Porridge has been a staple breakfast for generations and for good reason! It starts your day with a simple, filling, inexpensive and nutritious whole grain. Oatmeal is a popular porridge that has multiple health benefits. Oatmeal is great for constipation, cholesterol control, your heart, your kidneys and your nerves.
Oatmeal contains protein, carbohydrate and fiber. It provides you with niacin, folic acid, calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium and phosphorus.
1. Heart Health
Studies have found that regular oat consumption is protective against heart disease and can lower cholesterol. Some popular processed boxed breakfast cereals boast this fact, but don’t be fooled, a processed boxed cereal is not the same thing as a fresh bowl of oatmeal. With oatmeal, you control the amount of sugar. You don’t need preservatives. And you can add other nutritious foods to round out your breakfast.
2. Kidneys
Oatmeal has a mild diuretic effect, which helps to flush the kidneys. For this reason, if you eat oatmeal before a long car ride, plan time for an extra pit stop!
3. Digestion
For those with a gluten allergy, gluten free oats are a great grain option. (Oats do not contain gluten but could be contaminated with gluten in processing unless special care has been taken.)
The fiber in oatmeal is helpful for constipation. Oatmeal is easily digested and not hard on the stomach. It provides nutrition and calories for a weak or convalescing individual.
4. Galactagogue
Nursing mothers find that oatmeal consumption can increase their milk supply. Oatmeal also promotes relaxation in new moms and is a good source of nutrients for them as well.
5. Nerves
The nutrients in oatmeal are health to your nervous system, but oats also have a calming effect on the nerves. A bowl of oatmeal in the morning can start you off on a steady note. Try a small bowl of oatmeal at bedtime for insomnia. The calcium and magnesium in the oatmeal promote a restful night’s sleep.
How to Eat Oatmeal without Getting Tired of It
While generations of cultures have subsisted on the same breakfast porridge day in and day out, modern societies are accustomed to choice. Oatmeal lends itself to variety!
You can easily add any different kind of fruit to your oatmeal including strawberries, blueberries, peaches, raisins, and bananas.
Nuts and seeds add some texture to your oatmeal. Consider walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, chia seeds or ground flax seed.
If you are trying to include some healthy coconut oil into your life, oatmeal is a great place to put it. Add a teaspoon to your morning oatmeal. The extra fat improves the mouth appeal of oatmeal.
Oatmeal can be made with water or milk or a combination.
If the thought of a hot breakfast in the summer isn’t exciting to you, make muesli instead.
Muesli Recipe
- ½ cup oats
- 1 cup almond milk or pineapple juice
- Dried fruit of your choice
- Nuts
- Mix the above and whatever else you like into a bowl.
- Cover.
- Refrigerate overnight.
- In the morning you have a flavorful chilled oatmeal breakfast to get you off to a good start.
Do not buy those little oatmeal packages. They are overpriced and full of un-necessaries. Oatmeal is too easy to make to bother with individual packages that have way more sugar than most people would add on their own.
Oatmeal Bath
Any discussion on oatmeal must include the healing benefits of oats in the bath.
An oatmeal bath is soothing to poison ivy, rashes, and chicken pox. Fill an old sock with a cup or two of oats. Tie the sock off. This is your large “oat” tea bag. Allow it to sit in your bath with you and periodically squeeze some of the “oat juice” from the sock onto your affected skin. Alternately you can grind up a cup of oats in your blender and add this to your bath, but it may make your tub need a good rinsing afterwards and you will want to be careful not to clog the drain.
Oatmeal Paste
For a small area of skin afflicted with a rash, bee sting, or poison ivy, make an oatmeal paste and apply it to the skin. Try 1/3 ground oatmeal with ½ cup warm water and mix it to a paste. Cover the paste with plastic wrap and a bandage and carry on as if you were not suffering! The healing properties of the oats will reduce itch and inflammation and provide nutrients to the skin right where they are needed.
Do you use oatmeal for your health? Please send us some feedback!
