Can You Eat Raw Steel Cut Oats? 10 Health Benefits of Steel-Cut Oats

Oats or Oatmeal is one of the handiest ingredients for breakfasts, cereals, snacks, and healthy diets. But, can you eat raw steel cut oats, or do they carry some dangers?

Oats are healthier but available in various forms, such as Oat Groats, Steel-Cut Oats, Old-Fashioned Oats, Rolled oats, Instant oats, etc. The thing is, not all types of oats are the same in nutritional value.

Here is a complete guide on how you should eat to attain the utmost benefits. Let’s start:

Can You Eat Raw Steel Cut Oats?

No, oats are not permitted to eat in raw form. The reason that you cannot eat raw oats is that they might contain microorganisms or germs inside them, which can lead to serious health issues.

Besides this, raw oats that come in the form of ready-to-eat meals are processed. Besides this, eating raw oats comes with no proven benefits for health compared to cooked ones.

Steel Cut Oats Raw:

It would be best to have a good idea about what is a steel-cut oat before moving to further discussion on can you eat raw steel cut oats.

So, when inner kernels of oats are cut into pin-head-sized pieces. Due to their shape, they are known as steel cut oats.

However, In the UK or some other countries, these are known as Irish oatmeal or coarse oatmeal. But, it is not permitted to eat steel cut oats raw as it can make you feel slightly unpleasant.

To get rid of this, it is recommended to dip these raw oats in water and let them soak overnight. By doing so, oats can help reduce constipation and indigestion issues.

Can you eat raw steel cut oats? Yes, but still, nothing can match the benefits of eating steel cut cooked oats.

Steel Cut Oats Cooked:

Raw oats are prepared by processing them for removal of the hull from the oat groats. Later on, a heat and moisture treatment is done before cutting them into small pieces using steel blades.

By doing so, oat bran, oat flour, or oat flakes are offered as the final product. These might contain contaminants from the processing machines and germs as well.

Cooking then will help remove chemicals from the groats. Therefore, you should cook them. Cooking oats doesn’t mean preparing those using salts and spices but simply boiling them.

Later on, you can use them to make cereals and porridge, add them to smoothies, or prepare shakes. With this, the nutritional value of oats will be optimum. 

Can You Eat Raw Oatmeal Steel Cut?

According to the latest research on can you eat raw steel cut oats, raw oats are not really uncooked but processed to offer nutritional value.

If you can tolerate the smell of steel-cut raw oats, you can enjoy them plain without heating by adding your favorite things, such as chocolate chips, chia seeds, milk, vanilla, and creams.  

As per Healthline, the nutritional value of raw yet processed oats is good. One cup of raw oats contains the following nutrition for you:

You also get some specific minerals and nutrients while you eat raw steel cut oats, such as:

Health Benefits of Steel-Cut Oats

As now you know about can you eat raw steel cut oats, let’s discuss the benefits associated with raw oats:

1.   Lowering LDL Levels:

LDL is the low-density lipoprotein, or “bad” cholesterol can be lowered by having oatmeal breakfasts. Oats come with nutrients to balance the cholesterol levels in the body.

A soluble fiber named beta-glucan is found in oats that help in lowering high blood pressure levels as well.

2.   Diminish the Risk of Heart Attack:

When the blood flow is optimum and proper, while there is no risk of increased stages of bad cholesterol in the body, many heart-related diseases can be avoided.

The risk of heart disease and heart strokes is proven to be diminished by using oatmeal cereals in your breakfast and other meals.

3.   Manages Diabetes:

Raw steel cut oats come with 7 percent of the fiber in them, which helps control blood sugar levels in people with type-2 diabetes.

It improves insulin sensitivity in a natural manner. You can prepare a balanced breakfast by adding cheese, peanut butter, and eggs to oatmeal breakfasts.

Stay tuned; there is still a lot more fruitful discussion to come about whether can you eat raw steel cut oats:

4.   Improves Digestion:

Zinc which is around 27% in the steel cut raw oats, helps improve digestion and relieves symptoms of constipation.

You are recommended to drink plenty of water during the day while you eat raw steel cut oats during the day to pass the stool more easily.

5.   Supports Immune System:

Oatmeal breakfast and cereals will help boost immunity. With this, your body will be able to fight and keep from certain diseases and health issues.

Besides this, with boosted immunity, wounds heal faster, muscle tears can be avoided during exercises, and the person can build better stamina for workouts.

6.   Childhood Growth and Development:

The strong nutritional profile of steel-cut oats aids a lot in the development and growth of children. Children and babies can easily digest oats.

The best thing is that not only adults and children but babies starting with solid food can have special oats in their meals for growth.  

7.   Weight Loss:

As it is stated earlier that you can eat raw steel cut oats for constipation and boosted immunity, both things will aid ultimately in weight loss.

The strong fiber quantity in oats keeps a person filled for so long that the craving for snacks that can add to the weight can be diminished.

It decreases sugar spikes, hunger, and insulin levels; all three are necessary to eat for weight loss.   

8.   Boost Exercise Performance:

Oats come with plenty of antioxidants to help boost the energy of a person along with urging them to work out more. One such antioxidant is AVA.

AVA or avenanthramide helps in reducing the oxidative stress caused by hectic rounds of exercises and HIIT workouts.

9.   Prevent Migraine Attacks:

Can you eat raw steel cut oats for migraine attacks? Yes. Migraines have many symptoms and triggers, while an upset is one of those. Steel-cut raw oats have a strong profile against stomach issues.

In the morning, having oats will not only keep your stomach at ease, help you pass easier stoles, treat constipation, and avoid gas but will also reduce migraine attack tendency for the day.

10.   Improve PMS Symptoms:

Oats are filled with nutrients and minerals. Magnesium, manganese, and vitamin B6, which are in plenty in oats, are best when it comes to reducing PMS symptoms.

It can be called a girl’s best friend to treat mood swings, period pain, food cravings, and fatigue associated with the menstrual cycle.

All the ten benefits that we have added above say a lot about can you eat raw steel cut oats. Oats, without a doubt, offer a complete nutritional meal, and by adding certain ingredients, you can enhance the notoriousness as well as the taste of the meal.

Frequently Asked Questions

Before we had to the bottom line and ending passage of our discussion, here are some frequently asked questions you must know about the raw steel cut oats:

Can you eat uncooked oats?

There are two pieces of research evidence we have here in this regard. Some say that eating raw oats is not recommended as there are chances of microorganism contamination.

On the other hand, another school of thought believes that uncooked oats are not actually raw but processed using the heat and cold method, which removes the micro contaminants from them.

However, oats, in whatever you decide to eat, offer a complete nutritional meal that can be eaten time during the day. Their dietary value cannot be challenged.

Do oats need to be cooked?

Well, it depends upon which type of oats you have, such as from which brand if they are processed or prepared by simply cutting them into pieces and separating the husk.

You can enjoy oats by boiling them in the water or soaking them overnight. Adding them to the malts, shakes, or smoothies is another perfect way to consume oatmeal.

Are there benefits to eating raw oats?

There are plenty of benefits to eating raw processed oats.

These are lowering the LDL levels, treating constipating, adding to children’s growth and development, helping weight loss, or boosting exercise performance.

For more, check how to eat oats.

Bottom Line

Here our discussion on can you eat raw steel cut oats comes to an end. We have added different scenarios where you can enjoy oatmeal in your daily routine.

We have concluded that oats have great nutritional value and can be eaten raw because they have already been processed. However, boiling them for instant eating or soaking them overnight is a better way to enjoy oats.