Can porridge for breakfast make me feel terrible all day?

[quickkimchi]

To reduce my cholesterol I've swapped my usual breakfast (boiled egg or two, slice of buttered toast) for porridge with seeds and fruit (apple, prune or dried apricot). The rest of the day I eat and exercise normally, same kinds of meals as usual, lots of green veg and pulses, sometimes a bit of meat. No other changes that I'm aware of.

Since changing my breakfast I find I feel hungrier sooner, I'm snacking more and by evening I feel awful - tearful, frustrated, cross, disproportionate to whatever I'm dealing with at the time. Can this be due to the change at breakfast? Or is it more likely to be something else (eg lockdown + perimenopause)? And if it is down to porridge, can I adapt it (more fat? more protein?) to work for me?

I also love an Indian style omelette- chopped fresh chilli and finely sliced onion added to the egg mix and the omelette fried in a little mustard oil. Yum.

I put a scoop of protein powder in my porridge and I've found that really helps fill me up for longer.

Weeds that's interesting about saturated fats, you mean like hydrogenated vegetable oil, palm oils etc as opposed to animal fat? I eat very little processed food and avoid palm oil for ethical reasons, I do eat meat but usually use it more like a flavouring (chicken soup or a bit of bacon with lot of veg and lentils) than a slab of meat if you see what I mean (DH is a lapsed vegetarian and I used to be vegan).

I can see I need to do more research, I just don't know much about the current science. Probably a lot of what I think I know about it is via my mum who has very high cholesterol (incl high hdl) and had a stroke.

Thanks again for the input, really helpful.

I'm going to try chia seeds on my porridge. Are they hugely calorific?

I'm pretty sure food cholesterol doesn't translate into blood cholesterol.

Argh protein powder. It did cross my mind but I've never been able to eat it, the smell puts me off. What kind do you use OneFor?

I don't think eggs are a problem when you have high cholesterol.
It's more important to eat plenty of good cholesterol as that can compensate for your high bad cholesterol.

Is it proper porridge, from whole oats? Interesting that others have had the same reaction though, just goes to show all our bodies are different! It's a shame, as oats can lower cholesterol from what I've read.
Make sure you avoid prawns, as they're v high in cholesterol.
Eggs are really v good for you, but if I ate 14 a week, I'd have problems evacuating

I thought eggs had the “good” cholesterol these days? I can’t keep up.

@joystir59 your eggs/carrots/tomatoes thing sounds divine!

joystir I think you're right in that it isn't straightforward, some people have high cholesterol that can't be controlled with diet, but soluble fibre does remove it from the blood so eating more oats might reduce it even if eggs don't necessarily raise it (I think).

Mechant yes, proper oats. I'm allergic to prawns sadly, as they were a good restaurant go-to (eg prawn curries) when not eating much meat.

I'm the same with porridge, I feel so hungry by about 10.30 if I have porridge for breakfast.
I used to do quite a lot of long distance running and everyone insisted porridge was the best thing beforehand but it didnt work for me.
I use normal oats (not instant porridge) and have tried it with water, milk or half and half and never found it filled me up til lunch ....or even 11am

@quickkimchi I use PBN vanilla protein powder which is quite sweet, there are unflavoured ones about if it's the smell that puts you off.

Porridge also makes me feel really hungry! Always found it so odd as I've always thought it's meant to keep you full for a long time.

Try adding a scoop of protein, berries and some nuts/seeds.

I think the 'good cholesterol' (hdl I guess?) is present in the blood, I don't think you can eat good cholesterol. I mean, man made saturated fats are bad, as are palm and coconut oil. I think the good fats you often hear about are just unsaturated fats?
Feel free to fact check/correct me, I'm just regurgitating what I think I've been told re my mum's high cholesterol.
I don't know if accepted current science will defend animal fats as 'good' for cholesterol, I thought that was on the margins. I have a friend who is keto, her cholesterol is normal and she feels amazing, so that's all very real and interesting, but I doubt my GP is going to tell me to increase my meat and cream intake, if only

OP This article says that it's saturated fats and (even worse) transfats, not cholesterol, that raise cholesterol levels in humans. (We also make cholesterol in our livers.)
It says that - compared eg with butter, cheese or beef - eggs are low in saturated fats. In fact, it seems to think that eggs are a good thing, because they contain several vitamins and many other micronutrients. they are relatively low in saturated fat.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6024687/
Obviously, no-one can give medical advice here. But it might be worth asking your medical professional(s).

Sorry - same phrase appears twice. Over-enthusiastic cut-and-paste!

The protein powder I had was unflavoured pea protein, it made the kitchen smell like a health food shop from the 80s. Sat in the cupboard and went in the bin eventually, I couldn't get it past my nose.
Mechant as you brought it up, I will say there has been a change in that department, I'm wary of straying too far from home I feel like my guts are filled with lead.

Stick with your toast and eggs, you can get oats in another way like make some healthy flapjacks or drink oat milk or something.

flora thank you! I was a bit shaky on the difference between sat fat, trans fat and cholesterol, that's a very helpful explanation, will read. Also good news for my eggy breakfast and big egg energy

Yes I absolutely love boiled eggs for a quick lunch, but more than once or twice a week, and I suffer!
Perhaps scrambled with spinach would be a good way? (Or keep on the prunes and apricots?)

Anyway- well done for making changes, and I hope you're successful in lowering it

Saturated fats are ones that are hard at room temperature as a rule of thumb.
Saturated fats can be naturally occurring, or processed from polyunsaturated fats.
Fats are triglycerides - they consist of a glycerol molecule and three fatty acids, forming the fat molecule. The fatty acids are basically long chains of carbon atoms, with hydrogen atoms attached. A saturated fat has two hydrogen atoms per carbon, one on each side, mono or poly unsaturated have some carbon atoms which don't have hydrogen attached. To harden the fat, it's treated with hydrogen but this causes hydrogen atoms to be on either side of a double bond (trans) not the same side (cis) as would occur in nature. These fats appear to be worse for health than natural saturated or partially saturated fats.
There is another process called interesterification, which can also harden fats, but doesn't cause trans fats to form (uses a catalyst to re-arrange the fatty acids).
If you put olive oil in the fridge you can see little white fat globules form, these are the monounsaturated (good for you) and the polys stay liquid.
So animal fats (and as you mentioned, coconut and palm oil) can have negative effects on health, but they are OK in moderation. Trans fats aren't used much nowerdays to be honest, but you will normally see the "total fat, of which saturates" figure on the nutrition panel and the ingredient list will state e. g. "hydrogenated vegetable oil" if processed fats (therefore trans) are used.

Honestly don't cut out eggs if you're trying to lower your cholesterol. That's been debunked. As a pp said, it's saturated fat you need to watch.