmeal.

Of course, oatmeal cannot soak up all the bile acids in your digestive tract, so if you continue to eat a lot of high cholesterol foods along with your daily oatmeal you are going to put more in than the oatmeal can take out.

The best way to use oatmeal to reduce cholesterol is to drastically reduce your consumption of fried and sugary foods while eating at least one serving of oatmeal every morning.

Other food high in fiber include legumes such as kidney beans and lentils, nuts such as almonds and sunflower seeds as well as fruits and vegetables. Seaweed is also a great source of fiber. In addition to binding to cholesterol, seaweed can bind to toxins in the intestine and remove them from the body.

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