spotlight on…oats

Love my Mother but dang the woman cannot make a bowl of oatmeal to save her life.  Growing up I thought oatmeal was suppose to be the consistency of thin, watery soup (think prison food.) It wasn’t until I was 9 and visiting a friend when I learned that a good bowl of oatmeal “should be thick enough to stop a bullet” as the commercial saying goes.  Eventually I learned to fend for myself and make oatmeal on my own, thick and hearty and not the least bit soupy.

Oatmeal is quite popular among the athletic crowd and you’d be hard-pressed to pick up a fitness magazine without finding a recipe featuring rolled oats.  This is because oats are an excellent source of complex carbohydrates and soluble fibre which promote slow digestion and blood sugar stability. 

Different types of processing produce different types of oat products including¹:

• Oat groats: unflattened kernels that are good for using as a breakfast cereal or for stuffing
• Steel-cut oats: featuring a dense and chewy texture, they are produced by running the grain through steel blades that thinly slices them.
• Old-fashioned oats: have a flatter shape that is the result of their being steamed and then rolled.
• Quick-cooking oats: processed like old-fashioned oats, except they are cut finely before rolling
• Instant oatmeal: produced by partially cooking the grains and then rolling them very thin. Oftentimes, sugar, salt and other ingredients are added to make the finished product.
• Oat bran: the outer layer of the grain that resides under the hull. While oat bran is found in rolled oats and steel-cut oats, it may also be purchased as a separate product that can be added to recipes or cooked to make a hot cereal.
• Oat flour: used in baking, it is oftentimes combined with wheat or other gluten-containing flours when making leavened bread.

Some interesting oat facts:

• Contain a form of dietary fibre called beta-glucan which has been found to help lower cholesterol levels.²
• While they do not contain gliadin, the gluten protein found in wheat, barley and rye, they do contain glutelin which may cause allergic reactions in some people.³  While they are technically gluten-free there may be cross-contamination in the growing and manufacturing process so unless explicitly labelled gluten-free, they may be contaminated.
• Seeds can be sprouted and fed to cats as “cat grass.”
• Can be used as an oatmeal bath, grind up 1 cup of oatmeal to a fine consistency and add to a tub of warm water.  Is known for soothing dry or irritated skin and has a calming effect on the mind.
• Are a good source of the B vitamins thiamin, riboflavin and B6 and the minerals calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc.⁴

Awesome oat recipes:

• Baked Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal
• Cherry Chocolate Bomb Vegan Overnight Oats
• Pumpkin Seed Oatmeal Cookies
• Savoury Steel-Cut Oats

References
1. Mateljan, George.  The World’s Healthiest Foods.  Seattle, WA: GMF Publishing, 2007.
2. Mateljan, George. The World’s Healthiest Foods. Seattle, WA: GMF Publishing, 2007.
3. Woods, Rebecca.  The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia.  New York: Penguin, 2010.
4. “Oats Nutrition.”  Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board. Date unknown. 3 Jan 12. <http://www.hgca.com/content.output/561/561/Food%20and%20Nutrition/Nutritional%20Information/Oats%20Nutrition.mspx>