Ok, if you are anything like us, breakfast is your absolute favorite meal of the day. It marks the start of the rest of your day, so making a healthy breakfast choice will set you up for success. With so many breakfast options out there, like avo on toast, scrambled eggs, pancakes, or yogurt, it can be hard to decide what to eat and which breakfast is the healthiest option. We wanted to do some digging to find out, and one of the best breakfasts you can have is? Oatmeal. Yup. But the boring, bland, plain-tasting grain is something of the past. You can really spice up your porridge to make it the best breakfast you’ve ever had.

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Oatmeal may lower your cholesterol, which is even more reason to add it to your diet. According to Amber Ingram, RD, a registered dietician at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, “Oatmeal gives you the largest amount of soluble fiber per serving at three to four grams and has been shown in studies to help lower LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol by almost 10% if eaten daily.” Soluble fiber is water-soluble, meaning it soaks up water and helps to decrease constipation. Insoluble fiber also helps with the digestive process, and it’s important to have both. A meta-analysis of studies done on fiber which was published in The Lancet in 2019 found a strong relationship between a high fiber diet and many health benefits like lower body weight, cholesterol, and blood pressure.

Ingram says, “Breakfast is a perfect way to start the day out right, as you have an opportunity to choose many plant-based options [for fiber] to help lower LDL ‘bad’ cholesterol and raise HDL ‘good’ cholesterol. Soluble fiber is found in the skin, peels, and husks of whole grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables.” A simple bowl of oatmeal has many benefits, plus it’s easy to make. You can really up your oatmeal game by adding walnuts to give you a boost of omega-3’s, and by adding blueberries for more antioxidants. You can even add peanut butter, sliced bananas, maple syrup, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, and more to cater it to how you like.