Overnight Oats and Resistant Strarch
Overnight oats are an excellent way to add more resistant starch into your diet.
By doing less work and forgoing the cooking, you create oats that are healthier, better for your gut microbiome, and lower in calories.
It’s a little breakfast miracle!
Oats themselves are little nutrition superstars. They are the only food to contain Avenanthramides, powerful phenolic acids that are anti-inflammatory and reduce oxidative stress. Avenanthramides are particularly critical for heart and microbiome health.
https://thewell-nourishedbrain.com/blog/oats-andnbspavenanthramides
When we make overnight oats, we retain all of the fabulous Avenanthramides while increasing the resistant starch. Resistant starch is critical for everything from microbiome health, metabolic stability, weight maintenance, cardiovascular disease prevention, and cognitive wellness. For a comprehensive exploration of resistant starch, please see:
www.thewell-nourishedbrain.com/blog/resistant-starch
and
https://thewell-nourishedbrain.com/blog/short-chain-fatty-acids
As you can see from the chart below, uncooked rolled oats are packed with resistant starch. In 100 gram serving (approximately 1 cup of oats), uncooked oats have over 11 grams of resistant starch, whereas cooked oats have less than a gram of resistant starch. Simply by NOT cooking our oats, we multiply their resistant starch and subsequent health benefits.
For my overnight oats, I like to follow the formula by The Simple Veganista.
www.simple-veganista.com/healthy-overnight-oats/
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup plant milk
1 teaspoon ground flax seed
1 teaspoon flavor extract
Add mix-ins of your choosing, like fruit, nuts, seeds, cocoa nibs, etc.
It’s important not to heat your overnight oats in the morning if you want to retain the resistant starch.
How often is it that we can do less work for a bigger nutritional bang?!
Portable, delicious, infinitely flexible, and no pans to wash.
That’s my kind of meal!
Wishing you excellent health and happy eating.
🌱