Oats, A good start to your healthy breakfast
The common oat is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed and is usually considered a secondary crop that is derived from a weed.
Oats have numerous uses in food; most commonly, they are rolled or crushed into oatmeal, or ground into fine oat flour. Oatmeal is chiefly eaten as porridge, but may also be used in a variety of baked goods, such as oatcakes, oatmeal cookies, and oat bread. Oats are also an ingredient in many cold cereals, in particular muesli and granola.
People frequently ask me whether oats are GMO (genetically modified organisms)? I though that this was a good question, so I went on a search to find the answer. The first person I called was a friend of mine, who is an agriculture engineer and I asked him if oats are GMO, and his answer was NO.
You see GMO refers to items that have been altered from their original state by genetic engineering techniques and oats grown for commercial use have only six chromosomes, which makes it a hexaploid grain and because of its structure makes it very difficult to genetically modify.
Form further research, I found that there’s also no need to worry about other GMO grains contaminating oats in nature. Even if a GMO plant/grain is grown next to a field of oats, the GMO grain will not cross-pollinate with the oats.
Beside, writing to my friend, I wrote to the Quaker company, and they wrote me this: “None of the oats, wheat or barley used in our products — across all brands — are grown from genetically modified seeds. In fact, genetically modified seeds for this/these crops are not currently commercially available in the U.S.”
The good news is that there are no GMO commercially grown oats.
Monday I will post part 2 of my research on oats. I will cover the health benefits of oats.
40 Days of study 