Is Oatmeal Healthy? Here ’s What the Experts Say

Oatmeal is a near-universally beloved breakfast. While it has historically been enjoyed across Europe, Russia and the U.S., oatmeal is rapidly gaining popularity in developing countries because of its affordability and its perceived health properties. But is oatmeal really good for you? To answer that question, it’s first important to differentiate among all the different types of oatmeal. There’s steel-cut and rolled, quick-cooking and instant. But all of these terms refer to different methods of preparing hulled oats for cooking. “You can’t eat an unprocessed oat straight from the field,” says Joanne Slavin, a professor of food science and nutrition at the University of Minnesota. Harvested oats are wrapped in a hard husk that must be removed before cooking and consumption, Slavin says. When that husk removal is done, what’s left is the oat’s groat—which is its entire bran, endosperm and germ, the three components that constitute a whole grain. You can buy and cook whole oat groats. But all other types of oatmeal involve some type of processing to facilitate cooking. Rolled oats, for example, are simply groats that have been steamed and smashed flat. Quick-cooking and instant oatmeal are typically rolled oats that have been further flattened, steamed or precooked to cut down on prep time. Steel-cut oats are groats that have been sliced up into small pieces instead of being rolled. But regardless of which you choose, Slavin s...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Diet/Nutrition healthytime Source Type: news