Eat To Live: Oats, the cool hot breakfast

WASHINGTON, March 17 (UPI) -- If you're one of those people anxious to be in the swim in all things, know that you may be eating the wrong breakfast.

Sales of cold cereals rose by 13 percent between 2000 and 2005. Sales of oatmeal shot up by 81 percent in the same period.

Confession here: The figures come from the United Kingdom, and we know what weird stuff they eat over there. But Madonna has chosen it as a place to live. Gwynnie, too. Bet you those fitness goddesses now eat porridge, as they call it. It's so good for you and so easy to prepare since it started coming in single-serve sachets and quick-cook style.

Gone are those days when the humble Scottish crofter, last job before going to bed, reached for her spurtle (lovely word for a wooden baton) to stir rigid oats in the caldron over the fire for as long as it took to break them down.

Once provoked into a consistency soft enough not to choke the family, she would pour the porridge into a drawer in the kitchen dresser. (Yes, that's what those metal-lined drawers in imported and overpriced "antique" farmhouse units are for.) Next morning a thick slice of now solidified gray matter became breakfast.

It may have inspired the wake-up call among cereal producers to invent a better wake-up start to the day. But in fact oatmeal, cooked well, is not only delicious, it's extremely nutritious.

The flakes most commonly found in the U.S. have been steamed and flattened to turn them into "quick oats" -- or simply flattened to turn them into rolled oats. The velvety porridge most popular with Americans is the result of oats that have been flattened and steamed to extreme.

But for oatmeal with a bit of chew left in it, as preferred in Europe for its emphatically nutty flavor and more robust texture, you have to look for steel-cut oats, sometimes sold as Irish or Scottish oats.

These are even more nutritious since they consist of the whole oat kernel, cut once or twice to allow it to absorb enough liquid to cook it through. Soaking them in their cooking liquid ahead of time -- preferably in milk but water is fine -- speeds the cooking process. Then add sugar to taste (in my view, a teaspoon of vanilla extract draws converts) and serve to a surprisingly happy family.

It's worth making an effort to win them over. Oats contain betaglucan, a fiber found effective in lowering cholesterol. Other studies have shown them to have avenanthramides, an antioxidant that helps protect blood vessels from the damaging effects of bad cholesterol.

But if the family resists, turn them into flapjacks and present them as faux functional food breakfast bars ("faux" in that while they are nutritious they won't contain the extra nutrients or vitamins that allow food products the health-enhancing "functional food" claim). Everyone in the swim is eating those ...

-- Flapjacks

-- 4 ½ ounces steel-cut oats

-- 4 ½ ounces rolled oats

-- 5 ¼ ounces butter

-- 2 ½ ounces Tate & Lyle Golden Syrup (from larger supermarkets. Maple syrup can substitute.)

-- 2 ½ ounces sugar

-- Preheat the oven to 350 F.

-- In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter, sugar and Golden Syrup together till liquid.

-- Combine the oats in a bowl, pour the saucepan contents over and mix well.

-- Line a baking tin 8 inches in diameter or square with greaseproof paper and press the oat mixture into it with the back of a wooden spoon.

-- Bake 25-30 minutes. The longer the time the crisper; the shorter the chewier.

-- Let cool 5 minutes then slice, but leave it in the pan to cool and set completely.

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E-mail: consumerhealth@upi.com