Healthy Pumpkin Bread with Oats (Low Cholesterol)

Looking for a healthy pumpkin bread that still tastes like fall? You’ve come to the right place.

This loaf is made with oats, ground flaxseed and extra virgin olive oil instead of butter, and the whole thing uses just one third of a cup of maple syrup. It’s cozy, and it makes your whole kitchen smell like fall.

Why You’ll Love This Healthy Pumpkin Bread

• Most pumpkin bread recipes use a cup of sugar or more. This one uses 1/2 cup of maple syrup
• One bowl for the dry ingredients, one for the wet, and no mixer
• It freezes well, so one loaf can last you a few weeks of snacks
• It’s dairy free, and there’s no butter in it
• The same batter makes 12 muffins if that’s easier for lunches

What’s in This Pumpkin Loaf

This healthy pumpkin bread with oats has many foods that unclog your arteries.

• Cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. The pumpkin spice, without buying a separate jar.
• Pumpkin purée. Use 100% pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling. Pie filling already has sugar and spices in it, and the loaf will come out too sweet.
• Rolled oats and ground flaxseed. These give the loaf its texture and a good dose of fibre.
• Extra virgin olive oil. In place of butter. You won’t taste it once the spices are in.
• Maple syrup. Just one third of a cup for the whole loaf.
• Eggs. Two large eggs hold it all together.

Watch The Video To See How It’s Made

Healthy Pumpkin Loaf (Healthier Than Starbucks!)

Healthy Pumpkin Bread vs a Coffee Shop Pumpkin Loaf

Per slice	This loaf	Coffee shop pumpkin loaf
Calories	289	300
Sugar	11 g	29 g
Fibre	3 g	1 g
Sodium	131 mg	240 mg

I love a coffee shop treat as much as anyone, and all foods can fit in a heart healthy diet. This loaf just means you can have pumpkin bread on a regular Tuesday without thinking twice.

Why This Pumpkin Bread Is Good for Your Heart

Oats and Soluble Fibre

Oats are one of the sticky, or viscous, fibre foods in the Portfolio Diet, an eating pattern built specifically to lower LDL cholesterol (1). Viscous fibre soaks up water and forms a gel as it moves through your gut, and that gel helps carry cholesterol out of your body instead of back into your blood.

The Portfolio Diet aims for about 20 grams of viscous fibre a day, and it counts that one component as lowering LDL by around 5 to 10% (1). One slice of pumpkin bread won’t get you there on its own. What it does is make one of your snacks count toward it.

If you’re new to it, my guide to the Portfolio Diet walks you through all of it.

Olive Oil Instead of Butter

Swapping butter for olive oil swaps saturated fat for monounsaturated fat. That’s exactly the change the newest American cholesterol guidelines recommend to lower LDL cholesterol (2). In a loaf you’d never know the difference.

If You’re Living With Diabetes

This loaf keeps the added sugar low, and the fibre from the oats, flaxseed and pumpkin slows down how quickly it hits your blood sugar. Having your slice with some protein, like a spoonful of Greek yogurt or a small handful of walnuts, helps even more. [CHECK: your call as a Certified Diabetes Educator on this line and on the carbohydrates per slice (32 g from your numbers).]

Tips for the Best Healthy Pumpkin Bread

• Don’t overmix. Stir until you can’t see dry flour, then stop.
• Don’t skip the 10 minute rest. It’s the difference between moist and dry.
• Check it with a toothpick in the very centre. The edges finish first.
• Let it cool for 10 minutes in the pan before you turn it out, or it can break.

Swaps and Storage

• Gluten free: use a 1 to 1 gluten free flour blend and certified gluten free oats.
• Mix ins: 1/3 cup of chopped walnuts or dark chocolate chips.
• No maple syrup: use 1/3 cup brown sugar and add 2 tbsp of milk.
• Storage: airtight on the counter for 3 days, in the fridge for a week, or sliced and frozen for 3 months.

Other Low Cholesterol Desserts

Final Thoughts

This healthy pumpkin bread is everything you want in a fall loaf: cozy, easy, and made with oats, flaxseed and olive oil. Bake it once and it’ll be on repeat until the pumpkin runs out.

If you try it, rate this recipe and let me know what you think. I’d love to hear from you!