Protect Yourself With Oats

Everything that is known today confirms or expands some of the knowledge of popular medicine, and allows us to affirm that oats are an effective food for maintaining health or helping to recover it.

• Oats contain a fiber called beta-glucan, which, unlike other cereals, is soluble. This fiber is what has earned it the recognition of functional food. Consuming 3 grams of it daily (or 75 grams of flakes or 40 grams of bran), lowers cholesterol clearly in a few weeks. It also benefits non-insulin-dependent diabetics by helping to stabilize blood sugar: taking it at breakfast, for example, helps keep this level more stable. And in severe obesity it can reduce hypertension. It also has a prebiotic effect.
• It contains other beneficial substances, such as lecithin, or phytosterols such as avenasterol or beta-sitosterol, with proven effects in controlling plasma cholesterol and LDL or “bad”. They protect against some types of cancer, such as colon, breast or prostate, and against coronary disease. In addition, oats stimulate the thyroid gland, which is involved in fat metabolism.
• The avenacosides are other substances that have led to a booming business. They are anabolic steroids and are chemical variants of the testosterone hormone. To consolidate the muscles achieved with training, athletes need a certain amount of testosterone circulating in the blood. The effort makes it decrease, but the avenacosides help to recover it.

Benefits of oats

All this makes the preventive consumption of oats advisable to:

• Cardiovascular health, due to its effects on cholesterol, atherosclerosis, tissue aging and arterial hypertension, its anti-inflammatory, vasodilator and purifying properties.
• The nervous system, which it tones due to its content of vitamin B1, calcium and alkaloids (indole, trigonelline or avenin). It can help you relax, focus, and prevent mental exhaustion.
• The digestive system against heartburn, gastritis, ulcer, constipation (in whole grain decoction) or diarrhea (in shelled grain decoction), flatulence and hepato-biliary malfunction.
• Bones and teeth, for its remineralizing and caries preventive effects.
• Non-insulin-dependent diabetics, as a stabilizer of blood sugar, because it stimulates the activity of the pancreas, and as a source of slowly assimilated energy and fiber.
• Hypothyroidism, due to the stimulation it produces in the thyroid gland.
• Genito-urinary disorders such as cystitis, urethritis or oliguria.
• Muscle pain, due to its anti-inflammatory and emollient action (in whole wheat plasters with hot vinegar).
• Certain types of cancer, due to its antioxidant effect, colon hygiene and cholesterol control.
• The skin, in eczema, atopic dermatitis, urticaria and the like, due to its emollient, cleansing, softening and soothing qualities (in cosmetics or baths).
• Pregnancy, to avoid deficiencies and stimulate milk production.

Although oat bran is very safe, it can slightly alter calcium absorption, which is why people with high calcium needs should take this into account. Likewise, it should be avoided in cases of dyspepsia and heartburn.

For celiacs there is still not enough data to authorize it or not. There are sufferers that tolerate small amounts and countries like Finland that include it among the allowed foods, but some studies show disorders after its consumption. In general, the results are better with so-called “pure” or “clean” oats, available mainly in the Nordic countries.