Oatmeal, the traditional winter breakfast food, has health benefits beyond warming you up on a cold day. Oatmeal serves as a good source of fiber, lowering cholesterol and blood glucose levels as well as providing vitamins and minerals. The choice of oat types, though, has never been so versatile; while quick-cooking oats are temptingly fast to make, steel-cut oats certainly sound like they have an edge over instant, and they may, although both steel-cut and quick-cooking oats are considered whole grains.
Definition
Steel-cut oats, also called Scottish oats or Irish porridge, are coarse, chewy, unrolled oats cut into two or three pieces. Steel-cut oats contain the entire kernel and take 35 minutes or more to cook. However, soaking them overnight decreases their cooking time down to five minutes. Quick-cooking oats are cut into smaller pieces and then rolled thin so that they break down into smaller flakes that cook faster.
Fiber Content
Steel-cut oats contain the whole kernel, while rolled oats have some of the bran removed. A 1/4 cup of uncooked steel-cut oats and a 1/2 cup of quick-cooking Quaker oats both equal one serving. However, the fiber content between the two types of oats on the Quaker Oats website is listed as exactly the same: 4 g equally divided between soluble and insoluble fiber. Bob's Red Mill steel-cut oats list slightly more fiber in 1/4 cup -- 5 g.
Nutritional Content
Before cooking, steel-cut oats contain more vitamins and minerals than rolled oats, which are steamed during processing. Cooking removes some of the nutrients from grains. Because the steel-cut oats need more cooking, the nutritional value when cooked is the same for both types of oats. Oats are good sources of B-complex vitamins and supply 10 percent of your recommended daily iron intake. Both the quick-cooking and the steel-cut oats contain 5 g of protein per serving.
Considerations
Most types of oats have essentially the same nutritional value, with the exception of instant oats that contain added sugar and flavoring. While these are convenient, add your own pieces of fruit and skip the added sugar or add less than you will get from the processed oatmeal version, which contain only 2 g more carbohydrates but much more sugar, 9 g compared to 1 g. If you prefer the chewier steel-cut oats, cook them the night before and warm the up the next day or soak them overnight.
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