Rolled grain berries, beyond oats

Big food manufacturers use the word wholegrain all over their packaging even though the majority of wholegrain-derived foods have been processed to the point where the carbs are nothing more than sweet, sweet mono and disaccharides.  Then they add sugar to it.  The U.S. grows great grains, why the excessive processing?

Lately, our food interests have to do with aging healthfully, and we're not giving up carbs, we're embracing them.  But, they gotta be the complex ones.  We do savor our simple carb treats, but they must be limited.

Working hard to find the most complete and most palatable grain options led us to uncover a dusty tool purchased by accident years ago, a flaker.  It looks like a pasta machine with knurled rollers.  Using one of the more narrow roller settings, whole grain berries are turned into rolled/flaked grain.  A pound takes about 5 minutes of light duty cranking.

The most familiar food resulting from this type of processing is rolled oats.  Oat berries (or oat groats - dehulled with bran intact) are created with this high pressure process.  Subsequently, the flakes undergo thermal processing (steaming and or toasting) to reduce enzyme activity for added shelf life.  Using a flaker, we can roll our own as needed and not worry so much about shelf life; grain berries can be stored for a long time without going rancid.  Removing the additional thermal processing may make this more healthy (DOI: 10.1021/jf011222z), but the big advantage of rolling your own is that other grains can be used.  There's no reason to eat just oatmeal.

The rolled grain, compared to the berry, is easily hydrated and enjoyed more easily without long cooking methods, e.g., a muesli type cereal; add rolled oats (or buckwheat, wheat, rye, spelt, etc.) some (dried) fruit, nuts, coconut (sweetened is good) and milk, let sit an hour or overnight and bang, wholegrain cereal.  It's really good!