Oatmeal, Overthinking, and Why Food Feels So Complicated in Menopause

This is the 200th episode and the season finale, and I'm closing out the season by defending the most controversial breakfast on the internet: oatmeal.

I'm only half joking. Yes, I answer all of your oatmeal questions in this episode. Steel cut versus rolled, how to add protein, cooked versus overnight, and whether it deserves its reputation as a heart-healthy food. But the real conversation is about something bigger. If a humble bowl of oatmeal can make us anxious, then we have some food noise to untangle.

I share why so many of us are overcomplicating food and what information overload does to our confidence. My hope is that you finish this one feeling calmer, more confident, and ready to spend less time thinking about food and more time living your life.

Grab my 5 easy Build-A-Bowl Oatmeal recipes

Related episodes you'll love:

• #105 Dear Diet Culture Diary: What the 80s Taught Us About Food: https://themidlifefeast.buzzsprout.com/1851576/episodes/14680165-105-dear-diet-culture-diary-what-the-80s-taught-us-about-food
• #147 How to Stop the Cycle of "Starting Over" Every Monday: https://themidlifefeast.buzzsprout.com/1851576/episodes/16816700-147-how-to-stop-the-cycle-of-starting-over-every-monday
• #199 Why you Don't Trust Yourself Around Food with Fiona Sutherland: https://themidlifefeast.buzzsprout.com/1851576/episodes/19377509

➡️ JULY FREE CHALLENGE - How to Stop Overthinking Food. Save your free spot at https://www.menopausenutritionist.ca/challenge

📚 I wrote a book! Eat To Thrive During Menopause is out now!  Order your copy today and start thriving in midlife.

Looking for more about midlife,  menopause nutrition, and intuitive eating? Click here to grab one of my free guides and learn what I've got "on the menu" including my 1:1 and group programs. https://www.menopausenutritionist.ca/links

Transcript

Season Finale And Big Thanks

Jenn Salib Huber 0:00

Welcome to the Midlife Feast, the podcast that helps you make sense of your body, your health, and menopause in the messy middle of midlife. I'm Dr. Jen Salib Huber, intuitive eating dietitian and naturopathic doctor, and author of Eat to Thrive During Menopause. Around here, we don't see midlife and menopause as problems to solve, but as invitations to live with more freedom, trust, and joy. Each week you'll hear real conversations and practical strategies to help you feel like yourself again, eat without guilt, and turn midlife from a season of survival into a season of thriving. I'm so glad you're here. Let's dig in. Welcome to this very special episode of the Midlife Feast. It's special because it's the season finale, but it's also special because it is the 200th episode. And as of this week, we are almost at 500,000 downloads in 180 countries. And just saying all of that out loud is kind of amazing. Uh, and it really does take my breath away because it's hard to imagine how many people have listened to my little podcast. And over the last almost five years, I've connected with so many of you through this platform, and I've had so many wonderful opportunities to connect with people in person, online, in the feaster community, on trips and retreats, that I just wanted to start this episode with a very heartfelt thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for helping the Midlife Feast reach so many people, and I hope that this episode on oatmeal and overthinking lives up to my expectations anyway. As always, I'd love to hear what you think about it. I think you're gonna learn a few new things, and I would love to hear what did you not know about oatmeal before this episode.

Why Oatmeal Reveals Overthinking

Jenn Salib Huber 2:03

I know what you're thinking, at least I think I do, that I'm a little nuts to devote an entire episode to oatmeal. But before you turn this episode off, let me reassure you that while oatmeal is definitely the subject because I love oatmeal, what I really want to talk about today is something that I think is much more important. And I want to talk about why we're overcomplicating food. And if you keep listening, you'll not only hear why I love oatmeal so much, and I really do want to tell you why, you'll also learn, hopefully, how to stop overthinking every decision about food. Because I want eating to be something that doesn't take up so much of your brain space, which, especially in midlife, can feel maybe like a limited resource sometimes. I'm not entirely sure how or when, but I have accidentally become the chief defender of oatmeal. People now send me oatmeal memes and content. My friend Penny made me an oatmeal sweatshirt, which I would be wearing right now if it weren't summer. My friend and colleague Alex recently told me about the World Porridge Championships in Scotland, which is a real thing. There's even a documentary about it called The Golden Spurtal. I've watched it, it's very cute. At this point, I think that maybe menopause, oatmeal, and maybe sardines have become my entire personality, and uh I think I'm okay with that. But there's another reason that I wanted to end this season with oatmeal. A few weeks ago, I asked my Instagram community what questions they had about oatmeal. And one of the answers or one of the questions, I guess, really captured the essence of what I want to talk about today. So I'm gonna read it to you. I actually enjoy oatmeal and I want to feel good about eating it. But every time I have it, I worry that maybe it's not actually good for me. So let's think about that for a second. We're talking about oatmeal. We're not talking about cocaine, we're not talking about cigarettes, we're not talking about, you know, deep fried foods, we're talking about oatmeal. And if we've reached the point where we're anxious about oatmeal, then the problem isn't oatmeal, right? The problem is that we are way overthinking food and we've forgotten how to trust ourselves around it. And probably won't surprise you, but I really think that diet and wellness culture are to blame because we're constantly being bombarded about good food and bad food and the next best thing. So that's what today's episode is really about. Yes, I'm gonna answer all of your oatmeal questions and I hopefully will teach you a few things that you haven't heard before. But more importantly, I want to show you why oatmeal has become the perfect example of overthinking with food. And once you see the overthinking process happening with oatmeal, but you'll start to see that same pattern showing up with bread and potatoes and bananas and pasta and fruit and pretty much anything else that has been on the kind of villain side of diet culture. So let's talk a little bit about kind of where we started, because I'm pretty sure that no one was worrying about oatmeal 30 years ago. So what changed? It's

Social Media And Information Overload

Jenn Salib Huber 5:08

not the oatmeal, it's the information environment that we live in. The average person now spends more than two hours a day on social media, which I actually think is an underestimate. But nutrition is one of the most talked-about health topics on social media, as you probably know. And before we've even finished our morning coffee, you you know, we see things like somebody telling us that grains are inflammatory, or telling us to worry about blood sugar spikes, or of course that we need more protein, etc. And there's always somebody who's, you know, calling oatmeal peasant food, which I'm gonna get to, by the way. Researchers actually have a name for this, they call it information overload. When we're bombarded with too much conflicting information, we actually become less confident in our decisions. So the more information that you have about a particular topic, when you've got many sides or many opinions, it makes you less confident in whatever you decide. And that's kind of the definition of food noise, right? It's this constant game of ping pong that's happening in our heads around food. And the result is that every meal starts to feel like a test. So instead of asking yourself what sounds good, you end up asking, should I eat this? Is this the best choice? Is it quote optimal? What if there's something I'm missing? What if there's something I don't know? And I hear from a lot of people that they feel massive decision fatigue by breakfast. So let's spend some time talking about some of the most common myths that people have asked me about and that I hear about in general, but especially about oatmeal and grains.

Myth One Grains Are Wrong

Jenn Salib Huber 6:45

And the first is that humans weren't meant to eat grains. This is a claim that has been circulating for decades. I think since like paleo first became popular, so probably late 90s, early 2000s. But oats in particular have been around for a very long time. Archaeologists have actually found evidence that wild oats were gathered by humans thousands of years before agriculture even existed. I think I read something like 32,000 years ago, they found evidence of wild oats being eaten. So at first they were considered a weed, if you can believe that. And eventually they realized that, you know, actually, oats are incredibly hardy. They can thrive in cooler weather, wet weather, where maybe some other grains struggled, and that's why they became so important and popular in places like Scotland and Scandinavia and just northern Europe in general. Because for centuries they have fed entire populations. And our digestive system 100% can handle grains. We have the enzymes needed to digest starches. And if grains were really incompatible with human biology and physiology, humanity probably wouldn't have made it this far because grains are such a dense and rich source of glucose, which, as hopefully, you know by now, we need to survive. There's a description of oats in an English dictionary from the late 1700s. It says, oats are a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people. And I couldn't love the Scottish comeback more. I, and that's why England has such fine horses, and Scotland has such fine people. I had to include that. My oldest daughter goes to university in Scotland, and I'm somewhere between 60 and 70% Scottish, so I feel a bit of a kinship there. So we are absolutely designed to digest grains. So hopefully you can put that myth to rest.

Myth Two Blood Sugar Panic

Jenn Salib Huber 8:44

The second myth is that oatmeal spikes your blood sugar too much. And if there's one phrase that I really wish we would retire once and for all, it's this idea of a blood sugar spike. Because it makes it sound like any increase in your blood sugar is automatically bad. But that's literally what carbohydrates are supposed to do. You eat them, your blood sugar goes up, your body releases insulin, your cells use that glucose for energy. That's normal physiology. And so the question isn't whether your blood sugar goes up, the question is really does it rise at a rate that your body can comfortably handle? And one of my favorite things about oats is that they don't just contain carbohydrates, they also contain fiber, and they contain a particular kind of fiber that can help to stabilize your blood sugar. And lots of research has found that meals containing oats lead to lower blood sugar and insulin responses after we eat them compared to most other carbohydrates and grains. And that's largely thanks to beta glucan, which is this special type of fiber, which we're going to talk about shortly. So, even people who have type 2 diabetes where blood sugar regulation is more challenging, regular oat consumption has been shown to help improve long-term blood sugar control. So, because I love analogies, think of beta glucan like putting speed bumps on a road. The glucose still gets to where it's going, it just doesn't get there all at once or as quickly. So, what you eat with your oatmeal can also matter. And that's gonna matter much more than the type of oats. And so, if you pair your oats with a protein, so you add some Greek yogurt or milk or nuts or seeds or even eggs, this can also help to slow the digestion and the absorption and help with any blood sugar impact that the carbohydrates are having in a completely normal way. So the third is another one that

Myth Three Oats And Heart Health

Jenn Salib Huber 10:33

I see all the time that, like, well, oats aren't really healthy. They're not, quote, health food, which I have issues with calling any food healthy or not healthy. But this is, you know, one that shows up saying that, like, well, it's all carbohydrate, it's basically sugar, or there's this real making the round that, you know, it's peasant food. So let me tell you a fun little fact about oatmeal. Back in the 1990s, oats were the first food that was allowed in most countries, Canada, US, and certainly UK and parts of Europe, the first food to be allowed to make a health claim on the package, saying that it supports heart health. And that was because even then there was such a substantial body of research showing that the type of fibrinotes, beta glucan, can help to lower LDL cholesterol. So, and you know, this is the type of cholesterol that rises with age, with menopause, and it is the one that's associated with heart disease. So anything, and especially food that can help to bring that down is probably healthy for us, right? So this idea that it's not healthy is kind of wild anyway, but we certainly have a lot of research over a long period of time showing that the type of fiber in oats helps to reduce cholesterol. And you know, the question is always like, well, how much does it reduce the cholesterol? It reduces it by somewhere from 0.2 to 0.25 millimoles per liter. And don't get stuck on the numbers because depending on where you live, those numbers might not even make sense because some countries use different measurements. But even if that sounds small, that's actually a meaningful change in reducing your cardiovascular risk, especially coming from a single food. And, you know, this is an effect that has been studied for many years and has been confirmed time after time. So when somebody waves oatmeal off as like just carbs, or that it's not healthy, or that it's not nutrient dense, they're wrong. And they were actually just dismissing one of the most well-studied heart healthy, supportive foods that we have. And it's not just your heart that benefits from the oat fiber. The same fiber is also, you know, shown to reduce blood pressures associated with lower blood pressure. Um, we've talked about blood sugar, of course, but it also helps to slow digestion down. So it helps us to feel full, it helps us to feel satisfied, and it supports our gut bacteria, right? Because this type of fiber, this beta glucan, is also great food for our gut bacteria. So I don't want to say I would never call a food a superfood because I really think that that term is polarizing, but I think we can all say with confidence that there is no merit to the claim to say that oatmeal isn't healthy.

Beta Glucan And Gut Benefits

Jenn Salib Huber 13:26

So I've been talking about beta glucan, and I wanted to spend a bit more time talking about it because this is actually the part that makes that sets oats apart from some other grains. And I don't want to call beta glucan magical because nutrition doesn't need magic, it needs evidence. But beta glucan has a pretty impressive resume. This is a soluble fiber. So when we mix soluble fiber with water, and when we mix oats with water, as anybody probably has has experienced, it forms kind of like this gel-like substance. And even though the word gel-like doesn't sound appetizing, stay with me because that gel is what slows down the digestion, slows how quickly food leaves our stomach, it slows how quickly glucose gets into our bloodstream, and it also helps to bind to those cholesterol-containing bile acids, which is the reason why oats help to lower cholesterol. So our gut bacteria, though, which like to feed on fibers. So fiber, by definition, is a carbohydrate that we don't digest, but our gut bacteria absolutely love it, and they ferment this beta-glucan into the compounds that are called short-chain fatty acids, which helps to support not only the health of our colon, but there's research to support that these benefits actually extend beyond digestion. And there is research looking at inflammation and cancer prevention, but that's definitely an area that we're still learning about. So before I answer some of the questions that you sent me, I also want to touch on why oats keep showing up in health research. And it isn't because dietitians and researchers are in the pocket of big oat. It's because they're affordable, they're easy to study. People actually eat them in real life. And it's hard to study nutrition and food, especially when it might be things that people don't eat every day. You know, it makes the data less reliable. And so when we have something that people already eat, it makes it easier and more reliable to study. And over and over we see improvements in health. And it's not because oats are magical, but because they're simple, fiber-rich foods, and they fit into lots of different eating patterns. And as you've probably heard me say before, patterns of eating will always matter more than single foods. Okay, so now let's get to some of your

Steel Cut Rolled Instant Differences

Jenn Salib Huber 15:51

questions. And the question that I got the most is what is the difference between steel cut versus rolled oats versus instant oats? So steel cut oats, which is also called Scottish oats, depending on where you live, are essentially the oat groats or the whole grain of the oat, which have been cut into smaller pieces. This gives a much more chewier texture, but it also takes longer to cook. Rolled oats are the oat groats which have been lightly steamed to soften and they've been put through a roller. And so they are also considered a whole grain, and instant have been pre-cooked and then dried and then cut into really small pieces. So which is best? It probably won't surprise you that I'm gonna say they can all fit. If you enjoy seal cut or Scottish oats, great. If rolled oats fit your mornings better, that's also great. And while the instant may have a slightly higher glycemic response because of that kind of pre-cooking, you can offset that by adding in some fiber or protein. The nutritional differences are much, much smaller than Instagram and social media would have you believe. We're usually talking about a difference of a gram or so in protein or fiber. And as I always say, the best oatmeal is the one that you will actually eat and the one that you enjoy. So the next question was: what's the best way or your favorite way to add protein to oatmeal? If

Protein Ideas And Overnight Oats

Jenn Salib Huber 17:12

I have oats on its own, I don't find it really filling and I'm hungry an hour later. So oats do contain a small amount of protein on their own, but yes, they are mostly carbohydrate. But if you want to make your bowl more filling and satisfying, I like to top it with Greek yogurt. So if you're adding half a cup of Greek yogurt, you're gonna be adding, you know, 10 to 15 grams of protein. You can add nuts or nut butter, you can stir in seeds. I like to sometimes add half a scoop of chocolate protein powder, especially if I'm having it with bananas or strawberries. And I know lots of people who also like to stir in a scrambled egg. I admit I don't love that personally. The texture of it is a little bit off for me, but I know lots of people who love it. And I actually haven't experimented with savory oats a whole lot. It's kind of on my agenda for the fall. But if you have a favorite recipe for savory oats, I would love to hear it. Because I do get a lot of requests for savory oat recipes. So maybe that's the next trend in oatmeal. Who knows? Okay, and then the third question was cooked versus overnight oats. Is there really a difference? Not really. So there's gonna be some minor variations in some nutrients because some of the B vitamins, for example, might be more sensitive to heat, but nothing that's gonna make a real difference in your health. The biggest difference is convenience. You can prep several days of overnight oats in advance. You can put them in jars, containers, and just pop them in the fridge. Um, and contrary to what a lot of people think, you don't have to eat overnight oats cold. You can absolutely reheat them. But the difference really kind of, I think, just comes down to timing. So, but even on the stove, rolled oats only take a couple of minutes. But nutritionally, they're essentially the same.

Easy Ways To Eat More Oats

Jenn Salib Huber 18:53

So, now let's get to a question that I love answering, which is how do I actually eat more oats? So hopefully I've convinced you that oats deserve a spot in your kitchen. But if you're not already enjoying them, and I know that there are lots of oatmeal fans listening, how do you start without feeling like you're just having plain old boring oats or feeling like you have to spend a lot of time preparing it? And you know, when we hear that something is good for us, it can be really tempting to just like make the same thing on repeat and say, this is just what I'm gonna have every day because it's easy. But we're gonna get bored because we need variety. We need some, you know, we need food to be a bit interesting. So I'm gonna share some of the ways that you can add some oats into your week and hopefully won't be boring and hopefully you'll find it enjoyable. So the classic, of course, is just a warm bowl of oatmeal. And you know, I'm releasing this in the summer and it is warm, but in the fall and in the winter, there is nothing more comforting than a warm bowl of oatmeal. But if your mornings are rushed, overnight oats are 100% your friends. The night before, you know, you take uh, you know, anywhere from a few spoonfuls of oats to, you know, half a cup, and then you add it to double the amount of liquid. So whether that is milk or yogurt or whatever it is, just double it. And then you can mix it with whatever you would like, um, whether you want to mix it with some chia seeds for some extra fiber, whether you want to mix in with some fruit. Uh, one of my favorite things, thanks to a feaster in the feaster community, is adding lemon curd. But overnight oats really just take like two minutes. Um, you can also stir them raw into yogurt for a little bit of texture. You can bake with them. I love putting them in oatmeal muffins or, you know, as a crumble topping over fruit. You can even make oatmeal cookies. So oats still count, by the way, if they're in a cookie. And, you know, I'm gonna keep experimenting with savory oats. Um, so I'm gonna consider this like my public accountability, but I do know people who love adding an egg on top of it. So I mentioned stirring in an egg before, kind of while it's cooking, but also just kind of adding an egg on top of it. But the most important thing that I want you to hear is that there are options. There is no one right way or wrong way to eat oats. Just pick something that sounds good. Pick something that you're interested in. And, you know, one of the things that I talk about in my book, Eat to Thrive During Menopause, which has lots of recipes with oats, is that, you know, you need to think about what you want along with what you need. And when you're thinking about what you need, it can be really easy to feel overwhelmed by how much information is out there, which is why I describe fiber and you know, oats are a subset of that as one of the key ingredients in what I call a nutrition capsule wardrobe. And the idea is that you don't need a hundred different things or a fridge full of superfoods, you need a handful of reliable basics that are gonna do the heavy lifting for you. And oats, in my opinion, the humble. Oat is one of the most flexible ways to get more fiber and even enjoyment into your day. And in a way that I think is sustainable. And if you want some additional resources and recipes, I'm gonna pop the link to my buildable resource in the show notes. So now that we've talked about oats, probably far more than anyone thought I could ever talk about oats, I want to make sure that I leave you with what I think is the bigger picture and what I hope might be the

The Bigger Lesson About Food

Jenn Salib Huber 22:31

takeaway from today's episode. And it isn't that oatmeal is a superfood or a miracle food because it doesn't need to be. If you've reached the point where eating oatmeal takes up capacity and results in feeling unsure or takes away your confidence in what you're putting on your plate, you might have a lot of food noise. You might be overthinking it. And I'm not saying that as a you're doing something wrong. A lot of people are overthinking food, not because you're obsessed with nutrition, but because we're being trained and fed information that says every food decision has a right answer, a best answer, that we need to optimize, and that you know, every meal is an investment or uh, you know, a withdrawal in your health, and it's exhausting. And I think it's completely unnecessary. Nutrition is not a test. Our relationship with food has to be flexible, it has to be forgiving, and it has to fit into our life. The goal should never be to eat perfectly. I think the goal should be to spend less time thinking about food so that you can spend more time living your life. So I want to leave you with this. I wonder how much mental energy you've spent this year wondering whether your food or what was on your plate is good enough. So maybe I really am the chief defender of oatmeal. Um, as I've, you know, just spent the last however many minutes kind of talking about oatmeal and why I love it and why I think it's so great. But if you have listened to this whole episode, you hopefully will also know that it's not just about the oats. It's about what happens when we are surrounded by so much conflicting nutrition advice that even a bowl of oatmeal starts to feel tricky. So if you can relate to any of this, if you've stood in your kitchen wondering, is this healthy? Should I be eating more protein? Is this going to spike my blood sugar? About oatmeal or anything? Or

Stop Overthinking Food Challenge Invite

Jenn Salib Huber 24:36

if you have spent so much time on Instagram saving posts about nutrition and never feeling like you know which one is right, then you're exactly who I created the Stop Overthinking Food Challenge for. This is the free training that I'm offering in July. I always offer some free training in January and July. And this year we are going to stop overthinking food together. Over five days, it's completely free. I want to help quiet some of the food noise together. And I want you to discover why overthinking food isn't about your willpower or your discipline, and you'll learn what actually matters for your health, and so you can stop worrying about every single food decision. I'm gonna help you build simple, satisfying meals without any of the perfectionism that you see on social media. And I want to help you reconnect with your body's own cues so that you can learn to trust yourself. And I hope that you'll leave with a filter that will help you evaluate nutrition advice and so that you can just feel more confident when you see something and say, I'm gonna pass on that. So the next time someone on social media tells you breakfast is toxic, you'll know how to think it through without spiraling. By the end of the week, my hope is that you'll spend less time Googling, less time worrying, and less time just trying to eat perfectly and more time trusting yourself. Because confidence doesn't come from having all the answers, it comes from knowing that you can think through information. Because there's always going to be another headline about food, and that's a skill that you can use for the rest of your life. So we're doing this live in July, but if you're listening after that, check the show notes because I'm going to be sharing a resource that you can access year-round that will help you stop overthinking food. So go to www.menopausnutritionist.ca slash challenge to join us and save your spot. We get started on July 20th. Thanks so much for tuning in

Wrap Up And How To Support

Jenn Salib Huber 26:32

to this 200th episode of the Midlife Feast. That's it for this season. We're taking a break for summer, so I will see you all in September. Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Midlife Feast. If you're ready to take the next step towards thriving in midlife, head to menopausenutritionist.ca to learn more about my one-to-one and group coaching programs, free resources, and where to get your copy of Eat to Thrive during menopause. And if you've loved today's conversation and found it helpful, please share it with a friend who needs to hear this and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. It helps so many more people just like you find their way to food freedom and midlife confidence. Until next time, remember, midlife is not the end of the story, it's the feast. Let's savor it together.