Rolled (pressed) oats are a wonderful addition to my fruit yogurt. They add texture and makes it feel like I have actually eaten a meal. The food stays longer in my stomach, and the oats contain fiber and slow carbs that are not broken down until the great intestine, if at all.

Ironically, the fact that oats are not as much “pure energy” as wheat, rice and maize is probably a reason why it has remained marginal, grown mostly in areas where wheat yields are low or the growing season a tad on the short side. Oats contain more fat than wheat and rice (but less than maize), but due to the structure of the fibers, the fat is not quickly absorbed into the bloodstream.

This natural functional food also reduces “bad cholesterol” (actually low-density lipoproteins, which are – as the name implies – proteins rather than the cholesterol itself, but LDL supposedly has a tendency to drop cholesterol at the artery walls). Finally, it regulates blood sugar. Which makes me think, considering that my ancestors have lived in oats- and grazing land for probably a few thousand years, that my parents’ diabetes may have been more than anything a case of oats deficiency. Now that we could buy fine wheat flour, the oats faded into the background. Nobody considered that our ancestors had been under intense selection pressure to adapt to that particular grain.

I am not planning to make the same mistake. Milk products and oats with a little fruit is smack in the middle of my ancestral diet. Let’s see how the body reacts to THAT.