The best (and worst) oats for your health | Prof. Sarah Berry

ZOE Science & Nutrition

ZOE

Nutrition, Health & Fitness, Education, Science

4.6 • 4.9K Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Oatmeal has long been considered a heart-healthy breakfast, but is it really as good for us as we think? In this episode, Jonathan and Sarah break down the great oat debate. First, they explore the different types of oats - instant, rolled, and steel-cut and how processing impacts their nutritional value. Then, they put oats to the test using continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), comparing instant to steel-cut, with and without toppings, to demonstrate how blood sugar works. Sarah also discusses wider debates around oats: Are pesticides a concern? Is oat milk as healthy as it claims? Finally, she shares the ultimate guide to choosing the healthiest oats - and for those who prefer alternatives, she’s got delicious, nutrient-packed swaps to try. 🥑 Make smarter food choices. Become a member at zoe.com - 10% off with code PODCAST 🌱 Try our new plant based wholefood supplement - Daily 30+ *Naturally high in copper which contributes to normal energy yielding metabolism and the normal function of the immune system Follow ZOE on Instagram. Timecodes 00:00 The breakfast of champions? 01:40 Quickfire questions 03:17 What are oats? 05:03 Oats vs wheat 08:20 What are instant oats? 09:58 Are oats good for your heart? 12:20 ZOE’s oats experiment 19:20 Blood glucose test 25:18 What spikes blood sugar? 28:35 How the body breaks down carbs 33:25 Latest science: are oats healthy? 35:00 Oats and cholesterol 39:30 Healthy vitamins in oats 40:57 Oats vs pesticides 45:06 Is oat milk healthy? 49:30 Oatmeal recipe ideas 📚Books by our ZOE Scientists The Food For Life Cookbook Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati Food For Life by Prof. Tim Spector Free resources from ZOE Live Healthier: Top 10 Tips From ZOE Science & Nutrition Gut Guide - For a Healthier Microbiome in Weeks Mentioned in today's episode Oatmeal particle size alters glycemic index but not as a function of gastric emptying rate, 2017, Nutrient Sensing, Nutrition, and Metabolism Urinary pesticide concentrations in French adults with low and high organic food consumption: results from the general population-based NutriNet-Santé, 2019, Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology Oat Intake and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease and All-Cause Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, 2021, Nutrients The effect of oat β-glucan on LDL-cholesterol, non-HDL-cholesterol and apoB for CVD risk reduction: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised-controlled trials, 2016, British Journal of Nutrition Have feedback or a topic you'd like us to cover? Let us know here. Episode transcripts are available here.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Zoe Science and Nutrition, where world-leading scientists explain how their research can improve your health.
0:11.0	Oats were once the undisputed breakfast of champions, but today they're caught in a heated debate. Are they a heart healthy staple
0:23.3	or a hidden blood sugar bomb? Will they fuel your long-term health or leave you crashing before noon?
0:32.8	Well today, Professor Sarah Berry puts the controversy to rest. We'll both eat a ball of oats and track our blood sugar in real time to show exactly
0:41.8	how our energy and hunger levels change.
0:44.8	And beyond blood sugar, Sarah will weigh our results against the latest research on oats
0:49.5	and their broader effect on our heart health.
0:52.9	So if you've ever wondered, is there a healthy way to eat
0:55.3	oats? Listen to this episode and find out. Professor Sarah Berry is a world leader in large-scale
1:03.2	human nutritional studies, a professor in nutrition at King's College London and chief scientist at Zoe.
1:09.7	She's conducted multiple large-scale studies on oats,
1:13.6	and she leads the world's largest nutritional science research program here at Zoe. Her 20
1:19.4	years of research forms the basis for how we understand food and how it makes us feel. By the end of
1:25.1	this episode, you'll know exactly how to make Oates work for your body,
1:28.9	whether you swear by them or you're searching for a better alternative.
1:36.2	All right, Sarah. Well, as you know, we always like to start with our quickfire round of
1:40.5	questions from our listeners. Are you ready to go? I am. It's my worst part,
1:44.4	Jonathan. I hate having only yes, no. I'm always going for it. It's going to be fine.
1:51.5	Are oats bad for us? No. Are all oats good for us?
1:59.4	No.
2:01.2	Are the heart-healthy labels on oat products lying to us?
2:07.4	Sometimes.
	...

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