04/03/2026
Porridge for breakfast - good or bad? (Social media has made this more confusing than it should be!)
🥣 Is porridge “bad” for blood sugar balance?
For most people, no. Porridge can be a brilliantly nourishing breakfast - but how you make it & what you pair with it matters.
Oats contain a soluble fibre called beta-glucan, which has strong evidence for helping to lower LDL (“bad”) cholesterol when eaten regularly (30g+ whole rolled oats daily has a meaningful effect).
That same beta-glucan increases the “viscosity” (thickness) of what’s in your gut, which can slow gastric emptying and reduce the rise in blood glucose and insulin after a meal - in a similar mechanistic way to GLP-1 agonist weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Mounjaro.
🥜 Oat soluble fibre (the “gloopy” type) can help p**p move smoothly through the large intestine.
🥜 The more processed the oats, the faster they’re digested. Steel-cut / larger flakes / whole rolled oats give a slower glucose response than instant oats.
🥜 Adding protein & extra fibre to a carbohydrate-based meal (like porridge) reduces the early glucose rise (1st hour or so after eating).
🥣 What’s the “best” porridge?
Porridge with nuts, berries or pear is a great base (fibre + good fats + polyphenols). To avoid blood sugar spikes, the simplest tweak is to “anchor” the oats with more protein & fibre.
🍓 Cook oats with milk or a calcium-fortified plant milk, I like soy milk.
🍓 Add greek-style high protein yoghurt / skyr / kefir, or have alongside.
🍓 Stir in 1 tbsp hulled h**p, chia and/or ground flax seeds (fibre + healthy fats + protein).
🍓 Add 20g mixed nuts - you might be adding some, but not enough.
🍓 Choose rolled/large-flake or steel-cut oats over instant oats.
🍓 Portion size : eat a smaller bowl of oat porridge (~30g oats) add more protein & fibre.
🥣 When might porridge not suit?
If you notice you’re hungry again quickly, feel shaky, or get a mid-morning slump, that’s a cue to increase protein and fibre and/or reduce the oat portion - or swap to an egg-based breakfast.
