I recently purchased a box of oat bran. I was wondering if bran is better to use in pancakes, porridge etc than oat grains? I would think it is almost all fiber... I am planning to bake the Zone muffins from the Classic zone recepies. Has anybody tried that?

It's my understanding that steel cut oats and oat groats are the two Zone favorable forms of oats. I checked out dry oat bran on the usda.gov site; 1 cup dry contains 62g carbohydrate and 14g fiber. I don't think they would quite work the same as oat flour would in a pancake recipe but the best way to find out is give it a try. Good luck and please let us know how it turns out.

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sue
Consultant of Zone Labs
Certified Zone Affiliate

found on the Internet - oat bran is actually oat groats ground into a fine oat meal. So I suppose it would be the same as making coarse flour out of normal groats. Bran are still quite coarse, they need more grounding. But I dont think I will buying them again, better to stick to the groats or steel cut ones as I have all the volumes per block worked out

Yes, they'd need more grinding if you're using them dry in pancakes, which basically means you end up with a version of oat flour, which also means you've turned them into a less favorable carbohydrate.

On a similar note, my wife has found (at TJ's - of course!): Cold Milled Golden Flax Seed called "Golden Flax" by Flax USA. Apparently they (Stober family) has found a way to mill Flax Seed without losing nutrients in the process.
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From thier package, "Flax is digested most effectively when ground. Some grinding methods generate heat when milled, spurring early Omega-3 oxidation. Flax USA uses a unique Cold-Milled process, which gently grinds the seed without significantly raising the temperature. This nproprietary method preserves the nutrients, flavor, and extends the shelf life to 22 months."
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2 Tbsp serving size: 2800 mg Omega-3. Total Fat - 5g. Total Carb - 5g. Dietary Fiber - 4g. Protein - 3g. (Though Protein is unusable.)

Thanks for the info John. I don't know if the following process applies to the specific brand you mentioned, but many foods that oxidize quickly are processed in the absence of oxygen, and are then nitrogen packed to extend shelf life (most or all oxygen removed in this process). Once the package is opened the product is then exposed to oxygen and all bets are off on the long shelf life. Flax oil oxidizes very quickly once the outer shell of the seed has been broken (in something like a half hour, I've read). For this reason, when eating ground flax seed it's recommended that it be ground immediately before consuming.

For the newbies reading here, note that ground flax seed is not recommended for the Zone. Also, flax seed oil doesn't contain EPA or DHA. In "The Soy Zone", by Barry Sears, you can read more about the differences between plant omega 3's and the omega 3 fats found in fish oil.

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sue
Consultant of Zone Labs
Certified Zone Affiliate