This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette.

Oatmeal was not part of my upbringing. My childhood breakfast in Hungary consisted of hot cocoa with a slice of buttered bread and, when the season permitted, green pepper.

I first encountered oatmeal sometime in the early 1980s after watching Oliver, the 1968 film adaptation of the stage musical based on Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. What was this “gruel” that Oliver asked for more of, I wondered? When I discovered that it was a version of oatmeal I had to try it. So, I cooked up a batch and liked it, especially when I made it with steel-cut oats, which are simply whole oat grains chopped into two or three small pieces with a steel blade. It made for a hearty dish with a nutty flavour.

The downside was that steel-cut oats require 30 to 40 minutes of cooking with constant stirring. That prompted giving rolled oats a try. These are grains steamed and flattened with large rollers to increase their surface area, enhancing fluid absorption and shortening cooking time. The taste buds weren’t pleased quite as much, but I wasn’t too bothered by this because it turns out that the nutritional profile of oatmeal made from steel-cut or rolled oats is essentially the same.

Now about that nutritional profile. Back then, in those pre-Google 1980s, delving into the science of oats required a trip to the library. As I perused the relevant journals, it became clear that discussions of oats were dominated by their content of beta-glucan, a form of soluble dietary fibre that can help lower cholesterol and keep blood sugar levels stable. By this time, I was already teaching a course on the chemistry of food, so oatmeal was an attractive topic to incorporate because it offered a way to explain how beta-glucan lowers cholesterol. That explanation requires a preamble about bile acids, molecules that play a significant role in the digestive process.

Bile acids are made in the liver from cholesterol and are stored in the gallbladder from where they are released into the small intestine when food enters. Their main role is to emulsify fats, that is to break fat globules down into tiny droplets, which because of their larger surface area, make the fats more accessible to enzymes such as pancreatic lipases. Enzymes are proteins that catalyze biochemical reactions, in this case the breakdown of triglycerides — the chemical term for fats — into monoglycerides, fatty acids and glycerol that can then be absorbed into the bloodstream. After they have done their job, most of the bile acids are reabsorbed from the ileum, the final section of the small intestine, and are recirculated to the liver.

However, when beta-glucan is consumed, it forms a gel-like solution in the small intestine trapping bile acids. This leads to the bile acids being excreted in the stool instead of being reabsorbed into the bloodstream from where they could be snared by the liver. If this recycling process is interrupted by beta-glucan, the liver has to make a fresh batch of bile acids. Since the starting material for this synthesis is cholesterol extracted from the bloodstream, the result is a lowering of blood cholesterol.

Knowing that beta-glucan can lower cholesterol is interesting, but prompts the question of how much one has to consume to have a significant effect. That actually has been explored quite extensively, with the conclusion that three grams per day can lower elevated LDL cholesterol (the “bad cholesterol”) by five to 10 per cent in about five weeks. For perspective, half a cup of dry rolled oats, the usual amount in a serving of oatmeal, provides about two grams. A tablespoon of oat bran, the outer layer of the oat grain that is separated from the endosperm and germ during milling, contains half a gram. That means a bowl of oatmeal with a couple of spoonfuls of oat bran will get you to the three-gram dose. One cup of cooked oat bran will also do it, but your palate may rebel.

The chemistry of oats made for an interesting lecture topic and also encouraged me to eat oatmeal. Frankly, though, laziness often trumped nutrition. So, I considered instant oats, but not for long. They still require some form of heating, tend to be mushy, often contain added salt or sugar, have less beta-glucan, and generally have a higher glycemic index meaning a quicker rise in blood sugar. Of course, that’s still better than a donut or Danish for breakfast.

Recently I was introduced to another way of getting the benefits of oats by, of all people, my 10-year-old grandson. He made me a batch of “overnight oats” that make for a ready-to-eat, delicious and nutritious breakfast with minimal preparation time. Best of all, no cooking is involved. Needless to say, I had to dig into the science of this concoction, which meant probing into its preparation. As I learned, my young chef had mixed half a cup of rolled oats (steel-cut will not work) with an equal amount of Greek yogurt in a jar. Next, he added frozen sweet cherries, a spoonful of chia seeds, half a teaspoon of maple syrup and some chopped nuts before storing the mixture overnight in the fridge.

Nutritionally, overnight oats surpass oatmeal. The beta-glucan is still there, but now we also have the added benefits of probiotics, protein, calcium and magnesium, all found in yogurt. Chia seeds contribute fibre as well as alpha-linolenic acid, an omega-3 fat that has been associated with heart and brain health. The nuts also add omega-3 fats, protein and fibre.

As instructed, in the morning I added blueberries before digging in. That boosts not only the flavour, but also the antioxidant potential attributed to the polyphenol content of the berries. I would say these overnight oats were the best oat concoction I ever tasted! Of course, the pleasure was boosted by the fact that it was made for me by Izzy. Unlike Oliver Twist, I don’t think I will be punished for asking for more.

@‌JoeSchwarcz