Is instant steel-cut oatmeal less healthy/nutritious than traditionally cooked stove-top steel-cut?

Question

So here's the deal:

I recently bought McCann's Instant Steel-Cut Oatmeal, and I'm wondering about any possible nutritional differences between the instant and regular stove-top. In case you haven't seen it, instant steel-cut comes in individual packets and is "cooked" only by adding boiling water, the same as instant rolled oatmeal (i.e. Quaker).

When I asked about instant vs. stove-top rolled oats, my doctor said there are no significant nutritional differences, but since the main health appeal of steel-cut is the coarse grain, it doesn't seem possible for the finer ground instant to be as nutritious.

I can't find much info about this, so any help is appreciated!

Answer 1

The rationale for consuming steel cut oats rather than rolled oats (beyond the fact that the former taste really good) is the lower glycemic index. It is my understanding that in the rolled oat category, it is better to eat the long-cooking variety rather the instant for the improved fiber load and lower glycemic index. While I do not understand exactly how instant steel cut oats are processed and how much the glycemic index is affected by processing, it is safe to assume that the old unprocessed steel cut oats are still best.

I always prepare 4-6 servings of the steel cut oats at one time and warm up a serving when needed to avoid having to wait 30 minutes to cook them. My rule of thumb: the less processing for any food product, the better it is for me.

Answer 2

Most people who are used to rolled oats have a very hard time adjusting to steel cut oats that are cooked only 30 minutes. For many, it's not much different than eating them raw. (Raw, soaked oats is called cram. Having to eat uncooked oats, as only the poorest would do, gives us the expression 'to cram it down your throat'.) Better still is to cook them thoroughly at night then reheat portions for breakfast if you're in a hurry. They'll keep about five days at a time under refrigeration. Any small nutritional loss from longer cooking is more than compensated by the better digestibility of well-cooked oats. That is, the nutrition is wasted if the oats pass undigested through the body. For most of us, that would happen. Indeed, we are not cows. Neither are we horses. People need to cook their oats.