Students, fashionable women, fitness people, in the kitchen of these people, the essential thing is oats! Oatmeal is easy to prepare, nutritious, healthy and cost-effective. What is the nutritional value of such a favorite food? What’s the difference between oatmeal, oatmeal and steel cut oats? In this article, we will talk about oats.
What is the nutritional value of oats?
Once upon a time in Greek and Roman times, oats were treated as a weed, and people thought it was wheat after it had been infected with a disease. It wasn’t until the 1600’s that oats became an important crop in Northern Europe.
The endosperm, germ and bran parts of oats do not come off well, so most of the oats, even if they are processed, are only hulled, and the rest of the parts are better preserved. Compared with the refined white rice that we often eat, oats have more advantages in nutrition.
① Dietary fiber: oats are rich in dietary fiber, insoluble dietary fiber content of up to 6 grams / 100 grams, 10 times that of rice. According to the data in the USDA nutritional database, the total dietary fiber content of oats is 10.6 grams.
Insoluble dietary fiber in oats can stimulate the mechanical movement of the gastrointestinal tract and promote defecation; while soluble dietary fiber can absorb water and expand to enhance the feeling of satiety, and can also make the stool softer and prevent constipation. Rich dietary fiber can also prevent colorectal cancer, beneficial to intestinal health.
② Protein: According to the data in the Chinese Food Composition Table, the protein content of oats is 10.1g/100g, which is 1.3 times that of rice.
Moreover, most cereals are low in lysine, which is the first limiting amino acid of cereals, which leads to less efficient protein absorption in most cereals. But oats in this point has a unique advantage, not only higher protein content, but also contains more rich lysine, is wheat, rice, more than 2 times, protein absorption and utilization rate is better.
③ mineral potassium: oats are rich in potassium, is 3.1 times the rice. Regular consumption of potassium-rich foods, blood pressure control is very helpful.
The “miraculous” effects of oats
When it comes to the efficacy of oats, the biggest credit goes to the β-glucan in oats, which is an important bioactive component of oats, and after absorbing water, the state is viscous and belongs to water-soluble dietary fiber.
There are differences in the β-glucan content of oats grown in different regions, mostly around 3%, and the higher ones can reach more than 8%. Because of it, oats have a variety of health benefits of the “magic” effect.
①Blood sugar control: β-glucan in oats not only enhances insulin sensitivity, but also has a high viscosity after absorbing water, which can slow down the speed of food emptying in the stomach, reduce the hydrolysis of carbohydrates by digestive enzymes, and inhibit the diffusion and absorption of glucose in the small intestine, which slows down the absorption of glucose into the bloodstream, slowing down the speed of the rise of postprandial blood glucose, and helping to maintain stable blood glucose.
If you add β-glucan components in other foods, on average, each gram of β-glucan will be able to reduce the GI value of the food 4 units, which is important for the development of low GI food.
② control of blood lipids: eat more oats can reduce the body’s level of LDL cholesterol, that is, everyone’s mouth, “bad cholesterol”, is conducive to lowering total cholesterol, and thus reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) showed that eating 3g of oats or barley β-glucan per day can help lower blood cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.
Some studies have shown that 3g of oat β-glucan can reduce total plasma cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels by 5% to 10% in patients with normal or high cholesterol, and 3g of oat β-glucan is equivalent to the intake of about 100g of oats.
③Weight control: Oat beta-glucan is helpful for weight loss and can reduce abdominal fat. Especially, it has obvious effect on lowering body weight, lowering body mass index, lowering body fat and lowering waist-hip ratio.
Moreover, β-glucan has the effect of water absorption and expansion, which can occupy more stomach volume and enhance the feeling of satiety, which is conducive to controlling appetite and avoiding overeating, which is also helpful for weight loss.
④ Intestinal health: oat β-glucan can improve the environment of intestinal flora, after being fermented by microorganisms in the colon, it will be fermented by lactobacilli and bifidobacteria in the cecum, thus producing bifidobacteria that are beneficial to human health.
Moreover, β-glucan is a kind of prebiotics, which can promote the proliferation of beneficial intestinal bacteria. Oatmeal is also very powerful in protecting gastrointestinal health!
⑤ Enhance immunity: β-glucan can bind to the surface receptors of immune cells, activate and regulate immune cells, stimulate immune response, and enhance the body’s immunity. It can also activate macrophages to attack tumor cells by regulating the activity of lymphocytes and natural killer cells, which also plays an important role in anti-cancer.
(6) Regulate mood: The content of vitamin B1 in oats is three times that of rice, and insufficient intake of vitamin B1 can make people depressed, nervous and anxious. Eating 100 grams of oats can meet 33% of the body’s daily vitamin B1 needs, which is helpful in improving mood.
Some studies also mentioned that oats can help sleep, it can induce the production of sleep hormones – serotonin and melatonin, ease the tight muscles, smooth the tension, relieve insomnia symptoms.
(7) Anti-fatigue: regular consumption of oats can enhance exercise endurance. Animal experiments have shown that the intake of oats β-glucan and oat protein can significantly improve the animal running and swimming hours.
At this glance, the health benefits of oats are quite a lot, it is worth having!
What’s the difference between different oats?
Whole Oats
Whole oats are oats that have only the outer shell removed and the rest of the oats have not undergone any processing. Nutritional retention is more complete, and the dietary fiber content is also higher.
This kind of oats is also often referred to as naked oats, the fruit is exposed, can be peeled off by itself, easy to process, there is no external hard shell, is China’s main cultivars, accounting for more than 90%, in the Jin, Hebei and Mongolia producing areas known as “oat”. The remaining 10% or so for the skin oats, skin oats is the main cultivars of foreign countries, the skin of the fruit wrapped very tight, not easy to peel, with a hard shell.
In terms of nutritional value, the starch content of skin oats is significantly higher than that of naked oats, the protein content of naked oats is significantly higher than that of skin oats, and the β-glucan content of naked oats is higher than that of skin oats.
Whole oats are hard and need to be soaked properly before cooking, soak them in the refrigerator one night in advance, and then make oatmeal rice the next day with rice in the ratio of oatmeal:rice=1:3.
Oat Germ Rice
Whole oats after further processing to remove the outer layer of the skin is oat germ rice, also known as oat kernel, the appearance becomes “frosted” feeling, not as bright as oat rice look, dietary fiber content will be reduced with the removal of the skin. And this kind of oats is not very good preservation, easy to oxidize and deteriorate, you need to buy less at a time, eat up as soon as possible.
Steel cut oats
Just cut oats is to use a steel knife to cut the whole oats directly into 2-4 sections after the broken oats. Compared to whole oats, steel cut oats are easier to cook faster.
Raw Oatmeal
Raw oatmeal is obtained after washing, drying and flaking whole oats and requires further cooking before consumption.
Quick Cooking Oatmeal
Raw oatmeal that has been further processed into semi-cooked oatmeal is quick-cooking oatmeal, also called fast-cooking oatmeal. It takes less time to cook than raw oatmeal, usually two to three minutes, and is easily cooked.
Instant Oatmeal
Most office workers or student parties eat instant oatmeal, which is easy to eat and saves time, and can be eaten directly after only about 5 minutes of brewing with hot water or hot milk.
Instant oatmeal is oats first by higher temperature steam treatment to make starch partially pasteurized, and then cut sections through the gap smaller roller mill, the destruction of the natural structure of the larger, can quickly absorb water in boiling water expansion, more easily hydrolyzed by enzymes on the impact of blood sugar is also greater, the GI value of the higher for 75, belonging to the high GI food.
Therefore, to better smooth postprandial blood sugar, do not just soak instant oatmeal to eat, but also with some vegetables and protein foods, such as eggs / milk, fruit cucumber / Virgin fruit.
In addition, there are many fancy oatmeal on the market, in addition to oats in the ingredient list will have vegetable oil, sugar, phytolacca and other ingredients, although the taste is very attractive, but the nutrition is greatly reduced, it is not recommended to eat often. Selection of instant oatmeal, it is recommended to choose the ingredient list only oats can be.
Summary
Oats are a healthy choice of staple food, suitable for both cooking rice and porridge, with a Q-bouncy texture, filling and nutritious.
