The harm and benefits of instant cereals. Instant porridge, the benefits or harm of fast cooking cereals

22.08.2019 Snacks

The constant rush and simply chronic lack of time makes many of us pay attention to instant products. Undoubtedly, cooking them is much faster and the more convenient. But is such a replacement equivalent? Take instant oatmeal, for example.

Two types of cereals are prepared faster than the usual and familiar oatmeal. The first type is instant porridge, which is enough just to pour boiling water, and after one minute you can eat.

The second type of porridge is instant oatmeal.which are boiled for three minutes.

What is the harm of eating instant porridge?

It is in the shell and germ of the grain that most of the biologically active substances and vitamins are contained. And in the manufacture of instant cereals, cereals from the shells and the embryo are cleaned, polished, crushed, subjected to high pressure and steam treatment. So we cooked a dish in two or three minutes, and this is a porridge made from dried grain, which has practically lost almost everything useful that was in it, but a lot of converted starch remains, which is quickly absorbed by the body and turns into sugar.

True, if there really is a need for a quick snack, then instant porridge (meaning oatmeal) is much better than rolltones, hamburgers or chips.


But often snacking on instant porridge is not worth it - their calorie content can be deposited as an unpleasant surprise on the waist, hips, buttocks ...
  1. The main disadvantage of instant products is the absence of most vitamins, minerals and compounds, which, in fact, should be present there. After a huge amount of processing, through which instant porridge passes, most of them are simply lost, dissolved and destroyed.
  2. This also applies to healthy fiber, for which morning oatmeal is just so useful, among vitamins only group B and vitamin E are immune to high temperatures, among minerals - phosphorus, manganese, zinc and magnesium. As you can see, the list is not very impressive.
  3. Another problem lies in the additional additives that manufacturers diligently fill their products with, trying to enrich them with new aromas and the most convincing tastes.
  4. Porridges, which are immediately sold with aromatic additives, greatly attract buyers, because the manufacturer assures that they are real pieces of dried berries and fruits. Unfortunately, in most cases, the complex process of fruit processing is too expensive for them, and to heighten the aroma or taste, artificial flavors, dyes and other food additives are added to the porridge.
  5. It is worth noting that some manufacturers are trying to adhere to complete savings, therefore, instead of the declared pieces of peaches, apricots and other fruits, they add ordinary apples processed in a special chemical way.
  6. Another argument that clearly does not outweigh in favor of "quick" cereals is a large amount of sugar in them, which quickly helps to put on weight, and also contributes to the development of diabetes and heart disease.
But, let's not deny, among the overwhelming majority of modern "fast" products, there are quite good options, which can be at least harmless, and at most useful and even have some advantages.

"Oatmeal, sir!" In England, oats are one of the most popular ingredients in many dishes. According to recent research, many people in our country also share the love of the British people for oatmeal and consider it the best option for breakfast. Its benefits and harms are proven by medical research. What consequences can occur with frequent use of porridge?

The benefits of oatmeal

Nutritionists have long identified the beneficial properties of oatmeal:

  1. low glycemic index. Therefore, doctors advise oatmeal for diabetes, as it maintains blood sugar;
  2. calcium content, many children do not like to eat oatmeal in the morning, although it helps to strengthen teeth and hair;
  3. a decoction of flakes of water and honey prevents heart disease;
  4. inositol contained in oatmeal or flour normalizes cholesterol levels, this prevents the formation of cholesterol plaques;
  5. the benefits of oatmeal are visible during stress, a healthy breakfast increases overall well-being;
  6. saturation of the body with fiber, which prevents the occurrence of gastritis and ulcers. In case of poisoning, you can make a decoction in water from oatmeal, then drink it in small sips;
  7. to heal well, they used to believe that making a decoction of oatmeal cures stomach cancer;
  8. cereal contains antioxidants that increase immunity;
  9. the body quickly assimilates oatmeal. This means that the benefit of oatmeal is its dietetic nature.

Health Benefits of Oatmeal

Slimming. Although oatmeal is high in calories, it controls the absorption of fats in the body. There are many weight loss diets based on oatmeal or oat milk. The benefits and harms in this case have not been fully understood, since this is considered forced weight loss. The most common way to lose weight is 2 fasting (oatmeal) days a week. You can eat porridge and drink plenty of fluids all day. Decoctions from cereals also help; they can be consumed on an empty stomach every morning.

Hypertension treatment. You can prevent an increase in pressure with oat broth. Pour a glass of oatmeal into a plate, pour 1 liter of unboiled, but purified water, then boil over a fire until half of the water has evaporated. Drink half a glass of broth in the morning on an empty stomach.

Edema treatment. This will help a quick-cooking broth from cereals or oat flour. A glass of flakes or cereals is poured with 5 glasses of cool water and put on fire for 15 minutes. After that, add a spoonful of flour and honey and boil for another 5-7 minutes. It is filtered, drink this broth in small portions during the day.

Oatmeal harm

  1. You cannot eat porridge in large quantities every day. Phytic acid, contained in the grain, does not completely assimilate calcium in the body, flushing out part of it from the bone tissue. A high level of phytic acid is dangerous for humans.
  2. The oatmeal pouches that are popular today do not contain essential vitamins and nutrients. It contains starch, entering the body, it is broken down into sugar, which in the blood overestimates the level of glucose, the pancreas cannot withstand such loads, after which an insulin reaction occurs.
  3. There is a group of people who are contraindicated in the use of cereals. This is due to the effects of gluten, it is found only in cereals: oatmeal and oats. Doctors gave the name to this disease - celiac disease, the symptoms are not immediately visible, at first they are mild, but already at a deep stage they make themselves felt, intestinal absorption at that time is finally destroyed and ceases to function, children are especially susceptible to this disease.

Today, there is a wide variety of oatmeal on store shelves. The benefits and harms of this product depend on the quality. When choosing cereals or flakes, you should pay attention to the name.

Extra oat flakes are often divided into several varieties. One variety contains thin oatmeal for quick cooking, so they cannot be kept in boiling water for more than 10 minutes. There are varieties with a high amount of carbohydrates, the benefits of oatmeal are lost.

"Hercules" is separated from other varieties of instant oatmeal. The flakes are firm enough to take longer to cook.

Important! When choosing instant porridge, make sure that the oatmeal or oatmeal is in an airtight container, as the product absorbs moisture. Keep an eye on expiration dates, as they start from the moment of production, not packaging. Do not be lazy (if the package is transparent) to inspect the contents in the light. High quality flakes are white or creamy. Smell the product at home, there should be no third-party odors.

What are the benefits of oatmeal for breakfast?

In the morning, I don't really want to eat, since the body has not fully woken up. But you still need a sufficient supply of energy before lunch, light porridge is perfect for this. At the same time, the abundance of proteins contained in cereals favorably emphasize the beneficial properties of oatmeal compared to sandwiches. If you eat denser and heavier food with oatmeal, the same fried eggs, then the cereal promotes rapid absorption.

The benefits of oatmeal are observed in diets, when the body's metabolism is organized. Gastroenterologists have found out why oatmeal is useful: the presence of vitamins of group K and B improves blood clotting, normalizes kidney function. The body is strengthened, which is the guarantor of well-being for the whole day.

Instant oatmeal does not get boring. It can be cooked in water or milk, combined with fruit and honey, and the cereal itself is inexpensive. Children will love this breakfast for its originality and taste.

Is instant oatmeal harmful?

Due to the lack of time, people prefer instant porridge. Few people know that the benefits and harms of oatmeal in sachets are different from the properties of a natural product. Porridge bags have a low level of metabolic regulation in the body, and you can forget about energy and good mood. Such porridge is quite convenient, you just have to pour the contents of the package into a plate and pour water, three minutes - the porridge is ready. For mass production of this product, the grains are crushed and pre-steamed, which contributes to instant absorption by the body, of course, this is harmful. Sugar can be called the end product of the breakdown of such a "healthy breakfast". High sugar levels make the pancreas difficult to function, which increases the risk of diabetes. Then the sugar turns into fat, and the benefits of oatmeal are lost.

If you are used to eating oatmeal in the morning, it is better to give preference to natural oatmeal. Cooking does not take so much time, but in the end you will get a high-quality, healthy and tasty product. With the right choice of cereals or oat flour, as well as following the recommendations for preparing a hearty breakfast, you will have a good mood and a healthy body.

Some symptoms of the appearance:

  • excessive sweating;
  • weakening of the immune system, frequent colds;
  • weakness, fatigue;
  • nervous state, depression;
  • headaches and migraines;
  • alternating diarrhea and constipation;
  • want sweet and sour;
  • bad breath;
  • frequent feeling of hunger;
  • weight loss problems;
  • decreased appetite;
  • night grinding of teeth, drooling;
  • pain in the abdomen, joints, muscles;
  • cough does not go away;
  • acne on the skin.

If you have any of the symptoms or are in doubt about the causes of the ailments, you need to cleanse your body as soon as possible. How to do it .

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In the modern world, everyone is trying to spend their time with maximum benefit, gaining benefit or profit from it. Thus, it is completely unacceptable to deal with banal and simple things, and thanks to scientific achievements and the latest technical inventions, the need for this has disappeared altogether. Cooking is a time-consuming but unavoidable activity. Without it, we could not exist, however, we do not attach due importance to it, replacing healthy and nutritious meals with convenience foods and fast food, which quickly satisfy hunger, but do not bring any benefit to the body.

One of the most common products today, which are very popular among housewives who do not have enough time, are instant cereals. They cook quickly enough and taste good, making them the leader in breakfast food. On store shelves, you can find a wide variety of similar cereals for every taste. They are packaged in portions in attractive and bright packages that are simply impossible to pass by. But are they as useful as they are convenient. This is what we will find out now.

What is instant porridge

To begin with, let's figure out what exactly instant porridge is and how they are made. The main advantage of instant cereals is the simplicity and speed of their brewing. In fact, you do not need to cook such porridge, you just need to pour boiling water over it and leave it for a few minutes. The flakes absorb water, swell, warm up and become ready to eat. Flakes are obtained due to hydrothermal treatment and drying, on which the further consistency of the finished product depends. The advantage of such porridge is the use of exclusively physical processes for its preparation, chemistry does not take part in this. The only chemical additives that go into instant porridge are flavors and flavor enhancers. They are usually added to cereals that have fruit fillings. In pure cereals, these chemicals are absent. Thus, we can conclude that instant porridge is a steamed cereal.

What are instant porridge

Due to the growing popularity of instant cereals, their range is also growing. If earlier such cereals could be attributed exclusively to Hercules oat flakes, today these are buckwheat flakes, flakes that include several cereals at once and, of course, irreplaceable oat flakes. All of them find their fans and have a number of differences, both taste and functional. Each porridge has a certain effect on the body and has individual characteristics of preparation.

In order to somehow diversify the diet of people who prefer fast food, the manufacturers of instant porridge have improved their product. They added fruits and nuts to it, as well as milk additives, which make the porridge even more appetizing and flavorful. Thus, you can cook daily porridge with different fruits and enjoy a quick, and most importantly, delicious breakfast.

Benefits of instant porridge

This type of product has a number of advantages and benefits that are also worth mentioning. The first and most important advantage is the cooking time of the porridge. It is enough just to pour boiling water over it, and within a few minutes, your hearty and delicious breakfast will be ready. In addition, such porridge, as a rule, is packaged in separate bags, each of which contains one optimal portion of porridge. Thus, you do not have to think about exactly how much porridge you need to cook in order to avoid losses and not overeat.

To cook porridge from a bag, you do not need to follow the cooking process. You can do other, more important things at this moment, without worrying that the porridge will burn or boil away. No matter how much time you spend on cooking it, your porridge will be waiting for you in the desired consistency, not cooling for a long time.

Instant porridge has a much longer shelf life than any conventional porridge. The thing is that, undergoing special training, the grains are subjected to heat treatment, after which all bacteria and fungi are removed from their surface. In addition, flakes freed from excess moisture can be stored for a long time in a sealed package, in which they are usually packed.

The harm of instant porridges

Despite such popularity, instant cereals evoke ambiguous emotions among the fair sex, especially those who are watching their figure and weight. The fact is that oatmeal, which ranks first in the ranking of quick and healthy breakfasts, are high-calorie foods. Thus, by regularly consuming oatmeal in large quantities, you can get fat and say goodbye to slender forms. Despite the fact that oatmeal has a beneficial effect on work and the condition of the stomach, as well as improves digestion, if they are abused, undesirable consequences cannot be avoided. In addition, it is recommended to eat instant oatmeal no more than once a day.


Any cereal that undergoes hydrothermal treatment loses the main part of its properties, which are preserved during ordinary cooking of grain. This makes instant porridge almost useless for the body. It turns into a source of fast carbohydrates and does not supply us with useful and nutritious substances, as well as vitamins and minerals.

The disadvantages of instant cereals can also include their composition. As a rule, most of the quick breakfasts include chemical additives and concentrates that are harmful to health and can cause the development of certain chronic diseases. If fruits or berries are added to the porridge, then there is a high probability that, along with them, emulsifiers and starches are present in its composition, which are converted by the body into sugar and increase the calorie content of the porridge.

How to choose instant porridge

If you nevertheless decide to opt for instant porridge as an optimal type of breakfast that does not require special culinary skills and saves cooking time, then remember a few useful tips to help you choose the highest quality product.

First of all, pay attention to the packaging. It should not be damaged or have wrinkled edges. As a rule, instant cereals are packaged in airtight cellophane packaging, and then placed in a cardboard box for easy storage. If the sealed package is damaged, the shelf life of the porridge will significantly decrease, since if air enters it, the likelihood of bacteria growth inside the package will increase.

When choosing porridge, give preference only to proven and well-established manufacturers who have been able to win the recognition and trust of consumers and take care of their reputation, avoiding the use of low-quality products and observing the rules for preparing instant porridges. It will also help you protect yourself from harmful chemical additives and low-quality products used by unscrupulous manufacturers.

Thus, choosing only high-quality instant porridge and observing the rules for their storage and recommendations for use, you can minimize the harm caused to the body by such products and protect it from unwanted diseases.

Instant porridges are created exclusively from proven raw materials. For the preparation of instant mixtures, pre-refined groats are used, which undergoes grinding and grinding. Chopped fruits and vegetables are added to the resulting mass, if the recipe provides for such components, the "powder" is enriched with useful substances. The composition of factory cereals is stable and allows you to provide the baby with the necessary energy, vitamins, microelements.

Vitamins in instant cereals

All instant cereals are a completely finished product that only needs to be diluted with boiled water, milk mixture, vegetable broth or breast milk. To dissolve cereal powder, it is not recommended to use cow or, so as not to provoke allergies.

Traditionally, the introduction of instant cereals into the diet of a baby over six months old begins with low-allergenic rice and buckwheat cereals.

Instant porridge is thoroughly tested for compliance with quality standards and baby food. Compliance with the specified recipe is also being specified. And most importantly, following the technology for preparing instant porridges allows you to preserve most of the vitamins in the product. These valuable substances are invariably destroyed when cooking cereals at home. For example, cereals lose most of their vitamin C and B.

To create instant cereals, the cereal mixture is steamed with water in production, diluted trace elements and vitamins are introduced into the mass, after which the product is subjected to heat treatment. It is necessary for moisture evaporation.

Benefits of instant baby cereals

One of the clear advantages of instant cereals for baby food is their speed and ease of dilution. This means that parents can take the required amount of food for one feeding and offer the baby a fresh portion of the meal. A wide range of instant cereals allows you to find the optimal options for the growth and development of the child, taking into account his taste preferences.

It is also important that you can purchase instant cereals that require dilution with water and those that need to be dissolved in milk. This means that mothers of allergy sufferers can carefully monitor the diet of the baby.

It is impossible to check the quality and safety of ordinary cereals at home, while large producers have this opportunity.

The absence of the need for cooking porridge contributes to the preservation of valuable substances. In addition, instant foods require consumption immediately after reconstitution. But storing homemade food also leads to the loss of vitamins. Safe cereals of well-known brands allow you to diversify the child's menu, saving time.

While everyone is familiar with regular oatmeal, most rely on instant oatmeal for a quick and healthy breakfast. So what exactly is the difference between regular oatmeal and instant oatmeal? Does instant oatmeal have the same benefits as regular oatmeal? Do they have the same nutritional value?

Everyone knows about the beneficial properties of oatmeal - its high fiber content, the ability to lower cholesterol, and many other qualities. As such, oatmeal is becoming an increasingly popular hot breakfast option, especially during the cold winter months. There are several varieties of it:

  • granular
  • traditional
  • fast food
  • instant cooking

The difference between them lies in the way they are processed.

Oatmeal Cooking Time

Instant oatmeal is known to cook instantly, as its name suggests. It is the speed of preparation that makes this oatmeal a popular breakfast. Just one minute is enough if you cook it on the stove, and two minutes if you just pour boiling water over it. Crimped or regular oatmeal, on the other hand, requires boiling on the stove for 10-15 minutes, as the flakes are larger and take longer to cook.

Processing degree

Regular oatmeal is dried oatmeal that is steamed and then passed through rollers that flatten it. Its husk is removed, but the hard shell remains. Instant oatmeal, on the other hand, is also rolled, pressed fine and steamed; however, it differs in the size of the flakes obtained. This oatmeal is flattened very thinly and crushed into tiny pieces. Thus, the main difference between instant oatmeal and regular oatmeal is that the former is processed more deeply before it reaches the consumer, while the latter is minimally processed.

Oatmeal Glycemic Index

This is one of the main parameters by which regular oatmeal is superior to instant oatmeal. Because instant oatmeal is processed more heavily and is also crushed, it is absorbed by the body much faster than regular oatmeal. This means that oatmeal is more likely to raise blood sugar levels and make you feel hungry more quickly. Thus, instant oatmeal has a high glycemic index, while regular oatmeal has a low glycemic index, which allows it to maintain a feeling of fullness longer. Conclusion: Considering all three of the above options, rolled oatmeal is definitely healthier.

Here the next question arises - which is better: rolled oatmeal or regular? Do all of the above facts make instant oatmeal harmful? The answer is no! Instant oatmeal is processed more deeply and has a high glycemic index, but its nutritional value is the same as that of rolled oatmeal (in terms of vitamins, fiber, cholesterol lowering ability, etc.), so it cannot be considered harmful. In fact, all types of oatmeal go through some kind of processing. Then why is there so much talk that instant oatmeal is bad for you? In reality, unhealthy instant oatmeal is flavored oatmeal, for example with apple or cinnamon, maple or brown sugar, chocolate, etc. Flavored Instant Oatmeal is high in sugar, salt, artificial colors, and other unwanted ingredients. This makes eating nutritious oatmeal not such a healthy way to start the day.

While regular oatmeal is the ideal choice, if you need a more convenient breakfast item, you can be sure to choose the instant oatmeal that is beneficial, rich in flavor, and contains the least amount of ingredients. Adding a small amount of minced fruits and nuts to oatmeal not only improves its taste, but also increases its nutrient content and makes it feel fuller for longer.