Oatmeal and heart disease

[Marriedguy70]

Can we believe the hype? Will oatmeal lead to reduced changes for heart disease? Does it really help?

[Flycaster305]

Well said, sky.  Depending on oatmeal or soy is a great start, but not the answer.  It's a combination of exercise, diet, drugs, and lifestyle changes that work.  

[skydnsr]

Soluble fiber is good for you.  It's good for gut health, as well as for reducing cholesterol levels.  The evidence for it is well established.  

I'm sure it won't help you that much if you eat oatmeal every morning but you smoke, you don't exercise, you're chronically angry or stressed, you're obese, and you live on junk food except for a daily bowl of oatmeal.  Soluble fiber is just one small contributor to good health.  

If you like oatmeal, great.  Eat it.  Oatmeal is not the only source of soluble fiber, though, so if you don't like oatmeal, you can get soluble fiber in other ways. If the whole idea of increasing your soluble fiber is a turn-off, you can focus on other aspects of healthy living.

[grendslori]

Funny you should mention this....my father-in-law and mother-in-law eat oatmeal every morning and their cholesterol levela are perfect. My father-in-law is 85 years old at this point.  

[Flycaster305]

I'd say probably oatmeal helps a little bit, same with soy and other products with a high fiber content.  That said, if you are eating pork chops, bacon, steaks, etc. and mixing in oatmeal to counter the effects of high cholesterol foods, I doubt that it would help.

I just got out of the hospital with a cardiac issue, and was issued the 'cardiac' menu to choose foods.  The only red meat option was beef bullion, but there was a strong emphasis on whole wheat, soy, chicken, baked fish, etc.  I think it's a matter of what foods to avoid while adding good fiber that helps. Statin drugs are very beneficial as well.