Which Oat Bran Can You Eat on the Dukan Diet?

The Dukan diet is the creation of Dr. Pierre Dukan, a French neurologist with a specialty in clinical nutrition. A low-carb diet for weight loss, its success is attributed to the development of a customized program tailored to the specific needs of each person, which is provided daily through an interactive, online coaching system. Before starting any diet regimen, consult your physician or a dietitian. A discussion with your health care provider is particularly important if you have a chronic medical condition or take medications.

Dukan Diet Description

The Dukan diet features low-fat, high-protein menu choices and encourages the consumption of whole, natural foods. Unlike other popular diets, the Dukan diet does not involve counting calories or carbohydrates or other units of nutritional value at any time. A list containing 100 permissible foods is provided to you to choose from, which means it is not necessary to purchase prepackaged foods or subscribe to a food delivery service. Medical News Today explains that you can eat as much as you want, as long as you stick to these 100 foods 1. However, there is one particular food featured in this diet that is considered key to weight loss -- oat bran.

The Four Phases

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The Dukan diet has four phases 1. The first, known as the Attack Phase, involves eating a variety of high-protein foods with oat bran as the only carbohydrate. The subsequent phases, dubbed Cruise, Consolidation and Permanent Stabilization, progressively add increasing amounts of oat bran and other foods, such as:

• vegetables
  
• previously “forbidden” foods as celebratory markers

The final phase is a lifelong commitment to regular exercise, sticking to a high-protein menu plan once a week and consuming 3 tablespoons of oat bran every day.

Oat Bran Benefits

Because oat bran is a form of soluble fiber capable of absorbing 25 times its volume in water, it decreases intestinal transit time while promoting a sense of fullness. According to Dr. Dukan, the gel-like consistency of soluble oat bran in the gastrointestinal tract breaks down into glucose, amino acids and fatty acids that lower caloric intake and reduce the absorption of fats.

Type of Oat Bran

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The key is to include pure oat bran in your diet, not oats labeled as “rolled oats” or “steel cut.” Rolled or steel cut oats are milled so that the bran is removed from the grain, while 100 percent oat bran is intact. Natural health food stores and many supermarkets stock pure oat bran in the cereal section.

Considerations

While there is little doubt that oat bran is good for you, significantly reducing your intake of carbohydrates for any period of time may be detrimental to your health if you have a metabolic disorder, such as diabetes. Similarly, restricting carbohydrate intake to oat bran exclusively to reduce fat absorption may also inhibit the absorption of certain medications. See your doctor before starting the Dukan diet to make sure this program is right for you.