Oat porridge was a pretty healthy way to start your day in previous times and places, but some not very nice stuff has happened to oats in general since say, the 1700’s or so:
First, Oats were minimally processed, just the chaff (outer weather, bird and insect-resistant coat on the outside of each oat grain) was removed. The now-naked oats were then soaked in water overnight and/or cooked on a low fire for several hours in a covered kettle or pot.
If food was scarce, oats alone would give you enough carb-based energy and maintain your body warmth for several hours in freezing temperatures while you did chores: The carbs were unrefined and so were absorbed slowly and steadily rather than causing a sudden sugar spike.
An oat breakfast was even better long-term fuel if you also had some butter and/or leftover milk, meat fats, cooked vegetables or whatever in the mix: These foods added not only flavor and enjoyment, but essential nutrients and/or grass-fed fats to further slow and assist with the absorption/utilization of the carbs, and the eater’s sense of pleasant fullness/satisfaction.
That was then…
Aaaaand this is now: For about the last 150 years or so, we tend to not consume the whole grain, but instead prefer rolled oats. These are basically a convenience food that is usually manufactured by steaming/soaking the oats until they will resist shattering when put through a machine with giant rollers which function to smash the oats flat. The flat oats are then dried, packed and shipped. No need to cook’em for several hours, 15 minutes or so will do fine once the water boils.
But on the flip side, the process of rolling oats causes them to lose water soluble vitamins as well, so they’re less nutritious.
Additionally we in the U.S. have the issue of chemical contamination in our conventionally-grown (not the organic ones though)oats because whereas the United States prohibits growers from spraying a class of chemicals commonly known as ‘Quats on oats among other grains in order to stunt the stalks/ make the ripe grains easier to harvest because it keeps the stalks from flopping over and the full grain heads“lodging” in the dirt, these chemicals are known to disrupt digestive health and immune function in humans, among other nasty stuff like increasing cancer risk.
These chemicals are actually outlawed for use in the U.S., but NOT IN CANADA yet, to the best of my knowledge, and the U.S. up until the Trump tariffs bought roughly half its conventionally-grown oats from Canada yearly, meaning that they are still in the supply chain in the Lower 48.
And this, boys and girls, is how oats went from being a nutritious meal to being….MEH.😖
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