Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Entertainment | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

From horse feed to health food

The Romans may have regarded "oat-eaters" as barbarians, but the cereal has become a folk remedy for many health disorders

PACKED WITH NUTRITION More and more people are including oats in their meal Photo: V. Ganesan

"The oat is the Horatio Alger of cereals, which progressed, if not from rags to riches, at least from weed to health food."— Waverley Root, Food (1980). Oats were the last of the major cereal grains to be cultivated. They were initially dismissed as weeds and were considered inferior to wheat for much of their 3000 years in cultivation. The Romans regarded oats as horse food and "oat-eaters" was the term by which they dismissed the Barbarians who would eventually destroy the Roman Empire. Samuel Johnson's legendary definition of oats as, "A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people," perhaps reflected his general disdain for Scots more than it did his dislike of oats. But you never know. After all, James Boswell, his best friend and biographer, was a Scot.

Food uses

Oats have gone from prime livestock feed to prime livestock and human food in the last 30 years. Oats figure in processed breakfast cereals (oat bran cereals), oatmeal biscuits, cakes, pastries, protein concentrate and infant foods. Oat flour is no good for making bread — its high fat content turns it rancid too quickly, but it in turn prevents spoilage and increases the shelf life of milk products, pork, fish, and edible oils.

Nutrition:

About 100 gm of oat seed contains 374 Calorie, with 13 gm of protein, 7 gm of fat and nearly 65 gm of carbohydrate. Oats are among the richest grain sources of dietary fibre, and they contain significant amounts of calcium, phosphorus, thiamine, riboflavin and niacin. Oat protein has the best amino acid profile among cereals.

The soluble dietary fibre found so abundantly in oats forms a viscous gel in the gut and provides early and long-lasting satiety. It slows down absorption of glucose from the gut and prevents wide swings in blood sugar levels. It also lowers blood cholesterol levels by inhibiting reabsorption of cholesterol-trapping bile from the gut. Oats can be a valuable source of carbohydrate and protein for those allergic to the gluten in wheat.

Medicinal uses:

Oat extracts were once a remedy for the smoking habit, but this cure has now been discredited. The grains are a folk remedy for everything from colic to nerve disorders to cancer. These folk remedies are unproven, but oats do contain b-sitosterol, a compound with anti-cancer properties.

RAJIV.M

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail