"Can Oatmeal Help Fatty Liver Disease?"
If oatmeal is so powerful that it can clear up some of
the ravages of chemotherapy just applied to the skin,
what might it do if we actually ate it?
The pharmacology of oatmeal.
Oats are reported to possess varied drug-like activities
like lowering of blood cholesterol and blood sugar,
boosting our immune system, anticancer,
antioxidant, anti-atherosclerosis,
in addition to being a topical anti-inflammatory,
and may also be useful in controlling
childhood asthma, body weight, etc.
Whole-grain intake in general is associated
with lower risk of type 2 diabetes,
cardiovascular disease, and weight gain.
All of the cohort studies on type 2 diabetes and heart disease
show whole grain intake is associated with lower risk.
They observed the same for obesity—
consistently less weight gain for those
who consumed a few servings of whole grains every day.
Yes, all the forward-looking population studies
demonstrate that a higher intake of whole grains
is associated with lower body mass index and body weight gain.
However, these results do not clarify whether
whole grain consumption is simply
a marker of a healthier lifestyle,
or a factor favoring “per se” lower body weight.
For example, high whole grain consumers—
those that eat whole wheat and brown rice,
and have oatmeal for breakfast—
tend to be more physically active, smoke less,
and consume more fruit, vegetables, and dietary fiber
than those that instead reach for Froot Loops.
Statistically, one can control these factors,
effectively comparing only nonsmokers to nonsmokers
with similar exercise and diet, as most of the studies did,
and they still found whole grains to be protective,
via a variety of mechanisms.
So, for example, in helping with weight control,
the soluble fiber of oatmeal forms a gel in the stomach,
delaying stomach emptying,
making one feel full for a longer period,
which helps with weight loss,
and then there are other effects in the small and large intestine.
So it all seems plausible that whole grain intake
does indeed offer direct benefits,
however, only results from randomized
controlled intervention studies
can provide the evidence of cause and effect.
In other words, the evidence is clear
that oatmeal consumers have lower rates of disease,
but that’s not the same as proving that if we start
to eat more oatmeal, our risk will drop.
To know that we need an interventional trial,
ideally a blinded study where you give half the people oatmeal,
and the other half fake placebo oatmeal
that looks and tastes like oatmeal to see if it actually works.
As you can imagine this has not been done, until now.
Double-blinded randomized trial
of overweight and obese men and women,
and almost 90% of the real oatmeal-treated
subjects had reduced body weight,
compared to no weight loss in the control group,
a slimmer waist on average,
a 20 point drop in cholesterol,
and an improvement in liver function.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease,
meaning a fatty liver caused by
excess food rather than excess drink,
is now the most common cause
of liver disease in the United States,
found on autopsy in up to 90% of obese individuals,
and can lead in rare cases to cirrhosis of the liver,
cancer of the liver, and death.
Theoretically, whole grains could help
prevent and treat fatty liver disease,
but this is the first time
it had actually been put to the test like this.
A follow-up study in 2014 confirmed these findings
of a protective role of whole grains,
but refined grains were associated with increased risk.
So one would not expect to get such
wonderful results with Wonder Bread.