The “Healthy Nutrition” departments attract those who are losing weight and those who want to keep fit, sick and weak people. What do we see in these departments? Not refrigerators with fresh fish, not vegetables and fruits, not natural dairy products. Mostly there are exhibited a variety of cereals, flakes, cereals, fast and not very cooking, bread and other derivatives of cereals, legumes and herbaceous plants.

Everyone has heard about the benefits of cereals. Oatmeal has long been the favorite breakfast of millions of girls watching, lentils are considered to be perhaps the most useful and all legumes and cost accordingly, and parents invariably feed children with semolina, buckwheat and rice, laying the right idea about healthy eating in their offspring. Or wrong?

The use of cereals and cereals – information, not hidden behind seven seals. It is easy to find it even on the Internet, even in the library reference books. The main thing is that all data be specific, and not completely declared the thesis that “buckwheat – it is useful!”.

A little bit about buckwheat
 

To determine the benefits of the product, just look at its composition. For example, we look at buckwheat, which in recent years has risen appreciably in comparison with other cereals, mainly due to proper marketing and declared benefits. We refer to the database of products on request “Buckwheat”. The picture is very encouraging and forcing immediately to buy five kilograms of buckwheat for the future in the nearest shop. In the composition of buckwheat on request:

Proteins – 12.6 g per 100 g of product (and 12 g of protein is about one fifth of the daily requirement, by the way).
“Proteins” include all essential amino acids in an amount that in some cases approaches half of the daily norm, mainly accounts for 20-45% of it.
The noticeable list of minerals, among which there is a lot of magnesium, silicon, phosphorus, copper, iron and other macro-and microelements necessary for the person.
Vitamins of group B are relatively few, but still about 1/4 or 1/3 of the daily human need.
In addition, in addition to poly-and monounsaturated fats in the amount of extremely small (5% of the daily norm), but, nevertheless, allows you to say that they are in buckwheat.
 

All these components that are useful and necessary for a person are what marketing specialists and nutritionists who work with them, who advertise us with buckwheat, are doing their best. Formally, there is nothing to accuse them of: it really does contain all of the above, and the presence of all the elements, plus or minus a few micrograms, will be confirmed by any laboratory.

You can make another request and search for “food grain, buckwheat.” Not everyone knows that the grain is produced mainly for feed for poultry and livestock, and a person will begin to eat it only if there is no alternative food in principle. But this does not interfere with the producers of buckwheat in beautiful packages with “Healthy Food” signs – those manufacturers who prefer to sell the product through expensive and “healthy” stores and departments at an exorbitant price – to report that buckwheat is full of minerals like no other cereal. Approximately in such proportions – see the table of macro-and microelements, which are contained in the food grain of buckwheat:

Both options – and buckwheat, and the more food grain – look great. If the latter can alert a potential buyer, then buckwheat groats – it is cereals: it will not cause any suspicion. Only there is one catch: all of the above is contained in raw buckwheat, and not in what shops offer us in most cases and what we end up eating. Ubiquitous buckwheat is roasted buckwheat. The real composition of our useful side dishes should be sought not at the request of “Buckwheat”, but at the request of “Buckwheat fried with grechka cooked”. And here we are in for a surprise: the picture turns out to be much less rosy. We look:

Proteins – 3.38 g instead of the promised 12.6.
Essential Amino Acids: Yes, but in a much smaller amount – instead of 20-45% of the person’s daily norm, only 5-13% of the person’s daily rate (by default, it is a woman who leads a moderately active lifestyle and is mainly engaged in mental work).
Minerals are very depressing: there is no silicon, iodine, cobalt, molybdenum, fluorine and chromium at all. It appears, however, in a very insignificant amount of selenium. But everything else falls very significantly: instead of 50% of magnesium – 13%, instead of 15% of potassium – only 4%, etc.
A similar picture with the B vitamins: they remained, but in much smaller quantities.
The content of unsaturated fats decreased from 5% to 1%, which really does not matter.
 

For details, see the tables reflecting the composition of cooked roasted buckwheat:

Conclusion: Is buckwheat as useful as it seems? And is it worth saying that in buckwheat bread the useful elements are even less for the simple reason that they are processed above and beyond very and very significantly? In fact, almost no protein remains in them, all the B vitamins are destroyed and some more grechka1 minerals are lost. Even dietary fiber, which is in any buckwheat – even raw, even fried, – is transformed from slow-digestible carbohydrates into fast-absorbing and does not contribute to weight loss, but exactly the opposite. As a result, their presence in the departments of healthy nutrition is very doubtful.

In fairness, raw buckwheat has all the advertised elements in stock, and therefore can be used as a source of protein and many macro and microelements. True, there is one thing here too: in order for them to remain in the cooked porridge in the same quantity, you need to cook it literally up to 5 minutes, which makes it not quite familiar to the taste. But if you soak in advance – it turns out a pleasant, albeit unusually hard porridge.

Little about oatmeal
 

With oatmeal the story is similar. Oatmeal to be cooked, instant oatmeal, oatmeal-minutes with strawberries, currants, cherries and other tasty fillers, oatmeal breads and oatmeal bars … All this is presented in the department with healthy food, because it is known that oatmeal is healthy dish. Whole oatmeal porridge is really a wholesome dish, because whole oatmeal contains:

Proteins – 12.3 g per 100 g of product.
Among them – all essential amino acids in the amount of about one third of the daily requirement.
Unsaturated fats, moreover, there are more poly- and mono-unsaturated in oatmeal than in buckwheat: 11% polyunsaturated from the daily norm (compared to 5% for raw buckwheat) and mono-unsaturated 9% from the daily norm (compared to the same 5%) .
Vitamin E – 1.7 mg or 11% of the daily requirement.
Vitamins of group B – in different ways, from 7% to 40% of the daily requirement.
A huge number of macro-and micronutrients, among which: potassium, silicon, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc and many others.
 

And now it is enough to look, than cereal from oat flakes can brag. Answer: practically nothing. There is practically no protein in it, irreplaceable amino acids disappear completely. Both mono- and polyunsaturated fats are also lost, and with them some of vitamin E is lost, since there is a lot of it in these fats – 1.1 mg remains. B vitamins are lost almost entirely with very few exceptions. Minerals for the most part also disappear, only a little remains. In more detail about structure of the prepared oat flakes like “Hercules” – in the table below:

So it turns out that the value of oatmeal seems to be not exaggerated: cereal is really useful. Here are just whole oatmeal during the day with fire you will not find. And what is in any grocery store, what filled the shelves of the “Healthy Nutrition” departments and what we are so actively advised to take as a useful does not bear any particular benefit to the body, but is simply relative harmless carbohydrates.

However, there are also questions about safety. In the manufacture of oatmeal, the established norms are not always observed, and as a result, for the sake of cheaper process, temperatures are often exceeded and some stages of cereal production in whole are skipped. From here we have their very low cost in the seemingly expensive stores.

Instant oatmeal – a separate story. Any grain is good because there is a lot of fiber in it, it is also dietary fiber, it is also slowly digestible carbohydrates, which, respectively, are slowly digested. Cellulose, passing through the gastrointestinal tract, cleans it and strengthens its mucosa due to the content of pectins. The result of its slow digestion is that it turns into a kind of lump in the gastrointestinal tract, and it is this lump, like a sponge, absorbs toxins from the walls of the entire intestine, passing through it.

Oatmeal from wholegrain cereals are cooked for a long time precisely because they contain a lot of fiber – hard dietary fiber. Quick-cooking oatmeal porridge is quickly cooked, respectively, because these rigid fibers are no longer in them. They are eliminated in the manufacture of “fast” flakes, and this is what allows you to get a soft mass, just pour it with boiling water. Carbohydrates, which are present in this soft mass, no longer have any relation to the fibers and slowly digestible carbohydrates, respectively. Because of their softness, they are very quickly digested, absorbed in the stomach, which in turn results in a double not quite pleasant result:

They are digested in the same way as bread, biscuits and other flour products, which in the same way lose hard fibers and become fast-absorbing carbohydrates. In other words, they either turn into energy, providing a person’s motor activity, or go, like other assimilated carbohydrates, into the “supply” that is best seen on the stomach, sides, and so on.
 

They do not turn into that “lump” that cleanses the intestines, because long before that they manage to almost completely digest: there is simply nothing to turn into a “lump”. As a result, such porridges are not cleaned, and there is no use of them for the gastrointestinal tract.
 

For other bodies, however, either. Do not forget about the artificial additives “Strawberry”, “Cherry”, “Currant”, which are flavored with porridge-minutes. They may be harmless (if porridge is too cheap, it may not be), but there is no benefit from them either: they usually do not contain useful elements, and what was in them from fruit lost its properties at the stage of production.

Oatmeal is a cross between oatmeal and oatmeal-minutes. They lost a lot in the process, in fact, turning into flakes, but the dietary fiber remained, so they can clean the gastrointestinal tract. True, this is usually their benefit to the body and ends.

Another danger from the departments of healthy nutrition – oatmeal bread, which is often made with a violation of the temperature regime. And if it is not so critical for flakes and cereals, in the case of bread, instead of the promised healthy nutrition, a person gets hydrogenated fats and carcinogens. You shouldn’t talk about the harm of both of them: it says a lot about them, and, unlike oatmeal advertising, almost everything is true (except for horror stories). And the reason for the pursuit of cheap manufacturing is the demand and popularity of bread as a “healthy food” and their relative high cost (compared to low manufacturing costs) – again under the auspices of “healthy food”.

Conclusion: oatmeal is really possible and necessary. But only if it comes to oatmeal, and not about what is offered under the guise of “useful oatmeal” in 90% of cases.

Little about amaranth
 

The relative non-prevalence in the CIS territory of amaranth and products from this plant has one advantage: it is little advertised. Probably, if it were as popular as oatmeal, the producers wishing to make more money at the expense of quality would do exactly the same machinations with it: they made breads that were cooked and generously soaked in hydrogenated fats, amaranth porridges with raspberry fillings, where from raspberries only title, and everything else. Today, while amaranth is not well known, inadequate, and, accordingly, amaranth grain and spoon stores do not bring super-profits by placing “amaranth” bread and bars in “healthy” departments, you can buy it more or less without fear. Of course, here you can come across an unscrupulous manufacturer, so companies should better choose proven ones. But harmful products from it do not sell under the guise of useful, because they do not exist, there is no need to do them.

The most famous product from amaranth grains is amaranth groats. And here popularity is due to practical considerations: it is also the most useful product that can be made from amaranth grain. Apart from oil, of course, but oil is a topic for a completely different article.

Amaranth flakes, of course, exist as flakes from any edible grain exist. A modern person, firstly, is lazy, and secondly, requires that everything happen quickly, and therefore the flakes remain a popular product, regardless of the popularity of the original cereal or pseudo-tear, as is the case with amaranth. Amaranth flakes, of course, are less useful than croup, because they lose protein and some vitamins (under the influence of temperature) and some minerals in the manufacturing process. The matter is different: this fact is not hushed up.

Oatmeal from wholegrain cereals are cooked for a long time precisely because they contain a lot of fiber – hard dietary fiber. Quick-cooking oatmeal porridge is quickly cooked, respectively, because these rigid fibers are no longer in them. They are eliminated in the manufacture of “fast” flakes, and this is what allows you to get a soft mass, just pour it with boiling water. Carbohydrates, which are present in this soft mass, no longer have any relation to the fibers and slowly digestible carbohydrates, respectively. Because of their softness, they are very quickly digested, absorbed in the stomach, which in turn results in a double not quite pleasant result:

Proteins in the amount of 13.6 g per 100 g of product.
They contain essential amino acids from 24% to 45% of the daily requirement, depending on the amino acid.
Unsaturated fats: polyunsaturated in the amount of 2.78 g or 13% of the daily requirement, monounsaturated fats – 1.69 g or 8% of the daily requirement.
Vitamin E, mainly due to the above-mentioned fats, in the amount of 1.19 mg or 8% of the daily requirement.
Vitamin C – a little: 4.2 mg, and this is only 5% of the amount that a person needs per day.
Vitamins from 5% to 30% of the daily requirement – depending on the specific vitamin.
Minerals: potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, selenium, zinc and others.
 

For details, see the table:

Amaranth groats are not fried, they do not make any additional manipulations with it, and therefore all these substances, plus or minus a few micrograms, are in any amaranth cereals. Actually, this is its main advantage.

Compared with raw buckwheat and oatmeal groats, amaranth has some advantages.

First, it boils at times faster. Buckwheat needs about twenty minutes, oatmeal – at least 20, and Porridge-of-amaranth-with-fruit-350×318 is generally recommended 25-35 minutes. Against this background, amaranth cereal, which is boiled for about 3 minutes, wins unconditionally. Here even the question arises: why, in fact, flakes are made, if cooking more healthy porridge takes about the same time.

Secondly, due to the fact that it cooks faster, it loses much less nutrients during cooking. Actually, only part of the B vitamins and some minerals are lost – something that is unable to remain at rest at the boiling point. Everything else that is simply digested in other grains, and then leaves with water and in its liquid and gaseous state, in amaranth cereals it simply does not have time to digest – and remains. A small part of the minerals is gluten, which envelops amaranth grain when cooking.

Thirdly, raw amaranth cereals are somewhat healthier than raw oatmeal, and especially raw buckwheat, but this can be seen from the tables and so.

Conclusions for those who are too lazy to read the entire text
 

Marketers long ago caught a progressive public interest in healthy food and listened to what nutritionists say. In particular, the fact that cereals – are useful. Cereals are really useful, but in most cases this applies to raw cereals. They actually contain everything that advertisers are talking about. The problem is that all this is not contained in the fact that advertisers sell more often, namely in various cereal products that are not raw cereals. Among such products – sold everywhere fried buckwheat, oatmeal, cereals, minutes, bread, cereal bars and much more. Nevertheless, this is what is served as a healthy and healthy food, although it is mostly useless and more often even unhealthy.

What does the amaranth do with it? For the time being, he successfully avoids heightened attention to himself, and therefore zashhishhaem-krupyi-ot-nasekomyih is implemented more often in its original and most useful form – like raw croup. If the word “buckwheat” first of all the average consumer recalls roasted buckwheat, and when the word “oatmeal” – porridge made from oatmeal, then when it comes to “amaranth porridge – remembering porridge from raw grain amaranth. And for a person who does not want to understand the subtleties and prefers to buy what is easiest to buy, amaranth is definitely more useful. It is slightly more useful than buckwheat and oatmeal, and it is objectively in composition. And amaranth is 8-10 times faster cooked faster.

What to do? First of all, do not blindly trust products that are sold in departments of the “Healthy Food” type and in stores with the same name – by the way, usually quite expensive. Often, what is written on “useful cereals” has nothing useful. And on the real useful cereals they do not write anything like that, because if you take a packet of oatmeal, it is so obvious that it is cereal and that it is useful. Secondarily, check the composition of the products. This, of course, is a measure for those who are especially closely watching their food and are ready to spend a decent amount of time on determining the vitamins, minerals they need every day, as well as proteins, fats and carbohydrates (with BZHU easier: they can be counted everywhere, but and minerals – few where). Well, if there is no time – just turn on critical thinking whenever the products from the cereals or dairy products department seem to be useful: in fact, there is very little useful.