Anti-Cancer Breakfast Recipes: What Grain is Best for your Blood Sugar?

Hint: For an anti-cancer diet, one of these tops your choice of grains:

a/ steel cut oats       b/ oat flakes       c/ oat bran.     Which one?

    

And the answer is:

Bran, the oat’s outer covering.

Pennies a serving, ready in a pinch, oat bran makes for a creamy, full-feeling breakfast. It’s packed with soluble fiber, which slows the rate at which food leaves your stomach, thus delaying your absorption of glucose after a meal.  It also reduces your blood’s absorption of cholesterol.  Plus—here’s my favorite part– oat bran absorbs so much water that it leaves you feeling satiated for hours.

Flakes, on the other hand, cause your blood sugar to rise. They get steamed and rolled into thin pieces that, in turn, get digested quickly, thus creating a surge in glucose. Steel cut oats—the whole kernel chopped into pieces– are better.  Because of the fibrous texture, it takes longer for digestive enzymes to reach the starch inside, which slows down the conversion to sugar.

But when it comes to regulating sugars, oat bran, by far, has the lowest glycemic load, a number that measures food’s impact on your blood sugar.  In fact, it’s one of the top foods for regulating blood sugar, says Dr. Jeanne Wallace, an authority on nutrition and cancer. ( See page 16 of that report.)  

All you need are 3 basic ingredients:

1 cup water

¼ cup oat bran

Pinch of high quality salt

Bring the water to a boil, add the oat bran and salt, and stir for a very few minutes. Yields: 1/2 cup of cooked oat bran, a perfect size for one person. 

For variety, sprinkle with cinnamon, nuts and blueberries, all good for controlling sugars, too.  I prefer it plain; it’s yummy buttery, minus real butter. Of course, you’ll need to drink a lot of water to help the fiber do its thing.

Want more anti-cancer breakfast suggestions?