Oatmeal. Feed your body – feed your skin.

Oatmeal - good for what ails you!

Winter Hideaway

The sun is shining on glistening beautiful pure white snow.   It is -1⁰.    Thinking about something to fuel my body, I remember that oatmeal commercial, “Cccccold ccccereal…..brrrrrr.”    Exactly.   Quick oats take only a minute to cook, a little honey, maybe some cinnamon.    Mm mm good.  

Oatmeal offers a lot of benefits beyond warming your stomach in the morning – although that is nothing to scoff at.   Warm food warms your stomach, enhancing digestion, and warming you from the inside out.  But oatmeal offers a lot of other benefits, too.  Its nutritional benefits include antioxidants, B vitamins, fiber, proteins, trace minerals, and soluble and insoluble fiber. Both soluble and insoluble fiber bind to toxins in the body and carry them away, resulting in reduced skin blemishes and the development of new skin cells.

Speaking of skin…..   Not only is it the largest organ in the body, but it is your first line of defense against infection, cold, heat, and it also helps the body rid itself of toxins.   Oatmeal nourishes the skin, helping it maintain that youthful radiant glow.  Oat proteins include collagen and elastin, which are essential to skin health and constitute the cement that binds skin cells.   Antioxidants and trace minerals promote healthy collagen, which in turn promotes skin rejuvenation and slows the aging process. B vitamins are also essential for ensuring cellular regeneration, protecting skin from environmental stressors and infection.
Oatmeal not only strengthens skin from the inside out, but it has the ability to strengthen skin from the outside in. It is used in moisturizing products to help reduce rough, peeling, and cracked skin. Oatmeal can keep skin properly hydrated and moisturized. As an exfoliant, it also removes dead cells and reduces redness and irritation by removing dirt and oil from pores.

On the inside/out nutritional front, the health benefits associated with oatmeal include its cancer-fighting properties (antioxidants) and reduction of risks associated with diabetes and heart disease. You have probably heard that recent studies show oatmeal helps reduce bad cholesterol (LDL), while raising good cholesterol (HDL.)

 Are you confused by the options at the grocery store?    “Quick” and “old-fashioned” seem fairly easily explained, but what are these “steel cut” oats?   Here’s a quick shopping guide.   “Instant” is prepackaged and presweetened usually in single serving packets.   Quick oats cook in one minute.  Old fashioned cook in five minutes.   “Steel cut” cuts the whole oat, rather than flattens it as in the first three processes.   Not surprisingly, there are also variations in nutrition in the different processing.  As a rule, the more processing, the more nutrition is lost, and, as in “instant” the more additives.

So, go ahead and enjoy a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast on a cold winter morning.   Don’t be afraid to add honey or maple syrup to sweeten it, or milk or juice for variety.  Your skin will thank you!