Saturday, July 30, 2011

Oats

Oats are an annual plant belonging to the grass family. There are many species, including oats and wild oats that grows wild in the fields of wheat or barley as a "weed." This cereal is easily identifiable, the grains are not placed on the ears, but on panicles.
It seems that oats has appeared later than the wheat in food, probably around 4500 years before Christ and that its use was originally primarily medical. Hippocrates and prescribed it in the fifth century BC. AD of oatmeal in case of complaints of the stomach and intestines as food and nutrition for children and sick. Subsequently, herbalists oats employed to treat fatigue states, depression and skin diseases.
Originally from Asia, Ethiopia and northern Europe, oats are now cultivated in all temperate regions of the world, mainly in Russia, Canada, the United States and the European Union (Finland , Sweden and Germany). Long oats was the food of choice for animals, especially horses, but today they are fed with corn or barley, which explains the decline in global production. However, since the 1970s, the trend reverses, as we rediscover the benefits of oat consumption on human health.
It is true that this cereal is valuable for several reasons. First, oats are high in soluble fiber, which normalizes blood levels of glucose and insulin and helps the treatment of cardiovascular disease. In addition, this high fiber provides a feeling of fullness quickly and normalizes intestinal transit, preventing colon cancer and may help to lose weight.
Other components of oats as its lipid compounds of unsaturated fatty acids play a beneficial role on the nervous system and trace elements - such as phosphorus, manganese, magnesium, iron, selenium, copper, zinc and vitamin B1 - have an antioxidant role in the body. That's why we should not hesitate to eat oats that can be bought in the form of bran, flour, whole or crushed grains and flakes such as the famous Quaker Oats. Oats
Oat consumption is widespread in the UK, where "Porridge" made from rolled oats cooked in water or milk is the traditional breakfast, and where we develop a type of beer "oatmeal stout." One can also eat this cereal by replacing wheat flour with flour or oatmeal in many bread recipes, pie crusts, pizza or cake or thicken a vegetable soup by increasing its protein value.
Finally, oats has many industrial uses: in the food industry first, which is extracted a gum which is used as thickener and stabilizer in cheese spreads, but also in pharmacies, either for the manufacture of drugs that exploit the digestive oat bran or with drugstore cosmetics or skin care such as soaps surgras oat milk.
Indeed, external use, preparations oatmeal treat dry skin, skin inflammations, acne and itching and a bath in which a mixture infusion made from straw or rolled oats gives a real relaxation to the body. Oats are still used for the manufacture of adhesives and abrasives. 



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