What is Oat Fiber?

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Oat Fiber is NOT the same as:

rolled oats
instant oats
oat flour
oat bran
oat groats

Oat Fiber is:

Oat fiber, which is an ingredient low in available carbohydrates, absorbs up to seven times its weight in water making it useful for baking, and using as a filler with ground meats. When added to bakery products, oat fiber allows for the production of low carbohydrate breads, pastries, muffins, crackers and pizza crusts.

Here is a nutrition analysis found on one of the brands I use. The 12 grams of fiber effectively cancels out the 12 grams of carbs … resulting in 0 grams of carbs.

Oat Fiber per 1/4 cup (12 g)
Calories 0
Fat 0 g
Saturated Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 0 mg
Sodium 0 mg
Carbohydrate 12 g
Fiber 12 g
Sugar 0 g
Sugar Alcohol 0 g
Protein 0 g

Oat Fiber is virtually non-digestible, and doesn’t provide any carbs or nutrients. You can use it in baking as a flour substitute … usually in a blend of other low carb flours such as coconut flour. Since it soaks up so much liquid, if you are substituting it in your own recipes, you need to make sure you also adjust your liquids upwards. If you suffer from constipation, oat fiber will definitely help.

Oat fiber is one of the ingredients in the THM Baking Blend. See our copy cat recipe here.

How is Oat Fiber Different From Oat Bran?

Oat fiber consists of ONLY the insoluble fiber elements of the non-digestible oat hull. Once the hull (oat fiber) is stripped off you are left with oat groats. Oat Bran is a combination of finely ground oat groats with some of the outer with some of the outer hull (oat fiber) put back in order to increase the fiber content. Oat Bran contains loads of fiber and some nutrients, but it also has a fair amount of carbs and calories.

If you are on a moderate low carb diet, Oat Bran is an easy to obtain product that is a great substitute for some of the flour in your muffin recipes.

Here are the nutrient values for Oat Bran:

Oat Bran per 1/4 cup

Calories 58
Total Fat 1.65g
Saturated Fat 0.312g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 1mg
Potassium 133mg
Total Carbohydrate 15.56g
Dietary Fiber 3.6g
Sugars 0.34g
Protein 4.07g
Calcium 1%
Iron 7%

How to Use Oat Fiber:

Baking Blends

Probably the most common use of Oat Fiber is in a Baking Blend. The THM (Thin Healthy Mama) sisters created a popular blend. Here is the Copycat THM Baking Blend Recipe.

Substitute for Oat Flour

While you can NOT substitute oatflour cup-for-cup with oat fiber, you CAN reduce the amount of carbs in your recipes by substituting 1/4 of your oat flour with oat fiber.

That means … Instead of one cup of oat flour, use 1/4 cup oat fiber and 3/4 cup oat flour. Whisk them together thoroughly.

Use Oat Fiber as a BULKING agent when baking with Stevia.

One of the challenges with using Stevia instead of sugar is “BULK.” Sugar has lots of bulk … Stevia has NO bulk. You MUST add back the bulk you are losing by not using sugar.

Here’s how: add 1/3 cup of oat fiber for every 1 cup of sugar you are replacing with Stevia. Create an oat fiber paste by starting with a teaspoon of water. Keep adding water until you get a paste a bit thinner than peanut butter. Mix this paste into your fat (butter, margarine, oil or eggs) The oat-fiber paste replaces the volume of the sugar you are no longer using.

Where to Purchase Oat Fiber

While you can normally purchase Oat Bran from your local grocer or on Amazon, you will probably NOT be able to find Oat Fiber locally. I live in a city with a population of 1.5 million. In spite of visiting or emailing over 15 local retailers, I could NOT find oat fiber. One store I emailed told me that YES they had oat fiber … it was a wasted trip because the product was Oat Bran. As you can see from the nutrient list above, there is a BIG difference.

In the end, I always return to Amazon. The prices are very good, AND if you have their prime membership, shipping is free. If you have other sources of price comparable Oat Fiber, please give us the link in the comments.

Here are two brands I tested. Turned out both were virtually the same product.

If you just want to give Oat Fiber a good test, Anthony’s is a best seller and a good choice

Anthony’s Organic Oat Fiber (1.5lb), A Natural Gluten Free Fiber