Ask Keri: Steel cut oats vs. rolled oats: Which is the improve choice for oatmeal?

Keri Says: Steel cut oats get a lot of praise, only don't go throwing out those rolled oats and so fast.

Permit'southward starting time with the basics. Both rolled oats and steel cutting oats come up from the same whole cereal grain. The existent deviation is in how, and how much they are processed. Known in their whole form as "groats," both take been separated from their hard outer "hull" to become oats. They yet include both the germ (where the healthy, unsaturated fat lives) and the endosperm (where all of that gut happy fiber and poly peptide lies). They're also both loftier in B and East vitamins.

Hither's what you need to know about steel cut oats vs. rolled oats.

Rolled Oats

Truthful to their proper noun, in processing, rolled oats are kickoff steamed to prevent them from cracking or breaking before they're rolled through mills to be flattened. This results in their famously known squashed, round textured advent. Moving picture those little oats plopped on height of a muffin.

They as well come up in a spectrum of options. Precooked 'instant' oats are the thinnest and most processed, as they are the traditional "Old Fashioned" oats cutting into even smaller pieces to allow for quick and easy cook time.

Compare these to the completely different "extra thick" rolled oats, and you've got an extremely versatile whole grain with  a multitude of uses. Everything from breakfast cereal to granola bars, muffins to smoothies to cookies, rolled oats are definitely on trend for recipe substitutions and weeknight overnight oatmeal prep. Rolled oats' creamy soft texture afterward beingness cooked makes them equally every bit suitable for oatmeal equally they are for baking.

steel cut oats vs. rolled oats

Steel Cut Oats

On the other (less candy) hand lies steel cut oats. The same groats used to brand rolled oats are instead chopped into 2 or 3 pieces rather than flattened, resulting in steel cut oats' minor, pin-similar advent.

Because of their thickness and chewier texture, they accept a fleck longer to melt, and they're non as ideal when it comes to putting them into your flourless oatmeal cookie recipe. Melt up your half cup of steel cut oats for breakfast, and you've got a fiber packed, slowly digesting repast that volition go on you lot full and energized until lunch (better than quicker digesting rolled oats do).

Steel cut oats are spared processing steps that rolled oats go through, giving them a lower glycemic indexand making information technology more difficult for digestive enzymes to break down the starch found in them. This, in turn, slows the conversion of the starches to carbohydrate in the body, and your belly stays happily satisfied.

Steel Cut Oats vs. Rolled Oats: The Bottom Line

And then while they differ in size, shape, rima oris feel, and rate at which they digest, when comparison steel cut oats vs. rolled oats, their nutritional value ends up being the same.

They both act as a dandy source of manganese (which is important for supporting os health), biotin (function of the B vitamin circuitous crucial for the health of your peel and nervous system), too as a go-to source for soluble fiber known every bit beta-glucan, which helps to lower bad LDL cholesterol in the torso. This can lead to improve eye health, better stabilized blood sugar, and meliorate digestive health.

So next time yous're deciding between the 2, it might be your all-time bet to consider what you want to use them for. Trying out a new bootleg granola recipe? Become for the rolled oats. Craving a hearty breakfast for the cold winter months? Steel cut might be the improve option.