Help! Can someone tell me the difference between rollled oats and oat bran?

Starting off 2008 with one of my resolution being eating more healthy so I have this recipe that calls for oat bran but have rolled oats in hand. Is it ok to just used rolled oats in place of oat bran or is my muffin not going to be the same?

Help! Can someone tell me the difference between rollled oats and oat bran?
Bran is the hard outer layer of grain and consists of combined aleurone and pericarp. Along with germ, it is an integral part of whole grains, and is often produced as a by-product of milling in the production of refined grains. When bran is removed from grains, they lose a portion of their nutritional value. Bran is present in and may be milled from any cereal grain, including rice, wheat, maize, oats, and millet.





Bran is particularly rich in dietary fiber, and contains significant quantitities of starch, protein, vitamins, and dietary minerals.








Rolled oats are oat groats that have been rolled into flat flakes under heavy rollers. The oat, like some other cereals, has a hard, inedible outer hull that must be removed before the grain can be eaten. After the hulls have been removed from the bran-covered oat grains, the remainder is called oat groats. Oat groats can be used as cereal, but since the bran layer makes the grains tough to chew and contains an enzyme that can cause the oats to go rancid, oat groats are usually steam-treated to soften them and denature the enzymes. It can be argued that this process removes the enzyme phytase which would otherwise serve to break down the the high-phytate content of commercial oats which inhibits the absorption of iron by the human body. Steel-cut oats are oat groats that have been chopped into smaller pieces and retain bits of the bran layer.





Rolled oats that are sold as oatmeal usually, but not always, have had the tough bran removed. They have often been lightly baked or pressure-cooked. Thick-rolled oats are large whole flakes, and thin-rolled oats are smaller, fragmented flakes. Oat flakes that have simply had the bran removed can be cooked and eaten as "old-fashioned" oatmeal, but more highly fragmented rolled oats absorb water much more easily and therefore cook faster, so they are sometimes called "quick" or "instant" oatmeal.
Reply:Your muffin won't be the same, and it won't be as healthy.





Oat bran is the indigestible hard part of oat. Rolled oats are the entire oat.





So oat bran is just the fiber, the cardboard part of the oat, and rolled oats are the cardboard, the sugar, the starch.





Not only will a rolled oat muffin have more calories and carbs, but the consistency will be off - the muffin may be too squooshy, or wet.





Good luck, and good resolution! :o)
Reply:They're not the same, but if you put the rolled oats in the blender and pulse until they're ground, it will be more the texture of oat bran. I'd go ahead and make the muffins with the ground rolled oats this time and next time you're at the store buy some oat bran.


HTH
Reply:Well, the oat bran is different than rolled oats. The oat bran is an unprocessed hull of the oat and is much smaller than the rolled oat, making it more fibrous and more healthful. The muffin your making may not be exactly the same but it should turn out.





I like the muffins that All Bran Cereal has on its box, its quite good, maybe try that one next time.

rose garden