What Do People from America’s Blue Zones Region in Loma Linda Eat for Breakfast?

We’ve all heard countless times that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But in choosing what to eat in the morning, we’d do well to follow the example of residents in the Southern California blue zones region of Loma Linda.

Loma Linda is home to about 9,000 Seventh-day Adventists, the health-minded church founded in the 1840s. Adventists today still follow the church’s plant-based diet guidelines, and studies have shown that they live up to 10 years longer than the rest of us, longevity attributable to their diet, exercise, and clean-living choices.

Loma Linda centenarian Marge Jetton rode between 6 and 8 miles on her stationary bike every day except the Sabbath. She took up golf at the age of 40 and, at 97, made it her mission to start volunteering again. Her other secrets to longevity? Waking up early, power walking, drinking six glasses of water before breakfast, eating oatmeal, and drinking prune juice “shooters.”

One of the most popular breakfast meals for Adventists in Loma Linda is oatmeal. By fueling up with a hearty whole-grain breakfast, Adventists give themselves a complete package of health benefits, rich in nutrients and disease-preventing phytochemicals and antioxidants.

Heart-boosting benefits

For instance, a one-cup serving of oatmeal contains about 59% of the daily recommendation of manganese for men and 76% of the daily recommendation for women. Manganese plays a part in the body’s immune system, blood clotting, and metabolizing cholesterol and blood sugar.

A single serving of oatmeal also delivers 16% of your daily vitamin B1 needs, 13% of your magnesium, phosphorus, and zinc needs, and 10% of the recommended daily iron intake.

Extensive research has shown that oats and oatmeal are heart-healthy, helping lower cholesterol and control weight. The 4 grams of fiber in a cup of cooked oatmeal confer many of these benefits, but it’s the particular type of fiber that sets oatmeal apart.

What is beta-glucan, and how does it help you?

Specifically, a type of insoluble fiber called beta-glucan helps produce cooked oatmeal’s signature starchy viscosity. When you eat oatmeal, beta-glucan coats your digestive tract, helping to slow digestion, improve blood sugar control, suppress appetite, and keep you feeling sated all morning long. 

Moreover, beta-glucan carries undigested food farther down your intestines to feed gut-friendly bacteria. As the beta-glucan breaks down and ferments, it has been shown to increase the diversity of gut microbiota, which may help relieve digestive problems like diarrhea, constipation, and irritable bowel syndrome.  

Beta-glucan also binds with cholesterol to transport it out of the body. A 2011 meta-analysis published in the journal Nutrition found that eating 3 grams of beta-glucan daily from oats lowered cholesterol by about 12 points. 

Oatmeal also contains phytonutrients like avenanthramides, found only in oats, which may have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, according to the American Heart Association. 

Why minimally processed oatmeal is better

Of course, the kind of oats you use for your oatmeal matters. While the nutritional content of minimally processed steel-cut oats, rolled oats, or even instant oats is mostly the same, steel-cut oats take longer to digest, and therefore have a lower glycemic index, meaning they raise blood sugar levels more slowly.

Using steel-cut oats as the foundation – bolstered with servings of fruit and heart-healthy nuts – Blue Zones Kitchen has crafted two complete breakfast meals inspired by the Loma Linda ethos of starting the day with a nutritional powerhouse meal. Try the Peach Pecan Steel Cut Oatmeal or Blueberry Steel Cut Oatmeal, now sold in the frozen foods aisle at a retailer near you. 

Tim Cebula is a former senior editor for Cooking Light magazine. His work has appeared in national and regional publications, including Time, Health, Food & Wine, Boston magazine, and The Boston Globe. He lives on the southern coast of Maine.