It’s good to know what kind of breakfast is most effective in helping you to stick to a healthy diet and avoiding excess snacking during the rest of the day. Recent studies show that enjoying a fiber-rich breakfast is the answer.
The next question is, of course, which kind of fiber-rich breakfast food is then best. Here’s what they discovered …
In the latest science-backed battle of the breakfast foods, researchers from the New York Nutrition Obesity Research Center at St. Luke’s Hospital in New York City tested whether a breakfast of corn flakes or oatmeal would help people feel more satiated.
“The total calories were the same, but the oatmeal has eight grams of fiber, whereas the corn flakes have zero.”
Oatmeal, containing the most fiber, was the winner … with some surprising results:
Normal weight participants consumed 30 percent less for lunch when they’d eaten oatmeal for breakfast, compared to cornflakes. But overweight participants ate 50 percent less for lunch after eating oatmeal, as opposed to the cereal.
Further research has tried to explain why fiber is the important ingredient:
One reason fiber is so important: It may cause food to linger in your stomach longer. Researchers tested how long it took oatmeal to digest compared to corn flakes or water using a tracer mixed in with each meal. Oatmeal stuck around the longest.
Blood tests also showed that the sugar in the cornflakes might have also made a difference in hunger levels. “We measured blood sugar before and for about 180 minutes after the meal… For the sugared corn flakes, the blood sugar started falling near the end of the [three hour] period and coincided with increased hunger.”
The obvious conclusion is that the fiber in oatmeal seems to make people feel fuller and leads to them eating a smaller lunch and consuming fewer calories.
Source:
Image: Chris Blakeley