Oats, Oats, Oatmeal, and Oats

Happy Thursday everyone!  So I've been thinking a lot about how to proceed with this blog so I figured why not share with you one of my favorite things to eat...and that is OATMEAL!  Now I know several people who love oatmeal, and others who are completely repulsed by the look, texture, taste etc.  ..which I'm not sure how because oatmeal is awesome but hey, not for everyone and thats ok :P!  I totally get how oatmeal can be very bland, BUT do not worry because I am about to convert all you people out there who dont like oatmeal, into oatmeal fanatics like myself.

First a little background info on oatmeal.  Oatmeal is a whole grain and typically is made from either rolled oats or steel-cut oats, and no, instant oats in those packets don't count.  Those are processed and its so much easier to just cook the whole grain oats and get 10x the amount of health benefits.  Oatmeal is the perfect breakfast food because it is full of slow digesting carbohydrates and high in fiber, which is perfect for controlling whats called "Insulin".  Insulin is a hormone which controls your blood sugar levels.  High levels of insulin lead to the storage of fat as well as potentially release cholesterol into the blood.

A SIMPLER EXAMPLE:  The world famous Krispy Kreme Doughnut vs. our bowl of Oatmeal.

Lets say you down two Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and a glass of orange juice and thats your breakfast.  Immediately, due to the extremely large amounts of added sugar as well as bad-for-you carbohydrates, you get a huge buzz (A.K.A - the insulin spike) then an hour to two hours later you feel tired and groggy and find yourself reaching for more sugary, processed food and the cycle continues all day.

Now lets pretend you had a nice bowl of Oatmeal. Oatmeal, as I mention before, if packed full of the good-for-you carbohydrates, as well as fiber, which keeps you feeling full and satisfied.  Since oatmeal is a "whole food" containing all these wonderful nutrients, your insulin levels stay down so you have all the energy you need to start your day, with no crash later.  How perfect.

That is just the basics.  And hey, I wasn't born knowing this so educate yourselves people!  Do a little research.  Theres so much great information.  I typically like livestrong.com as well as bodybuilding.com because they give you TONS of information on not only oatmeal but other foods and how they effect the body.

Stay tuned for my next post which will explain how to dress up oatmeal to make it taste wonderful and make sure you get allllllll those lovely health benefits out of it!