Oats: Interesting facts about cereals

Oats are rightly described as healthy, healing and as a valuable mineral supplier. We have summarized something worth knowing about the miracle grain for you. Oats help you lose weight and provide your body with important nutrients.

Oats: The better grain

When you talk about oats, you probably mean the oats. This is grown, processed and eaten as a useful plant. Compared to other types of cereals, the oats perform very well overall and was named the medicinal plant of the year.

• Oats belong to the Avena plant genus, a subspecies of sweet grasses. About 20-25 different types of plants belong to this genus. Avena sativa is one of them and describes the seed oats we use.
• The positive properties of seed oats were recognized and used as early as the Bronze Age. The targeted research, breeding and use took place later. Eating oats helps lower cholesterol and blood sugar levels. For this reason, oats are also used in the field of drug production and animal feeding.
• Healthy ingredients such as biotin, zinc, iron, magnesium and vitamins B1 and B6 help oats reach the top ranks of the grain health charts. Oats are also a good source of energy, fiber and protein. It is not without reason that oat seed was chosen as the medicinal plant of the year. This was done in 2017 by the interdisciplinary study group Development History of Medicinal Plant Science at the Institute for the History of Medicine at the University of Würzburg.

Growing and processing oats: you should know that

Not only the special positive properties, but also the easy-care cultivation make the oats a perfect all-rounder. Fertilizing with liquid manure, for example, contributes to an increase in yield, but you should also use nitrification inhibitors to ensure an optimal pH value.

• You should sow the seed oats in early March in order to achieve ideal plant growth. Temperatures of around 4 degrees Celsius pose no problems for oat growth. High amounts of precipitation are more of an advantage, especially during the germination phase.
• Light soils, i.e. soils with a high proportion of sand, are ideally suited for growing oats. This is especially the case with clay soils. Oats are also suitable for re-ordering fallow land.
• In crop rotation we recommend sowing oats after growing potatoes, corn or rye. However, you should only grow the oats every 3 years. A seed depth of three to four centimeters is optimal for the oat seeds. The principle of "less is more" applies to the sowing rate.
• After the harvest, the grain is cleaned and dried. The cereal grains can then be further processed, for example, by grinding, rolling, crushing or by crushing. We recommend gentle processing of the oat grains using a flake squeezer.
• The products obtained from the grown oats are very diverse. The best known products include straw, pasta, oatmeal, oatmeal, oatmeal, but also oat-based drinks and various chemicals.

On the next page you will learn more about other types of cereals that contribute to a healthy diet.