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Welcome back to Chasing Eden, Natural Health, God's Way. I'm
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your host, Carolyn Thompson. Today we're going to stir up
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a little controversy over something many of us grew up
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eating for breakfast, oatmeal. Now, for some people, oatmeal is
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a comfort food. It's hearty, it's warm, and it feels healthy.
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For others, oatmeal is seen as a little more than
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a blood sugar spiking grain, filled with anti nutrients and
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leuctins that may do more harm than good. So what's
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the truth and how did humans even start eating oatmeal
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in the first place. Was it a staple of survival
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or a carefully chosen and food? And in today's health
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conscious world, is oatmeal still worth putting on your table?
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So today we're going to dig into the history of
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humans eating oats, why oats became important during times of scarcity,
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the modern debate over whether oatmeal is harmful or healthful.
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Expert insights from doctor Berg, Dave Astbury, Gary Brecca, doctor Artists,
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doctor Barbara O'Neil, and doctor Gundry The issue of luctins
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in oats and whether they're a deal breaker, as well
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as the nutritional value that oates might offer depending on
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how you prepare and eat them. So let's get into it.
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So here's a brief history of oatmeal. Oats are a hearty,
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cereal grain part of the grass family that originally grew
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in your and Asia, and unlike wheat and barley, oats
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were considered a weed for much of human history. They
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weren't cultivated on purpose until around three thousand years ago.
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So I want to stop here just for a second
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in comment, because I watch a health a guy that's
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into healthy stuff and he's pretty well known, especially on YouTube,
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and he has health products out there, and I've been
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watching him for about oh thirteen years. His name's Marcus
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roth Kranz, and he actually had a video many years
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ago that he made then it went viral in Europe,
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I believe in Germany, and it was all about how weeds,
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things that we call weeds that we want to kill,
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actually are really they're like superfoods. They're full of healthy ingredients.
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And his point was that because weeds were able to
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survive excruciating circumstances in the soil and still come up
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through you know, harsh winters and super hot, you know
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hot summers, that they were actually healthy. They actually had
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ingredients in them that were good for us. And he
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did a video where he showed himself walking out in
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his robe in the morning and grabbing some weeds and
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chewing on them and eating them, taking them in the
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house and grinding them up in the blender and turning
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them into a smoothie. Well, now he's got this health
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show that he does along with some really some products
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I really like. So I just wanted to point that
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out because oftentimes we think of weeds as being a
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bad thing. So, however you look at oatmeal, it could
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whether it was considered a weed or not. Just know
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that weeds aren't necessarily bad for you. So we know
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they were cultivated intentionally around three thousand years ago for
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the reason being because they're tough. They thrive in poor soil,
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cold climates, and wet ground where wheat struggles. This made
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oats incredibly valuable in Northern Europe, especially in places like
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Scotland and Ireland where they had the potato famine they
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call it. Now we can argue this as well. And
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I don't want to get on a side trip here,
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but I do want to point out that in one
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of Dave Aspury's videos that he does, which I think
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is kind of funny. He says, oatmeal pisses me off.
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And then he proceeds and I'm paraphrasing to talk about
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how we were never supposed to have oatmeal, how it
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was actually for livestock, and that it's basically peasant food,
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that's what he called it. And he was explaining and
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again I'm paraphrasing that, because the king was taking all
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of the meat and I don't know if he was
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shipping it out or what he was doing with it,
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the people were forced to go eat with the livestock
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ate they were forced to eat the animal food, which
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was oats. So when this history also talks about that,
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you know, when other grains fail, oats have a tendency
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to survive. So whether humans are eating them or animals
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or eating them, they're really hearty food. They they're easy
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to grow, and they're they're easier to come by. So
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for communities living through cold winters in scarce harvests, oats
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became a lifeline for them. Porridge, oat cakes, and eventually
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oatmeal became stables in their diet, not because they were
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seen as superfoods, but because they were cheap, filling and
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available when little else was available. Doctor Barbara O'Neill often
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reminds her audience quote, throughout history, people didn't always eat
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what was best for them, They ate what was available, unquote,
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and oatmeal for centuries was just that it was a
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survival food. So imagine living in seventeenth centuries Scotland. The
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soil is rocky, the climate is harsh, and wheat often fails. Oats, however,
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grow reliably. Families would grind them into meal, mix them
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with water, and cook into porridge or oatcakes. This wasn't
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a matter of taste preference, it was survival. So during famines, wars,
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in poor harvest years, obviously, oats often became the alternative
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grain that kept people alive when other food sources were scarce.
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Oatmeal also had another benefit, and this is huge because
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of the climate and the seasons. It was easy to
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store oat groats could be dried and ground, it could
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keep for months at a time, and it provided a
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pretty reliable source of calories. So oatmeal entered the human diet,
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not necessarily lately as a delicacy, but as a practical,
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reliable fallback food. So now there's this debate on social
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media It's been going on for a while about oatmeal,
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and you may or may not have heard of doctor Gundry,
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and you may or may not understand the lectins in
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the plant foods that can oftentimes attack our stomach, lighting
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and causes all kinds of digestive issues. So today oatmeal
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sits at the center of a big health debate. The
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pro oat camp says mainstream dieticians and food companies, they
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will tout oatmeal as a heart healthy superfood. Oats are
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high and beta GLUECN, a type of soluble fiber that
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may help lower LDL cholesterol. They're also affordable, accessible, and versatile.
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And I just want to point out another wonderful thing
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about oats that I learned. Oats also make a great
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facial They're incredible to help reduce the appearance of wrinkles.
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And it's super easy to make a mask with warm
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water and oats and stirred up and smart all over
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your face and then when it drives, you wipe it
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off and you'd be amazed. So they also have another
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wonderful benefit like that. So the argument goes, oatmeal is nourishing,
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It keeps you full, it helps digestion, and may support health.
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This is what the pro oat camp is saying, and
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this is also what a lot of dieticians and food
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companies will say about oatmeal now. In the anti oat camp.
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On the other side, many natural health experts warn that
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oats are problematic. They point out that oats are they're
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high lectins and anti nutrients that can irritate the gut,
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their carbohydrate heavy, which may spike blood sugar and insulin,
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and oftentimes oatmeal is contaminated with glyphasate. The herbicide roundup
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in case you're not familiar with it, is also called glyphasate.
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So since oats are commonly sprayed before harvest, they're gonna
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have a lot of glaphysate in them. So this site
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argues oats are not the nutrient dense food they're made
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out to be, and for many people, they may actually
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harm your health. So doctor Berg, who I really love
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and respect, he says this about the impact of grains
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on insulin resistant He has said this quote. Oatmeal is
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marketed as heart healthy, but for many people it's a
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blood sugar bomb. If you're insulin resistant, oats may keep
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you tired and craving carbs. He points out that while
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oats have some fiber. They also raise insulin significantly, especially
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instant oats. Okay, so I'm going to stop here for
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a second. Say this. I had a friend over here
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a few weeks ago and she went to a dietician
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because she was finding out that she had blood sugar problems.
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And I'm not sure if she was diagnosed with diabetes
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or not. She put an insulin patch on temporarily she
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wanted to track her insulin spikes. And she did say
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that oats when she had oatmeal, she had a spike.
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So and I'll say personally, if I start my day
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with a bowl of oatmeal, it does seem like I'm
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hungry all day long. But I do love oatmeal. I
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have to say that I love oatmeal, so I still
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eat it on occasion. I don't fully I'm not totally
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against it. I'm not necessarily for it or against it. Now,
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Dave Aspbury, you may know him as the founder of
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Bulletproof Coffee. He doesn't mince words at all. So this
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is what he says. Quote, oatmeal is not a superfood.
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It's a cheap, high carb filler with anti nutrients that
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don't serve your biology. If you want stable energy oats
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aren't the way unquote, Asbury warns about the glacistate contamination
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and conventional oats which may disrupt gut bacteria and hormones. Now,
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Gary Breca, he's a human biologist who's well known on
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social media. He's known for breaking down health in simple
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biological terms, and he says this quote. Odes contain phytates
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and lectins, compounds that bind to minerals like zinc and iron,
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making them harder to absorb. So while you may think
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you're getting nutrients, your body may not actually be able
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to use them. Unquote. Doctor Artists, he likes to put
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his opinion in there as well. I don't know if
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you're familiar with him, but he's got a website Doctor
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Artist's Show, and he's pretty well known for talking about
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nicotine and the benefits of nicotine. If you're interested in that,
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I also have a podcast on that. Doctor Artists often
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highlights the deceptions in food marketing, and so this is
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what he said. Quote. The food industry sold oatmeal as
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a health food because it's cheap to produce, not because
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it's truly optimal for the human body. Doctor Barbara O'Neil.
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I don't know if you're familiar with her, But she
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was actually kicked out of her country, which I believe
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is Australia during I believe it was during the COVID
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year because she was speaking out about the way it
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was being handled. Doctor O'Neil takes a pretty balanced approach.
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She acknowledges the lectins and potential irritants in oats, but
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also notes that preparation does matter. So this is what
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she says. Quote. If oats are properly soaked, sprouted, or fermented,
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many of the anti nutrients break down, making them far
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more digestible. Now, I will say this, I'm a big
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fan of Jordan Ruben, and in the early years when
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his books were first coming out and he was starting
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his company, Garden of Life, one of his books talked
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about putting water in your oatmeal with a teaspoon of
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yogurt and stirring it up and putting it in the
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refrigerator overnight as a way of pre digesting the oatmeal.
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And I will say this, I have done that on
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occasion since, and I do believe that I can digest
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and absorb the oatmeal better. I can actually feel it.
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The difference in the way that I feel after I
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eat it this way. So I really believe if you're
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going to consume oatmeal, if you love oatmeal, this is
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the way to do it. Like doctor Barbara O'Neil says,
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properly soaked, sprouted or for minute now. Doctor Stephen Gundry,
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he's a pretty controversial guy. I don't know if you
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go to YouTube or not, but I've seen a lot
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of his commercials and advertisements talking about lectins. He has
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his book, and a lot of people swear by this
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approach to eating that it's healed their gut. I have
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a friend who looks amazing. She lost a bunch of
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weight following the Gundry diet and really really advocates advocates
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for it. Doctor Gundry is famous for his work on
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lectins and he's one of the strongest critics critics of oats.
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So this is what he says. Quote oats contain lectins
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that irritate the gut lining and drive inflammation. Even gluten
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free oats can cause problems because it's not just gluten,
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it's the luctins and avenin proteins Unquote. According to Gundry,
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for people with leaky gut autoimmune issues or chronic inflammation,
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oats can make things worse. So the lectin question. What
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are luctins and why are they such a big deal? Well,
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lectins are proteins that are found in many plants, designed
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as a defense mechanism against pests. In humans, luctins combine
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to the gut lining, potentially causing irritation or permeability what's
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often called leaky gut. Oats contain a specific lectin like
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protein called avenin. While not identical to gluten, it can
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cause similar reactions in sensitive individuals. Doctor Gundry and others
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argue that lectins and oats are one reason why some
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people experience bloating, digestive discomfort, or autoimmune flare ups after
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eating oatmeal, but others say the problem can be mitigated.
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Traditional preparation methods soaking, fermenting, sprouting help break down lectins.
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In vitates making oats gentler on the gut. Now, I
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like a more balanced approach to this, because I believe
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I had leaky gut at one point. I think if
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you have digestive problem, even if you don't, it's better
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to take this preparation approach soaking your oatmeal. I really
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like the Jordan Ruben approach where he just puts like
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a half a cup of water in there with a
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teaspoon of yogurt, stirs it up, cover it up, put
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it in the fridge overnight, and the next morning. Now
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you have helped to predigest those oats and take away
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the negative digestive effects on the body. That helps break
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down the luctins, and it also helps you to absorb
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the nutrients in the oats if you really want to
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eat them. So the nutritional value of oats can be
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somewhat controversial things. Some people say, yes, it's got a
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lot of they have a lot of nutrients. Other people
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say no, they don't. And so far you can tell
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that if you really want to benefit from the nutrients
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of the oats, you probably want to take on one
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of those preparation methods. So our oats worthily us know,