Why Your Morning Oats Are Failing You
And basically all generic nutrition advice.
Girl, if I could clear up all the confusion you feel when a specific dietary recommendation doesn’t seem to be working out for you, I hope this does it.
Oats! One of the most highly recommended breakfasts for Americans who are trying to stabilize their blood sugar, lower their cholesterol, or manage their appetite. The domesticated cereal is the “good” kind of carb that has fiber and protein to make you feel full and stabilize your blood sugar! If you choose the less processed oats, such as steel-cut or rolled, they’ll have more fiber and protein enhancing the delayed gastric-emptying effects!
Hello, Quaker Oats? I'd like to speak to the manager! Because just an hour after eating oats my stomach is empty and I’m hungry again.
You just need more protein, fat, and fiber silly! Add nuts! They’ll take longer to digest, making you feel full! That doesn’t work? Add chia! And coconut powder! And peanut butter! Cinnamon! And dried fruit, flax seed, yogurt too! If you do, you’re bound to stay full! And if you’re not, you’re just not doing it right.
Question, does anyone actually feel full after eating nuts? At the ripe age of 18 my parents paid tens of thousands of dollars so that a could have the authority to solve this problem. The reality is that no matter what I do to my morning bowl of oats, they don’t sustain me. And I’m sure that’s true for some of ya’ll too.
So let’s talk applied nutrition.
Nutrition is both a science and a practice. And ya know what, babe? They’re actually two separate things. As a science nutrition studies, observes, and tests theories about how our body interacts with food to utilize the nutrients found in food. Generally speaking, we have a pretty good sense of how our body interacts with most nutrients in a variety of conditions. Generally.
Learning how the body processes nutrients requires research and research needs to be funded. So researchers need to make a pretty good case as to why it needs to be studied and that case is typically to prevent, manage, and treat chronic disease. Particularly the most predominant chronic diseases in our culture.
For the past several decades, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer have threatened the lives of many Americans. Although there are many factors that contribute to the development of these diseases, diets primarily comprised of ultra-processed simple carbohydrates and barren of fiber have been blamed.
Hold up! Let’s make sure we understand some basic nutrition concepts!
We’ve all heard the terms “simple carbs” and “complex carbs”, but what the heck is the difference?
Simple carbohydrates are those that are broken down into their simplest forms, requiring minimal digestion. Consequently, they get passed swiftly through your digestive system and into the bloodstream, causing a quick spike in blood sugar and therefore energy.
Complex refers to carbohydrate containing foods that are mostly in their natural form and still contain natural fibers. Fibers are indigestible carbohydrates, which is why they tend to pass through our digestive system more slowly. Consequently, complex carbs take longer to digest than simple carbs but because they’re carbohydrates, they still get converted into energy more quickly than fats and animal-based proteins.
For the average American suffering from or at risk for developing diet-related chronic disease, prioritizing complex carbohydrates over simple carbohydrates is helpful! Replacing white bread with oats topped with nuts and seeds can help them stay fuller longer and round out blood sugar spikes. Since most of Americans are suffering from or are at risk for developing a diet-related chronic disease, a message is born! EAT OATS FOR BREAKFAST EVERYONE! THEY SLOW DIGESTION, BLUNT BLOOD SUGAR SPIKES, ETC. ETC. ETC.
All of which is true, but is it always applicable?
Oats have both soluble and insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber dissolves in water to form a gel-like substance, in theory slowing down your digestion and allowing poop to move smoothly through you.
Sorry… was I supposed to say, feces?
Welp your favorite Dietitian hates being clinical, so let’s go with poop.
Oats also have insoluble fiber which does not dissolve in water, adding bulk to your stool. It can stimulate your intestinal tract in theory leading to quicker evacuation.
WHATT??? OATS HAVE TWO TYPES OF FIBER??? ONE WHICH SLOWS GUT MOTILITY AND ONE THAT SPEEDS IT UP??? WHY DON’T WE TALK ABOUT BOTH?
Because honestly, it would be too confusing. And actually oats have multiple types of both soluble and insoluble fiber. Even the fibers grouped into the same categories have slightly different properties from one another, each having their own unique interaction with your GI tract. For example, psyllium husk is a soluble fiber which, according to Mount Sinai, “swells and produces more bulk, which stimulates the intestines to contract and helps speed the passage of stool through the digestive tract”. Psyllium husk can be used to treat both constipation and diarrhea despite generic nutrition advice reducing soluble fibers effect on motility to solely slowing it down.
Fiber, so confusing - Charli XCX
Each type of fiber has their own unique interactions with the GI tract and at different stages of digestion. Although we have a general understanding of how the human GI tract and fiber interact with one another, our digestive systems are quite dynamic.
Yes, the amount of fiber impacts gut motility, but so does macronutrient intake. Water intake! The type of water one has access to. The profile of one’s gut microbiota. One’s engagement in physical activity. Stress. Vagal tone. GI muscle tone. Nerve signaling. Hormone signaling. Even accessibility to toilets when needed. The effectiveness of one mechanism of digestion can impact the effectiveness of others. In other words, we can only count on all of our digestive systems working exactly the same if we were all exactly the same. Which we’re not. Hence why we have the same parts but different farts.
Since I typically spend the work week talking about my clients gut stuff, let’s get back to mine.
Oatmeal with peanut butter can sustain me for maybe 2-3 hours on a morning in which I don’t leave the house or do any physical activity. But if I do leave my house after breakfast and go for a walk, which is most days, even the shortest walk stimulates my GI system enough to leave my stomach empty within an hour. Thus making finding a good backpacking breakfast quite the task.
Heck, this morning I didn’t even go for a walk and 5 minutes after finishing my oats my insides are currently flaunting their motility.
The Dietitian in me will add nuts, seeds, and dried fruit to make the oats more filling, but it ends up being so viscose and dense the effect is negated because I can only get so much in me. Just a few bites of the sludge creates pressure in my stomach. Yes, it’s immediately filling but now that it’s a smaller volume of food there’s almost no noticeable difference on gastric emptying.
All nutrients have their function but their effectiveness can vary based on other physiological and environmental factors. So in order to communicate how a nutrient impacts our body, it’s easiest to do so by communicating what it does in theory which is typically isolation from other elements of nutrition.
Additionally, nutrition messages need to encourage dietary interventions that meet the most pressing needs of the current population in the most digestible form (the message I mean, not the fiber- because that’s indigestible, remember?). Since most Americans have struggled to take in enough fiber alongside the development of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, the education about fiber has been centered around these diseases. So we threw every type of fiber into one of two categories and communicated to the general public, more fiber = more fullness = better blood sugar, oh and better poops too.
General nutrition recommendations take into account how the human body works, but not how the individual works. There are simply too many variables that impact digestion for us to perfectly capture in every generalized dietary recommendation. Hence confusing folks whose unique physiology seems to be incompatible with generic advice. It’s not that fiber can’t serve you, but it may not always be the right element to address your immediate needs. The nutrition information that the general public has access to serves many people, but it will not always serve you. Working with a Dietitian who is skilled to meet your complex needs can help you make the adjustments needed to make this advice work for you.