At this point, you probably know that it’s a really good idea to eat breakfast—it not only stokes your metabolism, but it also sets the tone for healthy eating throughout the day. And now, a new study from the journal Appetite found that there’s a specific breakfast ingredient that may help curb hunger all day long: oat bran.
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For the study, researchers gave 30 healthy, lean women four different variations on biscuits and juice on separate days. The difference between the breakfasts? Some were fortified with more oat bran than others (and some weren’t fortified at all). After eating each breakfast, participants rated their satiety levels. The results: The women were the most full after eating the meal containing the most oat bran. Not surprisingly, the meal without any oat bran added left participants the hungriest.
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Researchers say it's the fiber in the oat bran that did the trick. Fiber helps keep you fuller for a longer period of time, so you may eat less post-meal (which explains why the participants didn’t report as many hunger pangs after they ate the most oat bran). What’s more, adding fiber to liquid drinks—i.e., the juice—may keep you more full than adding fiber to solid foods (after the group with the fortified biscuits and juice, the group with just fortified juice reported feeling the most full). To get your fill, aim to have anywhere from four to eight grams of fiber in your a.m. meal.
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Annie Daly is a New York City-based freelance writer, editor, and author who specializes in wellness, travel, and culture. She is the author of Destination Wellness (2021), and co-author of Island Wisdom (2022). A former editor at SELF, Cosmopolitan, BuzzFeed Travel, Yahoo Travel, and Good Housekeeping, she has also written for a variety of publications, including Condé Nast Traveler, Vogue, Travel + Leisure, Marie Claire, InStyle, and AFAR, among others. To follow her work, find her on IG @anniemdaly and subscribe to her Substack, Destination Wellness.
