When You Eat Peanut Butter With Oatmeal, This Is What Happens To Your Body

A packet of cinnamon spice oatmeal makes a quick, easy snack just before heading to the gym in the morning. With just 130 calories, the 32 grams of carbs will help fuel your workout, and 3 grams of fiber and 4 grams of protein will keep you full (but not stuffed) during your workout. The only problem is the 10 grams of added sugar. Even though you'll probably burn them off during your workout, too much sugar in your diet can result in high blood pressure, inflammation, or diabetes.

Oatmeal isn't just good before your workout. Some hearty oatmeal after your workout can replenish your body with carbs from whole grains to help with recovery. You'll need to make some tweaks, though. Rather than reach for the flavored oatmeal, you can flavor it with something you already have in your cupboard. Adding two tablespoons of peanut butter to unflavored oatmeal saves you those 10 grams of sugar while adding 8 grams of protein. This complete meal gives you an optimal ratio of protein, fat, and carbohydrates for weight loss.

Recent diet trends will have you eating crazy amounts of fat or protein, but a more balanced approach is better for your weight loss goals. You need some protein in your diet to preserve and repair muscles, so aim for between 20% and 30% of your daily calories to come from this macronutrient, suggests Cedars Sinai. The oatmeal and peanut butter combo gets 15% of its total calories from protein, so you know you'll probably need to add a little more protein to your lunch or dinner.

Carbs fuel your body and brain to support your activities and body functions. Rather than processed carbs or sugar, you'll want to choose carbs from whole grains such as oatmeal. Carbs should account for about 40% to 50% of your calories for the day. Oatmeal flavored with peanut butter rather than sugar puts your carbs at 38% for this 356-calorie meal.

Fat helps fill you up so you're not tempted to snack between meals. Not all fats are alike. Saturated fats can increase your risk of high cholesterol, but unsaturated fats from nuts, seeds, and fatty fish reduce cholesterol and inflammation. Although the oatmeal and peanut butter pairing gets 47% of its calories from fat, just 3.7 grams of fat come from saturated fat. Aim for less than 30% of your daily calories to come from fat.

Not only can oatmeal with peanut butter help you lose weight, but these foods individually also improve your health. According to a 2020 article in Nutrition Reviews, oatmeal has a significant amount of beta-glucans, which is a soluble fiber that can reduce your cholesterol and lower your risk of heart disease. Beta-glucans are also good for your gut health. Your gut bacteria feed on beta-glucans to produce short-chain fatty acids that can ease IBS and diarrhea. Refined grains and cereals that are high on the glycemic index (GI) can spike your blood sugar, but replacing these grains with oatmeal can help control your diabetes.

When choosing peanut butter, be sure to look for natural peanut butter that has just peanuts and a little bit of salt. Some peanut butter has sugar, hydrogenated vegetable oil, and other ingredients that can make it unhealthy. Peanuts provide you with B vitamins, magnesium, zinc, and selenium, but the phytosterols and polyphenols can reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and cognitive decline, per a 2022 review in Future Foods. Also, grinding peanuts with their skin can boost the nutritional content of your peanut butter; the amount of the antioxidant resveratrol that this type of peanut butter contains has been said to nearly match that of grape juice.