15 replies to this topic

[JLL]

I hate oatmeal but like the taste of oats. Is there any harm in eating rolled oats without cooking them in terms of health benefits? Currently I just add them to my smoothies.

[CobaltThoriumG]

I hate oatmeal but like the taste of oats. Is there any harm in eating rolled oats without cooking them in terms of health benefits? Currently I just add them to my smoothies.

It hasn't affected me negatively. I've been eating uncooked instant organic oats, soaked overnight, for the past few months. I think it's fine without soaking as long as you're well-hydrated. I also drink an instantized oat powder and have done so for over a year with no ill effects.

[ajnast4r]

i almost always eat oats uncooked... i blend them up in protein shakes usually.

[spaceistheplace]

i'm pretty sure rolled oats are steamed in their processing

[niner]

It hasn't affected me negatively. I've been eating uncooked instant organic oats, soaked overnight, for the past few months. I think it's fine without soaking as long as you're well-hydrated. I also drink an instantized oat powder and have done so for over a year with no ill effects.

What exactly is done to oats to make them instant? I figure it must involve heat, and maybe high pressure. I like oatmeal, but would also like to avoid heat-treated food if I can help it. Steel cut oats are out for reasons of time, unless maybe there's a way to soak them overnight or something to avoid long cooking times. Anyone have a way to do raw-style oatmeal that tastes good and is at least reasonably fast in the morning?

[CobaltThoriumG]

It hasn't affected me negatively. I've been eating uncooked instant organic oats, soaked overnight, for the past few months. I think it's fine without soaking as long as you're well-hydrated. I also drink an instantized oat powder and have done so for over a year with no ill effects.

What exactly is done to oats to make them instant? I figure it must involve heat, and maybe high pressure. I like oatmeal, but would also like to avoid heat-treated food if I can help it. Steel cut oats are out for reasons of time, unless maybe there's a way to soak them overnight or something to avoid long cooking times. Anyone have a way to do raw-style oatmeal that tastes good and is at least reasonably fast in the morning?

I don't know how the instantized oat powder is made. The manufacturer, proteinfactory.com, doesn't go into details. But you're probably right about the heat, if only from the friction of grinding to that fineness. You can get raw organic instant oats that have not been steamed (http://www.alissacoh...b-bag-p-23.html and https://awakenedshop...n...at=0&page=1). I bet if you soak them overnight, like I do with steam-rolled instant organic oats, they will approximate cooked oatmeal. I have held off on trying the raw oats only because they cost about 4 to 7 times as much as what I use.

Edited by CobaltThoriumG, 16 February 2009 - 07:57 PM.

[Dmitri]

It hasn't affected me negatively. I've been eating uncooked instant organic oats, soaked overnight, for the past few months. I think it's fine without soaking as long as you're well-hydrated. I also drink an instantized oat powder and have done so for over a year with no ill effects.

What exactly is done to oats to make them instant? I figure it must involve heat, and maybe high pressure. I like oatmeal, but would also like to avoid heat-treated food if I can help it. Steel cut oats are out for reasons of time, unless maybe there's a way to soak them overnight or something to avoid long cooking times. Anyone have a way to do raw-style oatmeal that tastes good and is at least reasonably fast in the morning?

There's been several posts on AGE content on cooked foods and it appears that cooking carbs does not raise their AGE content very much, unlike meat which sky rockets in AGE content when cooked.

Anyway, the oatmeal I make only takes about 4 minutes to cook, I add about 6 fl oz of rice milk to a pot on the stove. I heat the rice milk for about 1-2 minutes I then add 1/2 a cup of oats and they seem to be ready in 1-2 minutes. The container says to let it boil for a minute. Also, for those who cook it with water have you tried adding cinnamon or cocoa powder to give it better taste? I add cinnamon or cocoa (alternate between the two each day) since they help regulate and lower glucose; well cinnamon does not sure about cocoa.

[CobaltThoriumG]

There's been several posts on AGE content on cooked foods and it appears that cooking carbs does not raise their AGE content very much, unlike meat which sky rockets in AGE content when cooked.

Unfortunately, this isn't entirley accurate. The AGE data for rice krispies, for one, is sky high. Heat and processing methods can cause issues. Upon further reflection, though, I'm not sure instantizing oats necessarily entails high heat. I have raw cacao powder that is ground very fine, yet they say it never exceeds something like 110 degrees in processing.

[Dmitri]

There's been several posts on AGE content on cooked foods and it appears that cooking carbs does not raise their AGE content very much, unlike meat which sky rockets in AGE content when cooked.

Unfortunately, this isn't entirley accurate. The AGE data for rice krispies, for one, is sky high. Heat and processing methods can cause issues. Upon further reflection, though, I'm not sure instantizing oats necessarily entails high heat. I have raw cacao powder that is ground very fine, yet they say it never exceeds something like 110 degrees in processing.

Sorry I should have been more specific, I meant to say Whole Grains not those highly processed candies you mentioned. Anyway, would a life extensionist be eating something like rice krispies?

[niner]

There's been several posts on AGE content on cooked foods and it appears that cooking carbs does not raise their AGE content very much, unlike meat which sky rockets in AGE content when cooked.

Unfortunately, this isn't entirley accurate. The AGE data for rice krispies, for one, is sky high. Heat and processing methods can cause issues. Upon further reflection, though, I'm not sure instantizing oats necessarily entails high heat. I have raw cacao powder that is ground very fine, yet they say it never exceeds something like 110 degrees in processing.

But that cacao powder is specifically processed without heat in order to be considered raw. Otherwise it would just be regular cacao. Considering how much money that some raw foods cost, I wonder how many unscrupulous vendors are just labeling stuff as raw and jacking up the price?

Regarding the AGE content of various foods, the problem molecules are sugars and fats, aren't they? And maybe proteins as Schiff Base donors. Oats should be low in sugars and fats, so they are probably ok, especially compared to some other things.

here's some data from a table of AGEs in food

At least you can see that it takes 400 servings of instant oatmeal to equal the AGEs in one hot dog... (sorry about hte weird formatting, table is below.)

Foods	AGE(U/g)	Serving(g)	AGE/serving(U/serving)
Oatmeal instant, dry	190	30	5,700
Oatmeal, instant	140	175	25,000
Oatmeal, instant with honey	180	175	32,000
Pizza, thin crust	68,000	100	6,800,000
Cheese, Sandwich, toasted	43,000	100	4,300,000
Butter	260,000	5	1,300,000
Beef, Frankfurter, boiled, 7 min	75,000	90	6,800,000
Beef, Frankfurter, broiled, 5 min	110,000	90	9,900,000
Beef, Hamburger, fast food	54,000	90	4,900,000
Beef, Hamburger, fried, 6 min	26,000	90	2,300,000

Edited by niner, 18 February 2009 - 05:47 AM.

[TheFountain]

i almost always eat oats uncooked... i blend them up in protein shakes usually.

How does the consistency turn out? Do you have to do any light chewing at all? That prospect is the main reason I haven't done any serious oatmeal blending yet.

[VespeneGas]

If you have a good blender and use a reasonable amount of oatmeal (<1cup dry) you shouldn't have to do much chewing. That said, when I had a bad blender, it sometimes felt like I was eating cereal.

[nameless]

Is there any difference between rolled oats (ground up) and oat flour? I ran out of oat flour once, and simply used ground up oats instead, and it worked fine. But that was for something I baked, not raw.

But would it be safe to simply use oat flour in a shake, instead of blending raw oats? Oat flour mixes with liquids pretty well... you can't get much more powdery than flour already is.

Edited by nameless, 20 February 2009 - 07:06 PM.

[Johan]

Is there any difference between rolled oats (ground up) and oat flour? I ran out of oat flour once, and simply used ground up oats instead, and it worked fine. But that was for something I baked, not raw.

I usually use ground rolled oats as oat flour, and it works very well - at least for things like pancakes. I have no idea about bread and stuff like that, though.

[CobaltThoriumG]

Is there any difference between rolled oats (ground up) and oat flour? I ran out of oat flour once, and simply used ground up oats instead, and it worked fine. But that was for something I baked, not raw.

But would it be safe to simply use oat flour in a shake, instead of blending raw oats? Oat flour mixes with liquids pretty well... you can't get much more powdery than flour already is.

I tried oat flour in a shake two or three times and the taste and consistency was horrible. I much prefer the instantized oat powder. But I guess it's safe, taken with enough liquid.

[JackChristopher]

It hasn't affected me negatively. I've been eating uncooked instant organic oats, soaked overnight, for the past few months. I think it's fine without soaking as long as you're well-hydrated. I also drink an instantized oat powder and have done so for over a year with no ill effects.

What exactly is done to oats to make them instant? I figure it must involve heat, and maybe high pressure. I like oatmeal, but would also like to avoid heat-treated food if I can help it. Steel cut oats are out for reasons of time, unless maybe there's a way to soak them overnight or something to avoid long cooking times. Anyone have a way to do raw-style oatmeal that tastes good and is at least reasonably fast in the morning?

Do instant and quick oats have a higher GI than "old fashioned" or "irish steel-cut oats"?

If that's true, I would imagine that oat flour to be even higher. I eat hot milled flax meal as a replacement for hot oat cereal. But while it's good on it's own, the texture is too loose. I'm thinking of adding oats of some kind.