An interesting bit of research published in the Nutrition Journal claims that, calorie for calorie, oats or porridge will fill you up more than a leading brand oat based cereal.
The reason being is apparently the viscosity. Raw oats and porridge tend to be more viscose when milk is added compared to the oat based cereal. Forty eight people were recruited for the trial. They were given one of the 3 breakfast options in random order with a week between the different breakfasts. Appetite responses were measured before and 4 hours after the breakfast. The food was also analysed in terms of viscosity, and β-glucan characteristics.
The researchers recommend replacing less filling breakfast cereals with oats. Or if you are like me and do not want to eat a plain bowl of oats, why not mix it with your normal cereal. It might just fill you up that bit more to stop you reaching for the biscuit tin…
The research was published in the Nutrition Journal and is open access.