Oatmeal oatmeal: what are the benefits and harm, how to cook and use?

Most modern nutritionists agree that humanity is taking advantage of the possibilities of the current food market to its own detriment, that is, with the broadest possibilities of organizing a healthy one, and at the same time eating tasty food, the choice falls on harmful products. At the same time, some products that used to be present literally in every home today are simply unfamiliar to many. For example, in recent years, they have started talking en masse about the benefits of oatmeal, but most people probably don’t really know what it is. Nevertheless, many experts have already called this product "food of the XXI century", and this means that it is time to recall the well-forgotten old.

If you ask older people, they will remember that this product was quite easy to buy forty years ago, but even then it was obvious that it was about to come out of widespread use. Indeed, for several decades, oatmeal oatmeal, known to our ancestors for many centuries, has been subject to oblivion, but today it is making new progress on the road to winning mass consumer love.

In a logical way, we can conclude that the product is called oat flour because it must first be poured.However, the common belief that oatmeal and oatmeal are one and the same is incorrect. More precisely, visually, these products may seem identical to an unknowing person, but the interpretation suggests a slightly more complicated manufacturing process. So, to begin with, the oat kernels were soaked in water for several hours, and then kept in an oven all night, which, although not heated, kept the remnants of the heat.

It turns out that the grains first swelled a little, and then not only dried, but even slightly roasted. In this lies the difference from oatmeal, which is made from ordinary unprepared grain - oat flour required pre-processing of raw materials in the manner described above. After all the procedures, the oats were pounded and sifted several times in a row until the resulting powder acquired a uniform consistency.

It would seem, why such tricks, if the flour could be prepared without all this soaking and drying, but the difference, it turns out, is fundamental. The fact is that the flour, being flour of toasted grain, is used not as a baking dish, but as a kind of porridge, which does not even need to be cooked. The cooking process is shocking in its simplicity: you just need to dilute the powder with water or more noble liquids - milk or kvass, add a little oil - and can be eaten.

Our ancestors, who massively fed on oatmeal, did not even know how useful such a product was, their choice was mainly based on the availability of raw materials for preparing such food.

Scientists have shown that such an element of the diet for a person is very useful if only because it contains many useful components.

• Lecithin It is considered perhaps the most important component of oatmeal, because this phospholipid is vital for the human body - without it it is impossible to build a normal cell membrane. Its presence in the cell membrane allows the latter to digest protein, and its absence, respectively, has a negative effect on absolutely all body systems. The lack of lecithin especially affects memory and attention, the person as a whole feels constantly tired.
• Vitamin P helps to strengthen the walls of small blood vessels, which quickly become brittle without it.Among other things, this substance also takes an active part in the elimination of heavy metals from the body, as well as combats allergy and slows down the aging of the body.

• Vitamins of group B have a very wide range of useful activities, and their absence, respectively, has many unpleasant consequences. Thus, B1 contributes to the proper assimilation of most nutrients from food, B2 is responsible for the healthy appearance and proper functionality of the skin and hair, B6 controls carbohydrate metabolism and supports the nervous system, and B12 is responsible for dividing cells into full new cells.
• Oatmeal is rich in a number of different microelements., among which phosphorus and calcium, zinc and potassium, magnesium and copper, iron and many other useful substances in a lower dosage. All of them are "building blocks" that make up the human body.
• Lignin - Another essential component that is responsible for the integrity of the vascular walls, complementing the effect of the consumption of vitamin P.

What is unusual about this product is the ability not to contribute to weight gain, even despite the very immodest caloric content at 360 kcal per 100 grams. The fact is that you do not eat a lot of such a product - it is very satisfying and tends to increase several times in the stomach. At the same time, it is absorbed very long, and the body spends more energy on its digestion than it eventually receives.

Above it has already been described, than the use in sufficient quantities of some components of oatmeal is useful.

With the use of the product as a whole, the benefits are even greater.

1. The product is wholegrain, and the presence of such components in the diet contributes to the normalization of blood sugar levels, preventing obesity and the development of diabetes.
2. A significant percentage of oatmeal is fiber, which helps clean the intestines from toxins and harmful microorganisms. Interestingly, it is also the staple food for beneficial microflora, without which digestion simply does not work.
3. The components of the product have a positive effect on the work of the sebaceous glands, making the hair and skin look healthy and well-groomed. This effect is useful not only to improve self-esteem, but also in the fight against unpleasant ailments like seborrhea.
4. The presence of vitamin D in the composition of the product makes oatmeal a natural antidepressant, allowing you to not lose vigorous mood.
5. Due to the high iron content, oatmeal is considered a very useful and even necessary product for anemia. Other trace elements help to fix the myocardium, as well as teeth and bones.
6. Cooking oatmeal does not involve processing at high temperatures, so all its useful components are preserved in its original form.
7. Gluten intolerance is not an obstacle to the use of oatmeal, because it contains almost no gluten.

As is often the case, even a comprehensively useful product in some situations can cause harm to the body. For example, the abuse of oatmeal will not be beneficial, since this product begins to wash out calcium from the body over time, and in acute gastritis with high acidity, such a product will only contribute to the active production of gastric juice.

For patients with gout, the use of oatmeal is also undesirable, since the latter provokes the aggravation of the disease.

The approximate manufacturing process of oatmeal in the old days has already been described above, and today it has not changed much - the housewives are more actively using modern kitchen appliances to simplify the process, which was originally quite laborious. Today, it is customary to soak oat flour for about a day, and the water needs to be changed several times - it must be fresh all the time, otherwise undesirable microorganisms may interfere with the process. After that, the grains are steamed for another hour - a multi-cooker, a double boiler, or any other suitable device will help a lot.

Thoroughly swollen grains are sent to the oven - the best result in the form of browned, light brown grains is achieved at a temperature of 100 degrees and a shutter speed of about five hours, and to avoid burning, the grains need to be stirred periodically. After that, it remains to turn oat grains into powder - if you are not a supporter of the classic pounding in a mortar, use a coffee grinder or a hand mill.

Eating the finished product can be different and culinary delights - only one of the possible directions. However, today many people eat lofty food not so much from taste preferences, as on the advice of doctors and nutritionists - for this purpose you need to bite lean oatmeal oatmeal every two hours for this purpose. It should be remembered that such a diet can not be abused - it is devoid of animal proteins. Plus, the use of oatmeal in food is that there are practically no such diagnoses in which this product would be prohibited.

Since the oatmeal contains enough nutrients that are responsible for the health and attractive appearance of the skin, beauty experts have guessed that you can use this product not only for food, but also as a part of masks or facial scrubs. So, the combination of oatmeal and milk, strongly resembling a similar food recipe, is used as a scrub against black dots.

Contrary to the new-fashioned cosmetology exercises with food, oatmeal oatmeal is still used mainly in food. The secret to making porridge has already been revealed above - you only need to dilute the ground mass with water, milk or kvass, in order to get an unusual, but very satisfying snack.

Culinary fantasy allows you to use the oatmeal and original.

• The ordinary porridge, for example, looks like a kulaga - a traditional dessert of the common people of the past centuries. The dish was prepared in the same way as ordinary porridge, but instead of the liquids described, berry compote was used, which required a liter per glass of oatmeal. Compote such was boiled with the addition of sugar and honey, because it gave the finished dish a characteristic dessert flavor. In contrast to the usual porridge, the kulag was still subjected to heat treatment - the mixture of oatmeal and compote was kept in a water bath until it became uniform in consistency.
• Fans of soups can make a liquid dish suddenly very thick and nutritious if they add oatmeal to it. Culinary experiments are not forbidden, but among our ancestors mushroom soup was especially popular. The mushrooms fried in the company of onions and carrots were put in a saucepan and cooked for several minutes, after which the oatmeal oatmeal was added to the future soup. It also assumes a slight heat treatment, because after adding all the ingredients, the soup should have cooked for another five minutes. On the table a thick brew is served accompanied by traditional sour cream and greens.

• A very nutritious cross between mashed potatoes and porridge is made from oatmeal for kids.In fact, traditional oatmeal porridge is prepared separately on milk with added oil, and then mixed with apricot or apple puree, both purchased and prepared independently. It should be noted that for the digestive system of infants, the abundance of fiber will be an unreasonable burden, because such supplements should be introduced no earlier than six months. Separately, it should be recalled that oatmeal should in no case become a strict diet, because many parents abuse the product, appreciating its ability to satisfy the child’s hunger for a long time.
• Oatmeal can be prepared and the famous oatmeal cookies. To start, beat a couple of eggs with a third cup of sugar, then add a glass of milk, a tablespoon of honey and the same amount of butter, and then the mass is thoroughly mixed. Then, based on it, with the addition of half a glass of oatmeal and a glass of rolled oats, as well as a pinch of vanilla, soda and salt, knead the dough into which raisins, berries and dried fruits are added, as well as sesame or flaxseed. Flapjacks are kept in the oven for about half an hour until cooked.

You will learn more about oatmeal from the following video.