My understanding is that:
1. When someone consumes fat, bile is released into the gut.
2. Oatmeal (and other soluble fibers like psyllium husk) capture this bile and it is excreted in stool.
3. In order to create the bile, the liver needs LDL. Because the LDL it used to create the bile was lost when it was captured, it exposes more LDL receptors and pulls LDL out of the bloodstream, thereby lowering LDL levels.
It seems to me that in order to maximize the effectiveness of this LDL-lowering approach, one must not simply consume psyllium or oatmeal, but rather consume them in conjunction with fat. Not saturated fat, obviously, which raises LDL, but perhaps unsaturated or polyunsaturated fats. My expectation is that this would trigger the bile secretion required in order to actually sequester it.
So, me putting butter on my oatmeal is not gross and decadent, but actually the new health food craze?
I make steel cut oats in the pressure cooker; you need to put some fat in there to stop it bubbling while it's cooking, so butter has a physical purpose there too. And also tastes delicious.
For those who haven't done much cooking - this bubble-busting trick works in a wide variety of situations. Very useful.
Some proteins seem to have a similar effect - but I haven't tried to narrow that down, and don't know the food science behind it.
Is this why my grandma put oil in the pasta pot?
yes. It also keeps the pasta from sticking together as quickly after you drain it. But an Italian friend made a face and said "it will keep the sauce from adhering to the pasta!!!' so... yeah.
It's useful to add oil after cooking pasta if you're going to save it for later; otherwise you definitely don't want to. I've never had pasta foam over as I cook without a lid (though haven't tried it with oil and a lid); it's also completely possible to cook it without any heat; once the pasta is added, bring back to boil, then turn off the heat, cover, and let it sit until it's done. It only needs about 80C to cook, which the remnant heat will provide.
Also, (and I learnt this much too late in my life), cook the pasta until a few minutes before it's done, and _finish cooking in the sauce_. This is what makes the sauce adhere. Keep a cup of the starchy pasta water to add in case it needs to be loosened a bit.
Keep a little of the starchy pasta water in there when mixing in the sauce — it's the real key.
Possibly, though most likely because of long standing myths. I've never had a pasta pot boil over, but I cook it without a lid; maybe with a lid it makes a difference. I might also try it next time I boil potatoes, which I usually cook with a lid, and have a tendency to froth over if the heat isn't just right.
That's to reduce the pasta sticking together as it cooks.
In my experience, stirring within the first tens of seconds of submersion is enough and it won't stick together again for the rest of the boil. After it's strained is a different matter, but you might as well wait until then if you're going to oil it.
Doubtful because it just floats on the surface. Maybe ones you pour the water out?
Which doesn’t really work as the oil and water won’t mix.
Not Strega Nona tho.
Presumably you'd want something like olive or avocado oil with less saturated fat.
Nuts are also an option.
try sardines
VLDL, a precursor for LDL, is produced in liver. Both are more or less the same chemically, but differ in the amount of fat carried. LDL is VLDL but somewhat processed by body, HDL is a VLDL (LDL) completely processed by body.
Bile is used to process food in the gut. It does not go back into our system. Bile is still produced by liver even in long fasts.
Oatmeals is a kind of elimination diet, much like carnivore diet or rice diet. The later one also lowered cholesterol.
What oatmeal diet really does is it completely eliminates essential fatty acids in food. These fatty acids are critical in VLDL production and, thusly, oatmeal diet reduces LDL levels through less production of VLDL.
> Bile is used to process food in the gut. It does not go back into our system.
I don't think that's correct: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterohepatic_circulation
I also think you're mischaracterizing HDL as a VLDL. If you search for Apolipoprotein A here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK305896/ you'll see that HDL is constructed from it, while VLDL and LDL are part of the Apolipoprotein B lineage.
By that logic, it would seem that oatmeal would be best placed in a non-breakfast slot, no?
I’m genuinely curious. I have a vested interest in this.
Then it'd be interesting to see a similar study, with some olive oil mixed into the oats.
Just use milk bro