Oats: The Clean Fuel for Weight and Sugar Control

Oats, originally knowns as Avena sativa, origins form the grass family of plant called the Poaceae. These edible seeds of oats have landed in our breakfast bowl due to their have high nutritional value, dietary fiber as well as phytochemicals. Their benefits from controlling diabetes and cardiovascular diseases to curing certain cancer has made them an important ingredient in today’s life.

Comparison to most grains, oats have the highest protein levels which is 11- 15%. Starch being 60%, lipids is 5- 9 % and beta glucan being 2.3 and 8.5%. Lastly, phytochemicals, trace minerals (calcium and Iron) and vitamins Bs are present.

Oat Starch

The type of starch present in this is the resistant starch that escapes digestion and provides fermtation of carbohydrates. Also, helps in the production of necessary metabolites.
Oat protein

Oats have high protein content with unique protein compositions. They have Albumins (water soluble), Globulins (salt water soluble), Prolamins (soluble in dilute alcohol) and glutelins (soluble in acid/bases) proteins.

Dietary Fibers

Dietary fibers are edible components of carbohydrates that are neither digested nor absorbed by the upper GI tract. They have positive impact on the blood glucose levels as well as blood cholesterol levels.

B-glucan is present in oats having numerous benefits. It prevents sharp rises in the blood sugar levels immediately after a meal. FDA claims that daily intake of 3g of soluble B glucan can decrease the dangers of coronary heart diseases (FDA 1997; Amundsen et al. 2003; Berg et al. 2003). It has anti-cancerous property as it reduces the compounds that are causative agents of colon cancer (Sadiq Butt et al. 2008; Bode and Dong 2009; Hsueh et al. 2011), reduce blood cholesterol level (Ripsin et al. 1992; Amundsen et al. 2003; Chen et al. 2006) and reduce blood pressure (He et al. 2004). 0.75g of serving is the recommended amount of b-glucan  (Flander et al 2007).

Lipids

The lipids in oats are in higher quantity than any other cereals. They are excellent source of energy and unsaturated fat.

Phytochemicals

The antioxidant property of oats comes due to the presence of phytochemcials. These antioxidant prevents from cancer, heart diseases, vision problems and infections.

Therefore, oats being the magic foods should be incoperated in our diets for a healthy living.It can be concluded that oats aid in the following benefits:
Weight loss
Diabetes control
Prevention of heart diseases
Improving digestive health