THE MIGHTY OAT

I notice when I keep getting drawn to purchase the same food over and over, without knowing exactly why. And this time-it’s been oatmeal. I have rolled oats, steel cuts oats, oat groats, organic oats, oat grain, oat flour, oat bran and instant organic oatmeal. Oh, and Irish oatmeal. Hmmmm. I wondered what was going on as I noticed all these oat products in my cupboard! What was I trying to tell myself?

My mother is English, so oatmeal was a pretty common breakfast at our house when I was growing up, and I like it. Was that all there was to it? This morning, I decided to have some organic rolled oats oatmeal. As I was eating it, which was extremely easy-just add hot water, stir, and I added some blueberries, strawberries and a dash of honey-yum-I wondered about it.

What exactly does ROLLED mean? I was curious about the process, and what sort of nutritional value I could find in oats. Is “rolled” ok for raw foodists? Or is steel cut better? What do they do to the grain? I realized that even though oats are a pretty common part of our dietary language (we grew up with Quaker afterall) I didn’t have a clue about how it was made.

First some OAT facts. Oats have a ph of 6-6.5 which is as high as almonds, and are also a source of protein like quinoa. That’s good news for us! They are an adaptogen grain, and claim to be the only one that is. What does that mean? Adaptogenic foods will do whatever the body needs, modifying itself to the body’s requirements. They improve the body’s resistance to STRESS, which is always a good thing. They stabilize blood sugars, help the thyroid, and reduces cholesterol, as well as soothing the digestive tract.

Well, we mothers know that one-if the baby had an upset stomach, we used to give them oatmeal and crushed bananas-remember that one? Oatmeal will loosen constipated bowels, or help with diarrhea. That’s an adaptogen. It does it all.

They are rich in silicon which is good for our bones, and you can use oatmeal to soothe the skin-AVEENO is just ground oatmeal that you sprinkle in the bathwater. It smells like you are lying in a bowl of oatmeal. I used it when both the boys had chicken pox. It works great! You can also use oatmeal as a facial scrub. If you haven’t tried this, do! Rub it on your skin as an exfoliant, or make a paste with a bit of honey and spread it on, warm, as a facial. Wash off in 20 min. Your skin will feel awesome, even though you will feel like an oatmeal cookie. By the way-the old Latin name for Oat was “Avena”. Think they knew that when they picked a product name-probably! But I digress…

To really get the nutritional value from oats, the grain needs to be steamed to get the two outer inedible hulls off which then leaves the whole groat. Then we have choices galore.

STEEL CUT OATS-or scotch/Irish oats-are natural, and unrefined. Steel cut means exactly that. They are cross cut with steel blades, and a small bit of heat. Get the fine cut-it “cooks” faster when you add some hot water, cover and let it sit. Then just stir in fruit and eat! This is what Pam mentioned earlier, and I agree, it’s not bad at all. Gritty. So if you want texture and miss grains, this might be a good breakfast alternative.

WHOLE OATS are probably the best because they retain the bran and the germ and they can be SPROUTED! Yeah! If you sprout oats, they are a great source of B vitamins and minerals. So far I haven’t been good with sprouting myself-I forget to rinse and then have to throw out muck…still experimenting with that. But I am loving purchased sprouts and add them to everything I can think of. ew-except oatmeal. Not a good combination I am thinking...

OAT GROATS are hulled and roasted but seem to still have the full nutritional value. You can add them to fruit smoothies. I’ve tried them, as well as hemp seed, and flaxseed meal. In the smoothie-they all taste about the same to me. Anyone else?

OAT BRAN-hey if you need MORE fiber that’s what this is for, but with all the fresh we are eating this is hardly a problem.

OAT FLOUR-use it the same as you would use wheat flour, but it doesn’t have as much gluten. I wonder about using oat flour in dehydrating recipes to make that pizza crust or crackers? I’m going to experiment with it and I will let you know how that goes. So far, I haven’t been thrilled with my dehydrating experiments.

The scoop on ROLLED-the process is done with steam and high heat. Nutritional value is again sacrificed for speed of cooking later. It’s probably not our best choice.