Top Tip to Energize your life

The Power of Porridge

You either love it or hate it - but if you enjoy eating porridge there is no better breakfast. Forget Coco Pops, it seems that we are returning to natural whole grains. Overall the cereal market has grown 1.7% in the last 12 months, the biggest growth being in porridge oats - up 19% year on year.

Porridge is a traditional dish of Scotland and is known by a variety of names such as, potage, parritch, parridge, porritch or in Gaelic, brochan. Porridge can be made with other grains and other countries have their own version. Chinese make a rice porridge called Congee and a Norwegian version, Rommegrot, is made with sour cream, milk, flour and salt. Oats grow slowly in cold, wet conditions. The cereal can thrive in poor soil - so Scotland and oats were made for each other!

Oats were coasly ground to make pinhead oatmeal and this formed the basis of most meals in rural Scotland. The farmers' wife made a communal pot of porridge which was left overnight in a box of straw to continue cooking. In the morning, the farm workers would sit around the pot, each with a bowl of milk. They scooped out porridge from the area nearest to them, dipping each spoonful into the milk before eating it. The porridge was so thick that each man could create his own scooped out area, surrounded by an unbroken wall of porridge. Any that was not eaten was fed to the dogs. Sometimes porridge would be poured into a porridge "drawer" and cooled before slabs were cut and taken into the fields as a daily snack. This diet may have been monotonous but what a fabulous combination of energising carbohydrate, some protein and a mix of minerals including zinc, calcium, iron, potassium and magnesium. Porridge oats are a whole grain cereal so they contain the entire edible part of the grain including the germ, endosperm and bran. The germ is packed with vitamin E.

Porridge is a nutrient dense food which means you get a lot of other nutrients for every calorie of energy. The gelatenous texture of porridge is due to beta-glucan, a type of fibre which helps to reduce blood cholesterol levels. It also helps to regulate the absorption of glucose, thus avoiding a sudden rush of sugar into your bloodstream. The soluble fibre in oats is gentle on the gut and acts as an internal bottle brush, gently keeping your bowel movements regular.

In the mid 17th Century the oat grain was crushed beteween rollers to make rolled oats. Later these were steamed to pre-cook the oats and make porridge making easier. The heat treatment took away some of the flavour and destroyed some of the B vitamins. In today's fast food world, oats are now available for the microwave market and come with a range of added synthetic flavours and sugar. To create an "instant" porridge, the beta-glucan fibre is broken down and the complex starch is pre-gelatenised. This means it cooks quickly but also rushes into your system causing a sudden rise in blood sugar. Porridge is a wonderful food - but choose the original whole grain.

Past Top Tips...

• Summer Porridge - 06/01/2010
• Burning Calories - 07/07/2009
• Lose weight, eat soup! - 13/01/2009
• Winter food for dark days - 27/10/2008
• Injury beating food - 04/04/2008
• Love Your Liver - 02/02/2008
• eating in season - 01/08/2007
• Bad hangovers. Why alcohol is only partly to blame - 01/07/2007
• Caffeine - Do you need it? - 01/04/2007
• The Power of Porridge - 01/02/2007
• Talking Turkey - 12/12/2006
• Fabulous Foods - Honey - 22/10/2006
• Fabulous Foods - Brown Rice - 01/06/2006
• Thoughts on The Atkins Diet - 01/05/2006
• Thoughts on the GI diet - 01/05/2006